Dine Like Ronald Reagan

As a hobby chef, I like to cook a special dinner for my own birthday. My friends tell me I shouldn’t cook for my own birthday, but I laugh and tell them: “It is my party, I can cook if I want to.” They quickly acquiesce and allow me the honors.

One of the elements of cooking I especially enjoy is planning the menu. For this year’s birthday, I was stumped. Should I do a pumpkin theme as I have done in the past for my October 29 birthday? Or a fall theme as I have done for a previous Casita Marita Dinner Party. Since this year is my 66^th birthday, and Chuck and I did a Route 66 trip, I batted around the idea of using recipes from a Route 66 cookbook. I nixed that one because once I flipped through the entire book, I determined that those diner-like recipes were not really the types of food I wanted to feature for my Birthday dinner. However, the iconic Hollywood restaurant Chasen’s was, at one point in the Route’s history, located on Route 66. My sister Lauren wrote a post here about her personal experience at Chasen’s on a night former President Ronald Reagan was there. Most of the friends who would be around my table had also seen the Reagan Movie where Chasen’s is featured. Plus, in my younger years, Lauren took me to Chasen’s—so, there is a personal connection. Thus, my menu theme became: “Chasen’s Inspired.” Sadly, Chasen’s closed in 1995.

Lauren tells me she owns a Chasen’s cookbook, but she couldn’t find it. She did some online research for me and found some old, signed, Chasen’s menus—which helped. She also steered me to this blog post about Chasen’s from Hollywood Sue Cameron in which she claims that “There will never be another Steak Diane like theirs, or a Banana Shortcake, or Creamed Spinach.”  This became the start of my menu plan—with some additional input from the old menus. I didn’t like the idea of creamed spinach as I planned to serve the Steak Diane over buttermilk mashed potatoes and I thought the creamed spinach made the menu too heavy with smooth items. I wanted more contrast in texture. Instead, I served Carrots Vichy—which were on the menu. I started the meal with an appetizer suggested on the menus: classic shrimp cocktail that I served while my guests were gathering. Next was a Hearts of Palm Salad (again the suggestion was from the menus). I added a baguette from the grocery store that was served with the salad.

Because I had ten at my table, and because Lauren couldn’t find her Chasen’s cookbook, we didn’t use real Chasen’s recipes. Instead, the dinner was “Chasen’s Inspired.” At Chasen’s, the Steak Diane was probably served tableside and cooked to order. With ten guests, while still allowing me to sit down and enjoy the dinner, I had to find a Steak Diane Recipe that cooked in the oven while my guests were eating the Hearts of Palm Salad.

An extra blessing for this meal preparation was that Lauren came from California to Lubbock for my birthday. We cook well together and enjoyed making this special meal. It really wasn’t too much work! We served it on Sunday evening. We went to church on Sunday morning and then out to brunch. We didn’t even start the meal preparation until about 2:00. But there were two of us and one of my friends insisted on making the cake.

If you were to make this entire meal yourself, and I hope you do as it was amazing, here’s the plan I suggest—starting the day before. Of course, you can always assign parts of the menu to others. All the recipes are linked here. (Note: I studied many different recipes so you don’t have to.)

The Day Before:

Set the table and make the cake portion of the Banana Shortcake.

Early in the Day:

Make the buttermilk mashed potatoes (you can reheat them later without losing any freshness or quality). Steam the shrimp and put in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Pour the cocktail sauce in a pretty serving bowl and cover with plastic wrap until ready to serve. Cut up the carrots and put them in a pot with the other recipe ingredients, ready to cook later in the day. Cut up all of the ingredients for the Hearts of Palm Salad and make the dressing—but wait to combine until ready to serve. Cut up the onion for the Steak Diane.

Go take a nap and then shower and get dressed.

About an Hour and a Half Before Your Guests Arrive:

Put on an apron (so you don’t get your nice clothes soiled) and start the Steak Diane. I chose this Steak Diane recipe because it would work well for my time frame but had the traditional sauce ingredients. Due to the nature of the dinner, I didn’t want to use a “braising beef.” I chose to use top sirloin. I called my grocery store’s meat department and had them cut me a three-pound (about three inch thick) piece of top sirloin. Then, because their knives are likely better than mine, I asked them to cut it across into 1/3-inch pieces. I then cut each of those pieces into thirds. I followed the recipe to brown each piece. I made the sauce adjusted for ten people. I placed the browned top sirloin pieces in two 9×13 inch glass pans and topped them with the sauce. Because I was using top sirloin, not braising beef, I only needed to cook it for one hour. So, I set it aside until one hour before I wanted to serve—which in my case was 6:00, serving at 7:00. (My guests were arriving at 6:00. 30 minutes for shrimp cocktail and 30 minutes for Hearts of Palm Salad.) Slice baguette and wrap in foil to put in the oven later.

Ten Minutes Before Guests Arrive:

Preheat the oven. Put the mashed potatoes on the stove on low to warm. They may need a little more moisture—milk, water, or butter. Leave them to warm until you need to serve—stirring occasionally.

Place the shrimp cocktail where you want to serve it. Be sure to have small plates and cocktail napkins.

Whip the cream for the cake and cut the bananas. Set in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Combine, toss, and plate the salad.

As Guests Arrive:

Put pans of Steak Diane into preheated oven. Put baguette in the oven. Serve beverages and encourage guests to enjoy the shrimp cocktail.

30 Minutes After Guests Arrive:

Steer them toward the table and enlist a helper/sous chef to assist in placing the salads on the table. Remove baguette from oven and place slices in a bread basket. Serve. Cook the carrots.

60 Minutes After Guests Arrive:

Have your helper assist in clearing the table of salad dishes and in plating the main course—starting with the mashed potatoes, steak, sauce and carrots. If you cut the steak pieces as suggested, you will have 2 good sized pieces, or three smaller ones, for each person. Serve.

2 Hours After Guests Arrive:

Have your helper assist in clearing the table of dinner dishes. Be sure each guest has a fork for dessert. Plate the cake, whipped cream, and bananas. Serve.

3 Hours After Guests Arrive:

Pat yourself on the back for a successful dinner party! If you feel so inclined, allow them to help clear the table and do the dishes. Otherwise, the dishes and glassware will still be there in the morning. Tip: if alcohol is involved, wait to wash the crystal until the next morning.

For my birthday, I have fabulous photos and warm memories of the evening. As addressed in a previous post, I have found that 6-8 is a good-sized group for a dinner party. That size allows everyone to be part of one conversation, rather than having one at each end. No one feels left out. For my birthday, I really struggled with paring down my guest list. Ten is really the largest I can seat comfortably. I debated moving the party to my living room where I could use folding banquet tables and chairs—but that split the group, changed the entire elegant vibe I wanted, made food costs higher, and the prep more laborious. Ultimately, I did stick with ten and had the lovely party I envisioned.  

I hope that, by giving you the recipes and step-by-step instructions—along with photos of the actual evening, you will feel that you, too, can gather your friends around the table and make memories that will last you a lifetime.

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Marita Littauer Tedder has spent the majority of her adult life working with women—helping them improve relationships, achieve their speaking and writing dreams, and being the best version of themselves they can possibly be. The author of 20 books, this Living Our Best Life Project is her newest effort—through which she hopes to challenge women to be fulfilled where they are.