Table Notes | Setting the Table No. 3
The wine gift bag, a girls dinner, and a clementine cosmopolitan recipe worth keeping
Table Notes
I recently started shipping some new products in our existing Constance and Beatrice prints. One of these items is the wine gift bag.
It is straightforward. Useful. Beautiful. And the kind of thing I always wish I had on hand. They are here now and I could not be more excited about them.
As we head into spring and summer, this is the piece I know I will reach for constantly. It is perfect to keep tucked in a drawer for those last-minute BBQ invitations. Add a bottle of wine for your host. Or tequila. Or gin. Yes, it fits a bottle of tequila beautifully. Suddenly what would have been a quick grab from the grocery store feels thoughtful and finished.
I also love them as part of a gift basket. If you are visiting friends at the beach or heading to the mountains for a long weekend, you can build something simple: a bottle, a few favorite snacks, maybe some cocktail napkins, and the tote becomes part of the gift instead of something that gets thrown away.
That is one of my favorite parts.
I have never loved those shiny grocery store wine bags. They feel temporary. Impersonal. Easy to forget. A fabric tote feels different. It is reusable. It lives on. It becomes something you keep in your own drawer for the next dinner party.
We are offering quantity discounts because I truly think these are the kind of item you will want to keep stocked. A small stack in your gift closet makes showing up generously feel easy.
I cannot wait to see the creative ways you use them: tied with ribbon, paired with cocktails, tucked into baskets, brought to backyard dinners. Sometimes the simplest pieces are the ones you reach for again and again.
This week’s table is a girls dinner, and yes, a wine gift bag absolutely belongs on this table. Scroll down for the full setting, the clementine cosmopolitan recipe, and the olive oil cake.
Setting the Table — Girls Dinner
The table is set before anyone arrived. The daisies in the small bud vases. The butter yellow tapers. The Abigail Floral placemat under the Constance napkin under the cheese board that was already out when the doorbell first rang. The clementine cosmopolitans poured before anyone sat down.
A girls dinner is the table I set with the most intention. These are the people who make the end of a hard week feel like something worth celebrating. The table should always say so.
The full girls dinner guide is on the Trudie blog: the table, the bacon salmon salad, the olive oil cake, two outfit options, and all the links.
The Table
We start with a white tablecloth as the base. Clean, simple, the kind of foundation that makes everything on top of it look considered. The Abigail Floral placemat goes on top, which brings the pattern and the spring feeling to the table without the tablecloth having to do any of that work. Then the Constance napkinalongside it in chocolate brown, which is a combination that should not work on paper and looks completely right in person.
The bamboo flatware on either side. It is relaxed and warm and the natural material ties back to the spring feeling of the Abigail placemat in exactly the right way. The stemless cocktail glass for the clementine cocktails when everyone first sits down, and a wine glass for the rose that comes with dinner.
Small bud vases of daisies scattered down the center of the table. Not one arrangement, several small ones. Daisies are the girls dinner flower. They are cheerful and unpretentious and they look beautiful in a bud vase on a spring table. The butter yellow taper candles in simple holders alongside them. The yellow picks up the warmth of the Abigail Floral without matching it too precisely, which is always the better choice.
The Menu
To start: A cheese and fruit board on the table when everyone walks in. Good cheese, honeycomb, marcona almonds, grapes, strawberries, and crackers. It looks generous and abundant and requires almost no effort. Set it out before anyone arrives so the table feels ready from the moment the door opens.
The cocktail: Clementine cocktails as everyone arrives. Fresh clementine juice, a good vodka, Cointreau, and some lime juice. Bright and citrusy and exactly right for a spring evening. Make a pitcher ahead of time so they are ready to go. See recipe below.
The main: The Oliver’s Salad, a salmon bacon salad. This is the girls dinner salad that feels like a proper main course without being heavy. The combination of the crispy bacon and the salmon makes it substantial enough that no one leaves hungry, and the freshness of a good salad dressing keeps it feeling light and spring-appropriate. Make the components ahead and assemble right before you are ready to sit down.
The bread: A good crusty loaf on the table alongside the salad. Because there should always be bread.
To finish: Olive oil cake - recipe below. This is the dessert that sounds impressive and is genuinely simple to make ahead. It keeps beautifully and actually is even better with coffee the next morning.
To drink with dinner: a cold rose. Something light and French-feeling that lets the salmon salad be the star.
The Recipes
Two of this week’s recipes are not online so I am sharing them here in full.
Clementine Cosmopolitan
Recipe from @serenagwolf. Makes 1 cocktail. Fair warning that these go down very easily.
INGREDIENTS
• 1.5 ounces vodka
• 1 ounce freshly squeezed clementine juice, from 1 to 2 clementines
• 0.5 ounce fresh lime juice
• 0.5 ounce Cointreau
• Clementine twist or lime round for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Shake vigorously until well chilled.
3. Strain into a martini or coupe glass.
4. Garnish with a clementine twist or lime round. Be fancy.
To make a mocktail: substitute your favorite non-alcoholic spirit for the vodka and add an extra half ounce of clementine juice in place of the Cointreau.
Citrus Olive Oil Cake
Recipe from Food Network Canada. Serves 10.
CAKE INGREDIENTS
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1.25 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup 2% milk
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest or orange zest
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• Dash of salt
CAKE INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour an 8-inch cake pan.
2. Whisk together the egg, egg white, sugar, olive oil, milk, and lemon or orange zest.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture to the olive oil mixture and stir slowly just until blended.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let cool in the pan and serve at room temperature dusted with icing sugar alongside the steeped citrus.
The Outfit
First option: a green floral sundress with off white sandals and diamond earrings. Throw a roll neck sweater over the shoulders as the evening cools.
Second option: brown pointelle t-shirt, jeans, off white sandals, and diamond earrings. Same roll neck sweater thrown over the shoulders for later.
Everything from this post is linked in my ShopMy collection.