Don’t ever read My Life in France (Julia Child’s story of  learning to cook in Paris) when you’ve casually invited over 25 people to come watch the 4th of July fireworks from your deck in Lake Arrowhead and you intend to cook a lasagna dish for them that you’ve never made before. A vegetarian lasagna no less. While Julia is learning to cook poulet chaud-froid, sole normande, perdreau roti sur canapé et al at the Cordon Bleu, I’m thinking I also have those two chickens in the fridge to slap in the oven but do I really want to be roasting chickens at the last minute? I’ve never done a 4th of July party up here before (or anywhere for that matter) and until reading this marvelous book by Julia Child with her preparations and recipes for lunches, let alone dinners, I thought my lasagna idea was brilliant.

It’s hard to get a specific head count for dinner on the Fourth at the lake because everyone goes from house to dock to house visiting back and forth, but I figured I could have lots of lasagna, bread and salad and not worry about having enough food for everyone. But of course I did worry, and ended up cooking those two chickens and serving them cold (my own version of poulet froid), as well as enough lasagna for a small army.

[This, dear readers, is the whole purpose for my other blog, www.TheIntimidatedCook.com. which had disappeared for awhile but is now up and running again. It’s for those people who really want twenty-five friends over for dinner to hang out and watch fireworks with or whatever, but then start worrying about what on earth to feed them all and you certainly don’t want to be cooking and fussing at the last minute.]

In any event,  I have finally nailed down the Christmas night party (having solved the shrimp problem), and Easter Brunch is as set in stone now as Thanksgiving is. But the Fourth of July?

Friends brought cheese and dips and crackers and wine and a wonderful bean thing and extra guests and the whole evening turned out to be spectacular (the fireworks over the lake certainly helped). The only tense part was Nelson, my noble, dignified dog, getting meds for his fireworks anxiety  and becoming totally stoned.

If you want recipes for the lasagna and Carolyn See’s Perfect Chicken (and it really is perfect) come visit The Intimidated Cook.