Home-style entertaining with a twist

MILLIE: When it comes to entertaining at home, Karla has a style all her own.

Ever since I can remember, she’s been fond of inviting friends to what I’d call “slumber parties” and what she calls “sleepovers.” In grade school, she’d normally have one or two friends on weekends. In high school it was the barkada bonding. When she reached college, it became male and female sleepovers that kind of worried me. Other than the “how do you separate the girls from the boys” problem, they had such big appetites that my kitchen was forever churning out breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks to boot! Lucky for her we have a spacious home with lots of room for entertaining and household help that were used to

all-night parties. Karla thought of every excuse to invite friends over and I did not mind at all. I’d rather she brought them home than not knowing where she was. Besides, it was my way of getting to meet her friends. Now that she has come of age and her friends are working, the sleepovers continue, this time with a twist. Karla cooks.

KARLA: In the past year, we have had several dinners with my friends in our home. And to spice things up a little, we had little themes for

Karla entertaining with friends at home

them. We kicked off the year with a January 1, 2010 dress-up dinner, complete with New Year’s paraphernalia and party poppers. In the middle of this year, we had another dinner where I served my French onion soup with a variety of grilled sausages served with Rösti potatoes, cheese fondue and a bottle — errr, make that two bottles — of Chez Samantha, a young but extremely good French red wine.

Part of this group is my foodie buddy Dani Ochoa, who sends me random text messages when she craves for food or when there’s some new place we have to try. One day, she had this sudden craving for Raclette cheese and within that week, we scheduled a dinner where I served Angus rib-eye steaks paired with wine from Robert Mondavi and, of course, the star of the night, Raclette cheese and my homemade butter cake.

Nowadays we simply meet up for dinners. Since most of us are already working, we have been eating out, but most of the time we have dinners at our houses, with the sleepover part still welcome as an option.

Last Saturday, the group again got together for dinner. This time, Gayl Porter came early to help me prepare. We had so much fun preparing dinner, laughing and chatting as we chopped the onions, garlic and other ingredients. We shared stories and experiences as I cooked my Lolo Joe’s favorite broccoli cream soup. Somehow, it didn’t seem quite

Karla recreates pan-seared seabass with teriyaki sauce

like a chore. I taught Gayl how to whip up my own version of penne with maple bacon and fresh Portobello mushrooms in creamy white sauce made with low-fat milk. Sometimes I use porcini or chanterelle mushrooms when these are available.

The maple bacon was a trial I had made myself at our commissary and brought it home to sample. I wasn’t so confident about letting anyone try the maple bacon at first, but once the product was given the thumbs-up by my mom, I knew I had created something good. Even my friend Dani wrote down her testimonial on Facebook as she uploaded our photos of that evening: “Nothing compares to the bacony goodness I experienced this evening. Yet another tummy -rubbing moment at Karla’s house :)”

But really, preparing the meal wasn’t at all difficult, also because I had Gayl as my sous chef. I first sautéed four cloves of chopped garlic and half an onion, chopped as well with a little bit of olive oil. While that was cooking, in a separate pan, I melted about 2 tbsp. of butter and mixed in all-purpose flour until its consistency was like dough. This is called a roux in French, which is used to thicken sauces. Then I combined the roux and half a liter of low-fat milk and, together with the chopped garlic and onions, stirred rapidly to make sure we fully dissolved the roux. I added a pinch of nutmeg and waited for the sauce to thicken while stirring. Then I added the chopped Portobello mushrooms and separately fried maple bacon to give that smoky, bacon-y, sweet taste. I let it cook for a while as Gayl seasoned it with salt and pepper before adding in the penne.

MILLIE: Most of Karla’s friends are like my own kids and I watched all of them grow up. I even share their fond memories of Backstreet Boys and Hanson days and boy band-chasing from concerts to hotel lobbies. This early, I am proud of who they are and what they’ve become. They’ve been around for Karla and have shared dreams and passions with her. The group has been her source of strength and now her guinea pigs in a new arena: food and entertaining.

Little do they know that when Karla cooks for them, she’s actually working on a project and is creating something new or is playing around with a new way to present a dish. Same thing goes for when she makes our family her guinea pigs. Like the time she sampled her pan-fried seabass with teriyaki sauce and her Seafood Symphony for a dinner for a client. She is not really a chef but more of a food enthusiast and I am proud to say has done quite a number of dinners for my clients and they were all successful achievements.

Her friends have gone on to various career paths of their own. Cess Cuartero is now in the marketing department of KFC, MM Arcilla is currently based in Washington and works as a business and planning analyst for the Boeing company, Camille Ocampo is the group’s future doctor, Angel Sison works as a producer for ETC-Solar Entertainment Corporation, Doty Yu is pursuing a career in IT as a programmer for Lawson, Dani Ochoa is a summa cum laude Psychology graduate from the University of the Philippines-Diliman and currently a teacher for Gymboree Play and Music, and Gayl Porter recently graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, topped the Teachers’ Licensure Exam and is currently teaching at UPIS.

Karla’s love for entertaining made her pursue continuing studies in Events Management even after she graduated from Business Management from De La Salle University-Manila. She set up her own company, Purple Swirls Events, specializing in designer debutante parties. She conceptualizes the event from A to Z, pretty much like a made-to-order or tailor-made concept, starting with the theme, invitation, menu, décor, program and giveaways.

Karla has conceptualized and organized quite a few events on her own and I am full of pride, knowing she will be a great and outstanding success!

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.