It can be such an amazing experience to go to a restaurant. We recently went out for a date night meal. We don’t often have our date night out – usually we have it at home; we get takeout or we make something ourselves, and we do it slowly and relaxed. But every now and then, it’s so great to go to a restaurant, and when we do, we want to go to a fancy one, not just an ordinary one. That’s what we did. It was at this big, beautiful hotel. From the moment you walked in, the decor was just gorgeous. There was a dark theme – I’ll put some photos in the blog post if you want to see.
There was such beautiful decor. There were these tall, green, leafy plants and the chairs were luxurious – really comfortable to sit in. There was dim lighting, but it was bright in places with very elegant hanging lights. There were just really beautiful and luxurious decorations, and the people were so polite and friendly. You could feel that they were there to make your experience special in the way they greeted you, and the way they seated you.
Soon after we were seated, they asked us if we had any dietary restrictions and we said, yes, my husband’s gluten-free. Then they said, okay, great, and they went away. You know how sometimes they bring a roll or a piece of bread. This time, it was a step above anything else I’ve ever seen. They brought this cute little dark ceramic cup with a little handle, about espresso cup size, and in that was a little bit of carrot and ginger soup. It had a gorgeous flavor. The ginger wasn’t strong; it was just right.
There was also a board with a tiny little loaf of gluten-free cornbread for my husband, and a little loaf of normal bread for me. There was even homemade butter twirled in the shape of a leaf – really soft butter with herbs inside. What an amazing, special touch! Immediately you’re thinking “Wow!” Even the little salt and pepper containers on the table were these flat ceramic jars with some coarse salt and pepper in them, and a little wooden spoon. It was so amazing, just sitting there relaxing and eating that lovely freshly made bread with the freshly made butter. Everything was made from scratch.
So, we looked at the menus, and often it’s not possible to have an appetizer and a main course because of the price, but we decided to do that this time. I chose what was called a tomato carpaccio. It had no meat – just the tomato itself. It was very thinly sliced layers of tomato with a basil pesto cream on top.
First, though, the tomato was amazingly dressed with this beautiful salad dressing.
There were little bits of olives, and a couple of tiny pieces of sun dried tomato as well. It was very minimal; there were just suggestions of it. There was basil pesto cream in the middle, and a little mound of grated parmigiano reggiano on top. There was a cracker, almost like Melba toast, but a homemade one. Wow! It was just so good; the combination of these delicate flavors and textures. The pesto cream was so creamy and smooth, and then there was the crunchyness of the cracker, and the cheese on top. It was just incredible – so simple, and yet so good. It really made me think about how, if you get the flavors right, food can be so simple and yet so amazing.
My hubby had a haloumi salad. It had haloumi cheese, wedges that had been grilled with pomegranate seeds whatever they are. There was a little bit of something drizzled on top, and then some sliced zucchini and some lettuce with an amazing dressing on it. He said that was also so good.
Then for the main course, I had some calamari with lemon butter sauce. He had a steak, a very simple one on a plate with this amazing pepper crust and some sort of sauce on the side. It was such simple food, and everything was cooked from scratch from pure fresh ingredients. It was a lovely piece of meat, well grilled and everything. Even just the sauces were so good.
The whole experience was so elevated because of the extra effort they went to. We had a little bit of sparkling water and some elegant glasses on the table, and the music was soft and lovely and relaxing. There was a place to go and sit on the couches and talk, and you could just walk around and enjoy all the decor. There was also a screen inside the special room with all the pictures of different items on the menu with elegant plating.
It just helps to have a really well-rounded experience. It’s not quickly going out for dinner, just eat-and-go; you relax, you enjoy it, and your body just lets go.
It’s so important for us when we eat to be able to focus on the meal, to enjoy the time with other people, to eat slowly, to really relish and enjoy our food, and to appreciate it, to look at it, to smell it, and then to taste it. It makes the meal such a full experience, it makes it so much healthier, and it makes it so good for us in every way.
So, I was just thinking about that, how that was such a great experience, and how we could apply some of those things at home to really improve our meals, or to have special celebrations that really makes that time special together. Obviously, we can’t give a restaurant experience, especially not every meal, but there are certain things that really do take us in that direction. I want to mention a few of those things today.
Another part I didn’t mention is that there were beautiful, soft, crisp, cloth napkins that they put on your lap for you. All the crockery and cutlery were so interesting, with unusual shapes. They were very rustic and very earthy, but elegant. You could just feel like it was a special thing because of the way the plates looked, the way the knives and forks looked, and the wooden boards for the bread, the little knife for the butter, and all those things.
So, what can we do at home to make things special, to make them memorable, and to make them an experience where our bodies can enjoy the food and absorb it to the max? Firstly, we must take the time to enjoy the meal. This would mean telling yourself and your family that it’s going to be a time that you’ve set apart, where you sit down together, and you’re not going to rush. It’s time for the meal. It’s a time to focus on eating and on fellowship, and not doing anything else along the way.
