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Dixie Carter still laughs when she remembers the intimate Friday-night dinners she and her sister used to host almost 37 years ago in their tiny Greenwich Village studio in New York City. "Our specialty was a casserole of canned tuna, saltines, and cream of mushroom soup. And I am afraid," she adds dryly, "that we grated Velveeta cheese on top."
Though her menu has changed ("Thank heavens," she says), Carter's love of entertaining has remained steady. She still delights in making guests feel at home. "They should be tended to and watched over," says the onetime southern belle. But Carter now prefers semiformal dinners to tuna casseroles. When she recently invited over the cast of the CBS drama Family
Law, Champagne and appetizers of toasted walnut bread with foie gras whetted
their appetites for a sumpuous dinner.
Carter had her favorite chef, Robert Bassiri, of Chez Robert Gourmet Catering, develop and prepare one of her all-time-favorite menus: Cold Cucumber Soup ("I always start with a cold soup -- if your guests are late, there's no harm done," she says), and Cornish game hens. Dessert was a decadent Macadamia Nut-Crusted Lemon Meringue Pie. "My dinners usually end with a lemon dessert -- lemon tarts, lemon sherbet, or lemon chiffon pie," Carter says. "As a girl growing up in the South, I loved to bake and won ribbons for my desserts at the county fair. That sweet refreshing citrus flavor is still my favorite."
Carter's 15-room Beverly Hills home is a far cry from her old studio apartment in Greenwich Village. Oak and cherry antiques that belonged to her family in Tennessee now fill the house. "I never give furniture awway," says Carter, "no matter how old." To brighten things up, she uses rich, silky fabrics, thick oriental rugs and gilded mirrors, plus silver picture frames and vases of flowers on every surface. Most of all, she depends on "color, color, color." Carter is especially fond of reds, roses and pinks boldly paired together. (Not for nothing did she star as decorator Julia Sugarbaker in Designing Women for seven years.)
For Carter, the most essential ingredients for a party are close friends and a piano -- "whether it's in tune or not; you just need one. In fact, we never have a party without eight or ten people fighting to sing, literally scooting one another off the piano bench."
In keeping with tradition, the buttoned-up lawyers of Family Law belted out cabaret standards until close to midnight. "We all took turns singing familiar songs like 'My Funny Valentine,' 'The Girl From Ipanema' and 'Send in the Clowns,'" says Carter with a laugh.
The highlight of the evening came when Carter's husband, actor Hal Holbrook, serenaded her with "The Impossible Dream," from Man of La Mancha, which, she says, "he had stoutly refused to sing for me since he first performed it on Broadway 32 years ago. We all stood immobilized in awe. It gave me chills."
Although Carter claims "I've had many, many, many parties in my life, and the goofier they are, the better," she is an old-fashioned southern hostess at heart and "a bit prissy about how a meal is served. The food really must be the proper temperature," she insists. "But I remind myself that mistakes don't matter. What's important is that we enjoy ourselves. And isn't that the key to success at any soiree?"
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