Rachael Ray

Every summer one of my favorite things to do is take a road trip, and this summer will be no different! This year I am heading with friends on a road trip through Napa valley (my stomach growled just thinking about it).

When I get back from a vacay one of my favorite things to do is catch up with my buddies back in the city and fill them in on my trip. But instead of forcing them to sit through slide shows of all my exploits, I like to invite my pals over for a little dinner party, and give them a bit of the local flavor from my trip!

So here are some ideas of how I plan to deck out my table after coming back from Napa!

I am not super fussy when it comes to my tables, the important thing is for everyone to be comfortable and feel at home, and one of the ways that makes a table look more casual is to forgo the tablecloth in lieu of runners. My dining room table is fairly long, it expands to 9’, so I lay out runners with the short side across my table. That way I use 3 runners on my table. I even like it when the runners don’t match because seriously, who has 3 of the same runner?

Next is the centerpiece, all of my centerpieces are low to the table and expansive, I like to spread the wealth around the table so everyone has a little focal point, big ostentatious arrangements are fine for weddings or Bar Mitzvahs but for at home dinner parties, I am all about great eye contact.

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I will definitely incorporate wine into my Napa centerpiece. Ever since I learned to cut down my old glass bottles a few months ago, I can’t stop doing it! I am obsessed with turning old wine bottles into glasses, vases even candle holders, and cutting them down is SUPER easy. I use a glasscutter, a candle and an ice cube (seriously it works), or if you want something a little more automated try this Ephrem’s Bottle Cutter Kit, at around $30 it’s a great value! So I would set out wine bottles cut to different heights, some would have wildflowers in them, believe it or not I clip wild flowers and grasses from the Hudson River park a half a block from my house for my tabletop arrangement, don’t tell the NYC parks department though. And I would use the bottle tops I use as tapered candle holders. They are just the coolest!

Here are some of my tapered candleholders from recycled bottles in action!

My floral arrangements would also include some grapes, I love to stick food in with flowers, it’s a bit of a fetish. The two go together so well, letting some grapes cascade down the side of a vase filled with flowers is perfection!

Here is an arrangement me and my pal Cristy Ruiz made for a wine tasting at rachaelray.com, (see the grapes in there?)

Instead of chargers, I would use large terracotta clay saucers to place everyone’s plates on. What I love about these is that they do double duty in the garden and you can write on them with chalk. I would write each guest’s name one their saucer, guests really like it when you assign seats. It really makes them feel special, takes the pressure off who sits where, and it is a great way for everyone to remember each other’s names!

When it comes to napkins I am a cloth napkin girl all the way! They are better for the environment and just feel nicer, only problem is storing them can be a pain in the tail, right now all my mismatched napkins take up 2 full drawers in my tiny kitchen!

I love the simple pocket fold for napkins. It is a fold that I can whip out last minute and one that I can stick a little surprise in. I would stick a little seed packet in everyone’s napkin. Napa is all about getting back to the earth and maybe a cute little seed packet would inspire my pals to do that too!

Finally to give each of them a real personalized taste of my trip I would make these little accordions out of envelopes, these envelopes below I made myself out of old maps. In each little envelope I would put a picture, souvenir or trinket of some kind that I think my friends will dig. Then I would seal each one with a souvenir pressed penny from one of the rest stops along the way!

I can’t wait to go and come back at tell my peeps all about it! It’s always nice to travel but it’s always great to be back home!

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