Setting the table: A festive fall friend gathering
Gathering friends together to celebrate…surviving the last few years? The week? Birthdays, life things, marriage, divorce…there’s always a reason to gather friends together, and these gatherings are food for the soul - plus, they have real food too…and I love food…even though I have a million food intolerances, I’m still a foodie, and I’ve made it my mission to always create meals at gatherings that have something everyone can eat, and I make sure it tastes good too!
To make life easy, I’m a big fan of making a bunch of things separately that people can then DIY their meal - hence, the “toast bar” idea that we had for this gathering (created and hosted with my dear friend and creative co-conspirator Nairi Najarian who never lets me take her photo). We made a loaf of paleo bread, and then made slices of sweet potato “toast” - thinly sliced sweet potatoes, roasted up and ready for toppings! I then set out homemade jam, homemade guacamole, homemade nut based spreads, pestos, and various toppings for guests to enjoy and build according to their food intolerances.
Side dishes included things like this beet, citrus and herb salad and a microgreen salad dressed in olive oil and lemon with maldon salt flakes.
I don’t drink, so I like to keep my gatherings alcohol free because there’s nothing fun about drunk people when you’re not drinking! I prefer hosting day time parties with tea and Topo Chico anyway, and having conversations where no one needs to talk over each other and everyone remembers what they said (I have absolutely been THAT girl in my life, but I’m glad THAT girl no longer lives here).
Keeping decor cozy and textural and simple is the well lived way. I love using vintage textiles and bowls and mixed materials - all sourced from longtime friend and client Tammy from Fragments Identity and fruit and flowers and pottery made by dear friends like Desa from Lux Eros!
I love giving guests something to take home and remember the gathering - for this one we made up little smudge bundles with palo santo and selenite and feathers and straw flowers sourced from the LA Flower Mart, alongside homemade berry jam with berries from Harry’s Berries (an LA staple!!!) in the world’s cutest little Weck jars, that were very hard to part with!
A good time was had by all.
