Dinner Party

Are you ready for Sunday night's two-hour "Mad Men" season premiere? Take a look at our photo gallery of cocktails and dishes inspired by the airless, joyless overproduced television show. We found recipes for classic dishes from Danny's, The Chesapeake and the Harvey House and other Baltimore restaurants that flourished in the 1960s. And read David Zurawik's hilarious post on the momentous televison event. Tonight is the Drink Like a Mad Men Party at the Creative Alliance, featuring classic cocktails crafted by Doug Atwell of Rye. The party will include appetizers and hors d'ouevres that were popular during the 1960s, as well as music and visuals from the same era. Atwell will be talking about some of those classic cocktails Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. on WBAL radio 1090.

Peggy M. Boellner, a homemaker who enjoyed cooking and entertaining family and friends, died June 7 of complications from a fall at her Timonium home. She was 83. The daughter of a public works employee and a homemaker, Peggy Marie Wax was born and raised in Norton, Va. During World War II, she moved to Baltimore with her family and attended Southern High School. While working at a Read Drug and Chemical Co. pharmacy in the 2100 block of E. Monument St., she met and fell in love with her future husband.

emember the good old days, when you threw a dinner party and all you had to worry about was finding a topic everyone could talk about? Now, you have a much harder task: to find a dish everyone can eat. Two culprits bear the blame - the rise of food allergies in America, and food writer Michael Pollan. More than 12 million Americans have a known food allergy. And tens of millions more have food intolerances. My wife recently found out that she shouldn't eat lactose, gluten, corn, turkey or chicken.

The episode jumps right into Vicki inviting Alexis to be her date for Tamra's party. Alexis has second thoughts about this and is surprised that Tamra even agreed to let her to attend. Alexis finally agrees to be Vicki's date and thinks it would be a splendid idea to invite her “Christian on steroids” friend Lydia to join the group at the dinner party as well. Let's see how many people we can fill the room with at Tamra's party that she either can't stand or doesn't even know.

Why do fools fall out of love? That's the central question posed by Neil Simon's 31st and latest play, "The Dinner Party." Part farce and part mystery, the play is unusual for Simon not only because of its hybrid form but also because of its shift in tone. Although "The Dinner Party" starts out as a laugh fest, it ends on a bittersweet note, rather like a meal that begins with dessert and ends with an entrM-ie so highly seasoned, it makes your eyes water. The result, receiving an appealing East Coast premiere at Washington's Kennedy Center, may not be a major work, but it is highly enjoyable - a divertissement that, while light, leaves you pondering the complexities and perplexities of love and romance.

WINTER IS usually a good time to stay indoors. However, after a few days of being holed up in your abode, you can get lonely and bored. One remedy to winter's isolation is to invite some friends over for a meal. You can call it a dinner party if you like. But, according to Elaine Corn, the idea of giving a dinner party makes some folks break out in cold sweat.Corn is an experienced hand at having people over. For example, back in the 1980s, when she was a newspaper reporter in Louisville, Ky., she had about 80 people over to her house for country biscuits and coleslaw.

Plays about dinner parties appear to be in vogue in this area nowadays. Olney Theatre Center is serving up a gourmet meal nightly in the apocalyptic Omnium Gatherum, and on a smaller scale, the Vagabond Players has set the table for Neil Simon's 2000 comedy The Dinner Party. The setting - a private dining room in a chic Paris restaurant - is something of an oddity for Simon, and the Vagabonds' elegantly detailed set, designed and built by Tony Colavito, is a piece de resistance. But the play itself is less satisfying.

THERE ARE CERTAIN laws of the universe that intelligent women know not to violate: don't count your chickens before they're hatched, don't wear pleats and don't ever try to fix up two people.But why not Jenny and John, I thought? Two smart, fun people, both single. . .The thought set my little heart a-fluttering and before you knew it the dinner party invitations were in the mail.I decided to go with a menu that I'd fixed many, many times before with great success: a very fattening fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and scallops, homemade rolls and a nice, fresh salad.

OPERA ALWAYS HAS been a chichi production. Whether it's a stage production or a Baltimore Opera Guild dinner party, it's grand. The guild's most recent party, "Romeo et Juliette," was a black-tie event at the home of Donna and Sterling Leppo, whose lovely home is in the Cold Saturday development, once the privately owned Cold Saturday Farm. The Leppos very kindly lent the use of their home and its outdoor setting for the party.Cocktails and silent auction items were served up in a terrace-level tent and a buffet was served later in a tent on the lower level.

Give the elegant dinner party you've always wanted without lifting a finger -- except to dial the phone. Appealing appetizers, elegant entrees, decadent desserts -- can all be yours if you take advantage of gourmet carryout."

Elijah and Hannah are breaking up. She is kicking him out for his transgression with Marnie and it has gotten really ugly really quickly. "Here's your round brush, here's your Astroglide. Don't even know how that ended up in my room," announces Hannah, looking for all the world like Divine in "Hairspray" in her Granny muumuu. Elijah announces he will not be paying this month's rent, but Hannah is coming out the winner as George (Elijah's ex-Sugar Daddy) has told her she can keep all of Elijah's belongings that he paid for which is ... everything.

This is the penultimate episode of season three of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and I am already having withdrawal. I have learned so much from these ladies: How to best shade an adversary (Lisa's dignified side-eyes and brush-offs are like intricate tapestries of disrespect), how not to treat your loving husband (here's looking at you, Marissa) and most importantly, how to best ruin a dinner party. If I'm waxing nostalgic now, I'll probably be slumped in a corner with a Botox needle lodged in my forehead next week.

Stacy Keibler was along for the ride as Demi Moore kept the tabloids entertained this week in Miami. The New York Post reports this morning that Keibler and Moore partied like champs Wednesday at Art Basel, first at a dinner party hosted by Chanel -- where apparently Moore befriended a stray cat, letting it sit on her lap during the meal, the Post reported. Then, the two headed off to an after party where, according to the Post, guests included Lenny Kravitz and Will Ferrell. And then, approaching 1 a.m., it was off to yet another bash at a karaoke bar. Keibler and Moore reportedly danced and Keibler tossed back tequila shots.

Kim's daughter, Kimberly, is getting ready to head to prom. And though her storyline has been put on the backburner so far, this was pretty cute. Kimberly's boyfriend picks her up and it's all adorable and perfectly awkward with Kim talking about chicken salad and trying to get them to have a cup of lemonade or some other such nonsense. We also get to spend a little more time with Kyle's teenage daughter, Alexa, who is in the process of learning how to drive. What kind of car does Kyle decide to let her practice in?

This weeks episode is kind of great because the women are finally starting to get along with each other, but not with anyone else. So even though Marysol and Lea don't like each other, Lea is hanging out with Elsa, Marysol's mom. Lea explains that her gay friend James (who Elsa and Marysol have gotten in numerous altercations with) also dresses up as a woman named Elaine.  Elsa makes a face like she is overwhelmed, and then says "that disturbs me mentally," in her typical dramatic voice.  Elsa is straight out of a Telenovella.