What People Are Saying About Wild Women Throw a Party!
Lynette Shirk's recipes rival any four-star restaurant—she is a true goddess in the kitchen and has concocted a guide to throwing the coolest parties ever!
— Margie Lapanja, author of Romancing the Stove and Food Men Love
Take one part great food and mix with two parts Silver Screen Sirens and what do you get? Wild Women Throw a Party, the best party book in the entire world!
—Tim Wright, author of Raging Beauties
Here's another way to be a wild woman: eat like one! Politicos can sip soup with Eleanor Roosevelt. Literary ladies, born too late to sit at the Algonquin Round Table? You can still share wine and cheese with Edna St. Vincent Millay or have cocktails with Dorothy Parker (but don't drink too much!). Or lace up those ballet shoes, dance on the table with Zelda Fitzgerald, but don't knock over the Waldorf salad. Lynette Rohrer Shirk supplies the recipes, you throw the party.
—Trina Robbins, author of Wild Irish Roses and Tender Murderers
“Once, I was at a party Lynette was throwing and found myself in a hot tub with a rock band. But, all I could think about was the platter of Pigs in a Blanket she was serving. That is how great her recipes are!”
—Varla Ventura, author of Wild Women Talk About Love and Sheroes
Wild Women Throw a Party
110 Original Recipes and Amazing Menus for Birthday Bashes, Power Showers, Poker Soirees, and Celebrations Galore
Lynette Rohrer Shirk
Foreword by Ame Mahler Beanland
Conari Press
For Zelda
First published in 2007 by Conari Press,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
500 Third Street, Suite 230
San Francisco, CA 94107
Copyright © 2007 by Lynette Rohrer Shirk.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN-10: 1-57324-284-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-57324-284-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shirk, Lynette Rohrer.
Wild women throw a party : 110 original recipes and amazing menus for birthday bashes, power showers, poker soirees, and celebrations galore/Lynette Rohrer Shirk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57324-284-5 (alk. paper)
1. Entertaining. 2. Menus. 3. Parties. I. Title.
TX731.S4543 2007
642'.4—dc22
2006034322
Cover and interior design by Maija Tollefson.
Cover and interior photographs © Corbis Images.
Printed in Canada
TCP
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
Contents
In the Beginning, There Were Wild Women
Peggy Guggenheim's Art Gallery Opening
Marjorie Merriweather Post's Palm Beach Party
Zelda Fitzgerald's Hotel Room Fete
Mary Pickford's Picnic at Pickfair
Silver Screen Queens' Oscar Party
Edna St. Vincent Millay's Poetry Reading
Dorothy Parker's Cocktail Party
M.F.K. Fisher's Fireside Feast
Bridget's Jonesing for Chocolate Soiree
A Florodora Girl's After-Hours Dinner Party
Annie Oakley's Western Barbecue
Ellen DeGeneres's Mardi Gras Dessert Party
Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Shindig Comfort Food
Women of the Senate Poker Party
First Ladies' Ice Cream Social
Eleanor Roosevelt's Soup Night