home and hearth magazine

All you need for a fabulous dinner party is good food, good company, good music and a well dressed table. Why not break out the good dinnerware and be the hostess with the “most-ess.”

Your guests will ooh and ahh at the elegant dinnerware selections you’ve made especially if it includes that fabulous Kosta Boda bowl. I’d leave it empty just because it looks so stunning on its own.

Definitely try to mix and match solid with patterned dishes for an eclectic and modern approach to dining.  So often we don’t make use of all of our dinnerware waiting for a special occasion.  Pattern mixing the dinnerware allows all of your great place settings to get in the game.

Is it me, or are you all panting for a Le Creuset French oven (aka Dutch oven) in that beautiful enameled flame red? Le Creuset has been on my kitchen wish-list for many, many years. Maybe it’s because slow cooked meals like pasta sauces, chili’s and stews that are prepared in cast iron cookware come out especially yummy.

According to the Better Homes and Gardens book entitled “Color with Confidence,” the color

red in the kitchen has the ability to stimulate the appetite. “Tomato red” was specifically mentioned as an appetite driver because of its hot and spicy hue so watch out.  Make sure to enlist the smaller plates in your elegant dinnerware collection.