December, 2021

Hello! It’s time for another edition of the Ruined Table Newsletter, where every month(ish), we send a dinner party straight to your inbox.

A ruined table is the messy scene at the end of a dinner party. It’s a symbol of living in the present, having fun and finding beauty in the grey zones. At Ruined Table, we believe the best parts about food are the conversations, stories and connections that happen while eating it. Our mission is to create recipes and content to facilitate that, and to encourage people to ruin their own tables at home, or in a place that feels like home.

This month’s dinner party:

ITALO DISCO

“I think it would be stupid for us to try and tell people who are dancing in a discotheque about the problems of the world. That is the very thing they have come away to avoid.” - Giorgio Morodor

Italo Disco, the chintzy music genre that originated in Italy in the late 70’s/early 80’s as a result of the death of disco in the US, was not considered cool at the time. Some might even go so far as to say it was wildly uncool. But it was also wildly itself. It wasn’t self aware, mind you, it had no idea how garish it was, but it kept dancing like nobody was watching and in this way, proved its resilience. It played the long game, and now Italo Disco, despite all of its gaudy extravagance, has become an apex of coolness.

There is something to be said for getting lost in the dance. For leaning in to the cheese and extravagance and showing up as so intensely you that you become a parody of yourself. And now that the holidays are officially here, what better way to ring them in than with this Italo Disco mindset. Let loose. Be ridiculous. Become a hyperbolized version of yourself. Take things up a notch and dance till dawn. Our problems certainly won’t go away while we’re on the dance floor, but we can forget about them for a little while as we wait for the sun to rise.

I hope you all have a great holiday season full of impromptu dance parties and lots of good cheer. Thanks for reading my rants in this newsletter all year! I did not intend to make a cheesy rhyme just then, but I’m going to leave it because it’s soooo Italo. Ok bye!

- CM

Speaking of the holidays, the Ruined Table Recipe Cards make excellent stocking stuffers. Order by December 19th for arrival in time for Christmas. <3

Pasta Extravagance

Our Italo Disco dinner party serves 6 people. The menu is divided into two parts: pre-party light bites for dancing into the night and post-party carbs for ultimate hangover prevention. Basically, it’s a bunch of delicious Italian food. Recipes include: Negroni Spagliato; Pisco Inferno; Lemoncello; Antipasto 101; Caesar Salad Spears; Tuna Crudo; Pasta Extravagance: Disco Gnocchi, Bucatini all’Amatriciana, Spaghetti al Limone, Rigatoni Cacio e Pepe; and Olive Oil Cake.

We make recipe cards for all of our dinner parties, inspired by the vintage Betty Crocker recipe card collection. Check out the recipe card for Italo Cocktails below. If you like what you see, the Italo Disco recipe cards are now available for purchase on our website and they include all the recipes mentioned above, plus an Up for Discussion card with some Italo Disco related conversation points to help you get the party started. As an added bonus, a portion of all Italo Disco recipe card sales will benefit the Make A Wish Foundation. You can find out more about their organization here.

As always, don’t worry about everything being perfect. Cooking isn’t about perfection, it’s about time spent in the kitchen with people you love, laughing and connecting through food. So get in there and get to work!

P.S. Don’t forget to download the Italo Disco playlist. Hit the button below to do so.

Click on the card to snag the recipe.

To order the Italo Disco recipe cards, click the button below.

Erin’s Wine Nonsense Dance Corner

Wine wine, party party.

Here, our amazing friend, Erin Sylvester of Sylvester Rovine Selections, blesses us with her Italo Disco wine knowledge.

Lammidia "Panda" 2020 Moscato Rosa, Abruzzo, Italy

When Panda tells you to disco dance, YOU DANCE. And you drink her lovely rosato from the hills of Abruzzo! She's a little floral, a little wild, a little extra. You'll need to drink this one fast, but that won't be a problem. Cin cin my dears!

-ES

Look for this bottle at your local natural wine shop, and if you can’t find it, ask them to bring it in!

Tarot Thyme with Melinda

Always about Tarot, hardly ever about thyme, but it’s cute so it stays.

Did you know you can use Tarot cards to eat your way into spiritual bliss and deep personal understanding? Well you CAN, and you are in luck because Melinda Lee Holm, a Tarot priestess and dear friend, has come to the rescue and she’s gonna tell us how.

Update! Courtney (our founder) wrote a cookbook with Melinda and it’s all about cooking with magickal ingredients. It’s called Divine Your Dinner. Hit the button below to learn more and to place an order. It makes and excellent holiday gift.

Disco vibes are all about living free and wild, following your impulses, being radically yourself and seizing the moment. The disco clubs of the early 70s were places where queer people and people we now call allies of all economic classes and ethnicities could congregate and associate freely, celebrating themselves and each other on the dance floor decked out in stunning fabulocity - or in not much at all.

All that magick, instinct, creativity, and action is the exact domain of the Ace of Wands. The pure gift of elemental Fire, the Ace of Wands reminds us that we DO know, we CAN make it happen, and we ARE powerful (and hot!). Invite Fire to spice up your life and - to paraphrase a famous Italian-American - take a ride on that Ace of Wands disco stick with ginger and jalapeño. The fresher and spicier the better.

-MLH

To learn more about Melinda’s deck, Elemental Power Tarot, check out elementalpowertarot.com

The Hot Dog Appreciation Club LIVES!

Our founder, Courtney McBroom, started the Hot Dog Appreciation Club (HDAC) in 2018 as a joke, but it turns out a lot of people really appreciate hot dogs. Although membership was originally free, we decided to use it as a way to raise funds for Ruined Table. SO, if you love hot dogs, or if you just want to support us, consider joining the club via the Ruined Table Patreon. The first tier is only $3 per month and it will help us create even better recipe cards and dinner party content. Plus, we’ll love you forever and ever.

And in conclusion, we give you: THE HOT DOG OF THE MONTH

This month’s beauty: The Denver Dog!

She comes straight from the Centennial State, and is dressed in sour cream, jalapeños, onions and green chilies. Simple and delicious, just like Denver. To get a cooking demo and honest review by Courtney McBroom, please consider joining the Ruined Table patreon. K bye!