Secondly, to make it beautiful, do anything that helps with the mood. You can have some beautiful music softly in the background. Search for classical music on YouTube, or Celtic music, dinner music, piano music, or French cafe music.
All of those searches produce great results for music.
Then, think about your surroundings. Make sure the curtains are nicely arranged. Use a pretty tablecloth and napkins. Maybe use your fancy glasses. Do you have fancy cutlery or silverware? What are your nicest plates? What plates can you put together to make it look nice? Do you have under plates, or pretty things for the middle of the table?
The lighting is important. We use electronic candles. Some of them look really beautiful and change color. You could also use twinkle lights, or anything that sets the mood. Maybe close some doors, turn down the main lighting, and just set expectations.
You should look a little smart. Everybody should make sure that they don’t have dirty t-shirts and shorts on. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but everybody should be nicely dressed.
Get everybody involved in helping you, so it’s not them waiting while you’re busy. Also, see what you can do in advance. Just doing a few little parts of the meal and then breaking it down into courses adds to the fanciness of the meal. It also makes it easier to serve because you don’t have to have everything ready at the same time.
You could serve your salad or vegetables first on a small side plate, or maybe you want to do something like at the restaurant where you have a small amount of soup, and you give everybody a very small portion. Then you can make individual breads like dinner rolls.
Dinner rolls are very easy to make in the oven when you’ve got your dough. You just roll it into balls and stack them close together in a cast iron pan, a normal stainless steel dish, or a glass dish with a bit of butter to grease it. As the dough rises, they’ll press together, and you can pull them apart afterwards to make your lovely dinner rolls. Adding a little onion powder and rosemary to the dough gives it a lovely flavor. You can also whip up your butter and use a little melon baller to make it into little scoops, balls, or other interesting shapes. You can put a little bit on each individual plate to make it pretty, or put all the butter in an elegant dish in the middle of the table.
Whatever you’re doing, think about “How can I make this a little more special? How can I help us all to relax and lean into it? How can I get the children involved?” Another thing you can do is to fold your napkins in a fancy way. Check out our YouTube channel, FamilyFoodforMoms. We’ve got some nice ways to fold your napkins to make them look elegant on the table.
Make sure there’s no clutter nearby, and make sure there’s mostly low lighting and a relaxed atmosphere. When you do your main course, maybe you can arrange the elements nicely on the plate – take a look at our plating episodes. Put the sauce on the side, or put a little smear of the starch underneath.
Just try to add a little something special to the meal without making it stressful for you. Try to have a little gap between each course where you talk, have a little toast, or play a conversation game. We’ve got some conversation starters under the free giveaways on our website, at Familyfoodformoms.com/conversation. Have some good chats between your courses.
You could have some sorbet as a little palate cleanser. Keep some lemon or mango sorbet in your freezer, and serve it in a tiny little egg cup or a shot glass, just for fun to make the meal interesting. It truly does cleanse the palette.
You could have a course like the one the French have; just dark lettuce leaves with a vinaigrette of olive oil, salt, and balsamic or apple cider vinegar. That also helps with digestion. You could also do a cheese and bread course later instead of beginning with bread, but I really love the idea of a tiny little bit of soup with the bread at the beginning.
Anything like that is going to make the meal special, and it’s going to slow you down and make the meal memorable. It makes it feel like you’ve had a good experience, and it’s such a great way to have dinner. It helps with your relationships. It helps you to relax, and especially as mom, to get away from the hecticness of the day, and as dad to get away from work, chaos and crazy busyness. It’s so good for us and for our health.
Eating is something we’ve lost. If you think of medieval movies or the Lord of the Rings, they have these great banquets with huge tables, and they sit and have chats for a long time, and it’s a whole experience. We want to bring back some of that kind of thing to our families. Plus, there’s the elegance.
Putting out more than one knife and fork set is always fun. You know you’re going to use the outside ones first, and then the next ones. Perhaps you’ll have a spoon for some dessert. Put anything unusual that you have on the table. Having it as part of the meal is going to help to make it extra elegant and extra memorable.
So, see how creative you can be when you feel like doing something different. Don’t make it a stress; don’t make it something that’s a burden, but on an evening when you feel like something different, try some ideas and see what you can think of to make it fun and special.
You don’t have to cook a lot. I often find it’s easier to get something from the store that’s easy to use. For example, there’s pre-made ravioli, where you just have to cook it and add the sauce. Sometimes we’ll cook a big fillet of steak and keep it in the fridge, and then slice it and cook it again in the pan at the time of the meal. It really makes it delicious when you’ve cooked it to medium. Quickly warm it up with a sauce just before you eat it, and it’s really good.
Also, you can look at my appetizers cookbook on Familyfoodformoms.com. It’s got some amazing ideas for appetizers that are really easy but elegant. It helps you to add something special to your meal, so look at it to give you some ideas. That’s what I do when I need an idea – I look at my own cookbook because I forget all the things that I usually make.
I hope you have some special dinners!
