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Crostini topped with tomato-bacon-apple
jam and feta cheese, below, reflects
Jason’s approach to cooking simple,
flavorful items. “I made the jam as an
experiment, and it was unbelievably good,”
he says. His trick for entertaining: “I pick a
few dishes I can assemble well in advance
and just warm up during the party.” See
recipes, page 212.
“We try to keep things simple. It’s easy to over-
think things when entertaining, but the reality is
whenever you gather great people together with
good food, they’re going to have a blast.” JASON HIRSCH
APPLES A-WEIGH
A simple solution to anchor tablecloths
and stacks of napkins? Weigh them down
with fresh apples, above.
HOW-TO For a tablecloth weight, use an
awl to pierce a channel through two apples,
top to bottom. Thread twine through the
channels, from the bottom of one apple
through the top of another, using enough
twine to stretch across the table and hang
over the edge about 6–8 inches. Tie a
2-inch-long twig to the ends of the twine to
keep the apples from sliding off.
