Free Republic

Having friends over for dinner used to involve a minimal and fairly unremarkable to-do list: There were groceries to buy, along with flowers and a couple of bottles of semi-respectable wine. I would put out some guest towels and a collection of fancy soaps that were off limits to blood relatives, and then — voilà! — dinner was served. Preparing for a dinner party these days is far more complex, thanks to a vast and bewildering array of dietary needs that seem to have suddenly overtaken everyone I know. Complaint Box Steamed? Dish out the peeves. Send your essays —...

EXCLUSIVE: If tradition stands, the details of the guest list will be revealed only a few hours before the Obama administration's first state dinner tomorrow. The welcome for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the biggest social event of the Obama White House. Already the Washington DC press corp is buzzing about the "got-to-be-there" fever.

David Cross, of Arrested Development fame, says he did it on a dare We’ve all done silly stuff on a dare, but probably not on the level of actor/author/comic/crazy guy David Cross, who says he snorted cocaine not 40 feet from President Obama at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (not, for the record, held at the White House). With cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices and his “fancy Hollywood actress” girlfriend Amber Tamblyn all in the house, the Arrested Development star … well, let’s hear it from him: “It’s crazy and there’s security, Secret Service is standing there,” Cross, 45, said...

A quick and easy meal for the whole family. Cheaper cuts of meat often cook well for slow cooking and saves on the family budget. Ragout can be served with mashed potato or rice.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A true fan of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is paying $63,500 to have dinner with her. Cathy Maples of Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday won the dinner in an Internet auction, which was a benefit for a charity that aids wounded veterans. Maples says she fully supports the military and the men and women fighting for this nation. Maples, who owns a defense contracting company, also says she's a "big advocate" for Palin, and would love to see her as president. Palin offered the dinner as part of the charity auction on eBay for the...

The White House has released a list of some of the guests expected at tonight's Ramadan dinner hosted by President Obama. Cabinet members, members of Congress, ambassadors from around the world and many members of the Muslim community are expected to attend. Click through for the full list. CABINET Secretary Robert Gates, Department of Defense Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Justice Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services DEPUTY CABINET SECRETARIES Deputy Secretary Dennis Hightower, Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Adam Miller, Department of Education MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Congressman Andre Carson (Indiana 7th) Congressman John Conyers (Michigan 14th) Congressman...

You are invited to the Dominion Republican Women's Club 25th Anniversary dinner and silent auction with speakers: Delegate Bill Howell and Congressman Rob Wittman. When: Thursday, September 3, 6:30PM Location: Augustine Golf Club Restaurant 100 Lynnhaven Lane Stafford, VA 22554 Choice of meal is lemon chicken or beef tenderloins. Cost is $37. To pay by check, please make check payable to DRWC and send to: DRWC, P.O. Box 5531, Falmouth, VA 22403. Phone: 540-373-2928 If you are unable to attend, please consider supporting our Club with a donation. Proceeds go to the candidates as well as our community projects.

ONE evening last week, almost every seat was occupied at Au Cinquième Péché, a bistro in the bustling neighborhood called the Plateau. And almost every table was sampling an appetizer plate that included a specialty of the restaurant’s French-born chef, Benoît Lenglet: a seared, rare loin, dark red in color, with a texture and taste akin to beef tenderloin. But the meat was not beef. It was seal. Across town, at Les Îles en Ville, Andrée Garcia, an owner and chef, has elevated seal from an occasional specialty to a regular feature. The most frequent preparation there, Ms. Garcia said,...

You may remember the evening of Sept. 29, 2001. On that evening, Rudy Giuliani appeared on Saturday Night Live. It was 18 days after the September 11 attacks. This appearance of the mayor of New York — who had spent almost three weeks comforting a shaken nation, mourning with families of the murdered, and leading — was widely considered a signal: We could laugh again. We needed to laugh. Heaven knows, Giuliani must have needed it as much as anyone. Laughter can be a beautiful thing, a great gift in difficult times. A way to reach those who might not...

What did you think of Obama's crack about former Vice President Dick Cheney? Thumbs up Thumbs down And 2 other questions

WASHINGTON – It was the hottest ticket in town, a black-tie dinner gathering of Washington's political and media elite but Dick Cheney couldn't make it. The former vice president was busy, President Barack Obama joked, working on his memoir "tentatively titled, How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People."

Hail to the Chief, he's the Chief and needs hailing! Not.

# Houston Chronicle: Alberto Gonzales # Fox News: Chace Crawford, Todd Palin, Matthew Modine, Greta Van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace. # National Music Publishers’ Assn.: Kara DioGuardi # Wall Street Journal: Jason Wu # BBC: Sir Howard Stringer, Kristi Yamaguchi, Ellen Burstyn, Phil Gordon # CNN: Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Val Kilmer, Kyra Sedgwick, Brad Cooper, Tyra Banks, Janet Napolitano # ABC News: David and Susan Axelrod; Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff; Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management and Budget; Valerie Jarrett, senior presidential advisor; Jackie Norris, First Lady’s Chief of Staff;...

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz has let the cat out of the bag in the Post’s April 27 issue about a regularly scheduled secret media dinner attended by some of the top left-wing journalists in the country. But it isn’t just the lefty scribblers that have attended these secret, off-the-record dinners for these gatherings have each featured a guest. Rahm Emanuel, Sec. of the Treasury Tim Geithner, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke have all recently had their chance to schmooze the press and guide them with the spin desired by the White House. So, not only does Obama’s Chief of...

Southern California Freepers: The owners of Riley's Farm in Oak Glen, California asked me to extend this special dinner & liberty offer for those of you looking to do something fun, educational, and inspirational tomorrow night. The Rileys have built the beginnings of a colonial township in Oak Glen (near Yucaipa and Redlands) and they are beginning a new program called "An Evening with Patrick Henry." You get live colonial music, a colonial dinner, and Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty" speech, performed by colonial re-enactors. It all takes place in a farm tavern, re-recreating an 18th century candle lit public...

He rolls into the parking lot of Leon’s Thriftway in an old, maroon Impala with a trunk full of frozen meat. Raccoon — the other dark meat. In five minutes, Montrose, Mo., trapper Larry Brownsberger is sold out in the lot at 39th Street and Kensington Avenue. Word has gotten around about how clean his frozen raccoon carcasses are. How nicely they’re tucked up in their brown butcher paper. How they almost look like a trussed turkey … or something. His loyal customers beam as they leave, thinking about the meal they’ll soon be eating. That is, as soon as...

In honor of Thanksgiving – and the constant stream of complaints wildlife officials get about the wild version of our holiday meal – this little item will be all about how to avoid the big birds from pecking at your heels this holiday season. The good news is that wild turkeys have made a stunning comeback after being wiped out in the state by the mid-1800s from hunting and loss of habitat. Today, there are about 20,000-25,000 birds in Massachusetts. The bad news is that the wild turkeys have moved into Brookline, Newton and other suburbs where they are gaining...

LA Times writer Peter Wallsten wrote about Barack Obama's close association with former Palestinian operative Rashid Khalidi back in April. Wallsten discussed a dinner held back in 2003 in honor of Khalidi, a critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights. Barack Obama has denied his close association with Khalidi, too.

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama spoke at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The annual charity event was the last scheduled appearance of the presidential candidates on the same stage before the November election and offered an opportunity for each candidate to make humorous remarks about themselves, the other candidate, and the election campaign. http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=281814-1