Dressing up your wardrobe … and dishes and meals

This past week, I catered a sit-down Thanksgiving dinner for 48 for a producer from California who was in town for her son’s wedding, finalized a few party proposals, filled a few cake orders, cooked for my mom, and tried to shop for a dress to wear to a dinner. Turns out shopping was the hardest item on my list.

I can see all of you women out there nodding your heads and sighing in agreement as you read this, and the husbands and boyfriends who have to listen to their wives or girlfriends as they sigh and nod their heads in agreement.

Everything looks good on the mannequins and the hangers. It’s the trying on process that messes it up. Ever watch a woman browsing the racks? We can eyeball a dress in three seconds and know if we like it or not — too short, too long, too bright, too dull, too gaudy, too conservative, etc. Yet with all those we pass up, we manage to find enough to stop the circulation in our arms on the way to the fitting room. Yes, the fitting room, something kids these days don’t believe in.

Even when my daughter, now 21, was 12, she would just want to buy it all, take it home, and try it on there. Sure, why not? She wasn’t the one schlepping it back and waiting on line to return it. I find it much more convenient to try on the 20 dresses, discard them one by one, and leave the store not having to come back and wait on the return line.

Wish it was as simple as it is for my husband Jerry. He can flip through a Filson, LL Bean, or Field and Stream catalog (ok, I was kidding about the last one) and order a whole year’s worth of clothes in 20 minutes. I try to tell him those clothes are only for sportswear, not a casual day at work. He shouldn’t look like he’s about to go dog sledding in the Yukon, rather than sitting at his desk in his office. Should I worry that he’s going to order a sled and a team of dogs online?

For those who take the merchandise home to try on, you don’t have to deal with the pushy sales girls, the bad lighting and skinny mirrors, my three pet peeves.

Lighting. Really, do you think if it’s dim in the fitting room we will think that the dress that looks awful actually looks good on us? Really, give us some credit.

Skinny mirrors. You have a return policy, right? Well, once we get home and notice the dress now makes us look heavier, we are going to return it. And we’re on to your tricks. Mirrors should be straight up not leaning against a wall, a definite sign it’s a slenderizing mirror. Ladies, check yourself out in the clothes you came to the store in, if you look much thinner in the fitting room than you did this morning, it’s a skinny mirror. Honestly, how many inches do you think you lost on the treadmill this morning?

Pushy salesgirls. I know it’s your job to help us and help the store sell the dress, but can I have just a few minutes to get the outfit on before you knock and ask how it looks? This week, not a minute after going into the room, there was a knock on the door asking how it was going. I replied, “Well, at the moment it’s going naked. Can we discuss it when I actually have the outfit on?”

So in the end I decided the eight little black dresses I already have in my closet looked better on me than the 20 I tried on. I might just have to buy myself a new pair of shoes to change the look, but that’s a whole different article for another time.

Just as you can enhance the look of a simple black dress with elegant shoes or a piece of jewelry, you can enhance the dish you are serving. Here are three easy examples of how you can do it. The recipes are your responsibility, I had a tough week topped off with dress shopping; I’m pooped!

•Take a simple poached pear and slice it all the way to the top but leave the tip intact and fan out the slices a bit. Lie it on top of a small salad of spinach, goat cheese and pecan halves. It makes a pretty appetizer or salad and it’s a great mix of textures.

•When serving salmon, whether poached, broiled or baked, try placing thin lemon wedges around the perimeter of a platter, place the salmon or fish of your choice on the plate and tuck curly parsley in between the slices.

•Another great idea is using different heights. Make a simple stir-fry with veggies and fish, chicken or beef. Spoon it onto a plate and using a scooper, place a ball of rice on the plate to the side of the stir fry. Add chop sticks for effect.

Judy Joszef is a pastry and personal chef as well as a party planner. She spent 18 years as a pastry chef at Abigael’s, The Cedar Club, Centro and T42 in the Five Towns, before launching her current business, Soiree. She can be reached at judy.soiree@gmail.com