Whether you are from Manhattan, Boston or New England, the Buffalo Check Chowder Bowl is a great complement to your clam chowder.  It is one of the most collected Hartstone pattern.

Enjoy summer while sipping gazpacho from the Summer Garden Rib Bowl, its bright, vivid oranges and yellows wrap their way around and about the flower petals of Summer Garden as whimsical dragonflies make their way through nature’s light.

Dish up that favorite ice cream and serve the family! The Fruit Salad Mini Ruffle Bowl is great for ice cream or fruit salad.

The Cardinal Ruffled Bowl is new for the Holidays.  Place it on top of the coffee table and fill it with brightly wrapped candies to brighten your home.

The Hartstone Pottery presents a collection of patterns to choose from, made of vitrified stone, usually fired at temperatures above 2,100 Fahrenheit that makes stoneware dense, strong and non-porous.  Microwave, freezer, oven and dishwasher safe, the Hartstone Rib Bowls and Ruffle Bowls are available individually or in sets of 4.  All Hartstone products are hand crafted and hand painted at the Hartstone Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio. All body and glaze are lead and cadmium free.

Don’t let the preparation get you down!! Here is a list of what can be helpful to make your dinner easier and more enjoyable for you.

Use your fine china Fine china will add to the holiday mood.

Decorate your table for the holiday, but do so simply. A big centerpiece will look very pretty as people arrive, but it will get in the way after everyone sits down at the table. It is awkward to talk around that big thing in the center of the table. Can we say . . . been there . . . done that.

Have extra dinner plates Extra dinner plates will be critical if extra people show up, or if you need a small platter to hold food that someone brought.

Have extra flatware and extra glasses In case extra people show up.

If you are having over 12 people

Have extra serving bowls and plattersso you can divide your food into half or thirds, and place the food into a couple of areas on your table(s). That way, one bowl of your special potatoes does not need to go all around the table. Everyone will get the hot food sooner

Have an extra set or two of salt and pepper shakersThe salt and pepper shaker sets do not have to be the same. It is very good if they are different, and there is a story linked to them, so you can pick up the conversation with their cute story when needed.

Serve butter on a couple of small plates Serving butter on a butter dish is not necessary, and the extra butter dishes will be a pain to store after the meal.

Either have an extra gravy boat or use your creamer as a second gravy boat. A tall bowl with a ladle will also work as an extra gravy boat.

Enjoy your dinner. If you are enjoying yourself, so will everyone else. You will set the mood of your meal, and create memories for everyone to talk about in years to come, and have them excited about the next time you all get together.

One way to make the dinner fancy, is to pull out your formal dinnerware, or dinnerware that is rarely used. Use special glassware to complement the dinnerware. Serve all the drinks in stemware, even the milk for the kids can be poured into a stemware glass.

Another way to compose a fancy dinner, is to serve each course separately, rather than placing all the food on the table at the same time. Start your meal with a soup, possibly a cold soup, like cucumber soup. Then, serve the salad, and put the salad dressing in a small gravy boat or creamer. Then serve the main course. You can separate the meat course from the vegetable course, but that could seem a little forced.

Another fun thing to do is to serve a small amount of a mild tasting sherbert in between each course – to cleanse the pallet.

For table decoration, let your dinnerware speak for itself. Create a low centerpiece, so everyone can easily enjoy conversation over the centerpiece. Fill one of your large serving bowls with flowers and or christmas tree balls or garland or . . . wherever your creativity takes you.

You do not have to load your table with lots of dinnerware, glassware, and flatware, but you certainly can. A general guideline for using flatware is to start using the outside flatware and work in toward the center plate. To set your table, the order from left to right is:
very small seafood fork (if serving a seafood appetizer)
small salad fork
dinner fork
charger plate
dinner knife
small or teaspoon spoon
soup spoon (if serving soup)
the bread and butter plate goes above the forks
the water glass (on right) and wine glass (on left) go above the knife and spoon
a dessert fork and spoon can be put above the charger

When you serve the soup in the soup bowl, place the soup bowl on the charger. The charger can collect any drips from the soup bowl and spoon. When the soup course is over, remove both the soup bowl and the charger.

That is some of the formal dining basics. When planning your dinner, incorporate those elements that will add enjoyment for your dinner, and don’t stress about using the other ones.

The first rule of setting a table: It is your table, make it personal. Use dinnerware, flatware, glassware, whatever that is a piece of you. It may be a dinnerware pattern you love, your grandmother’s flatware, your aunt’s crystal glasses, whatever it is, it has a meaning and a story for you.

The second rule is concerns space. You can’t have a successful dinner, if everyone is crammed together. So, don’t forget to allow for plenty of elbow room.

Basic table setting from left to right: small salad fork (if serving salad, if not, don’t put it out), dinner fork, dinner plate, dinner knife, spoon. The bread plate goes above the forks and the if there is a butter fork, put it on the bread plate. The water or wine glass goes above the knife. If you are serving soup, put the soup bowl on top of the dinner plate.

Buffet style dinner for 8

• 8 dinner plates
• 8 luncheon plates
• 8 salad plates
• 8 pasta bowls or 8 rim soup bowls (use for salad or pasta or soup)
• 8 cooler glasses
• 8 mugs (if serving hot beverages)
• 1 sugar and creamer set (if needed for hot beverage)
• 1 salt and pepper set
• 4 – 6 serving bowls of assorted shapes and sizes – for salad, vegetables, soup, rolls, rolled up napkins, flatware
• 3 platters of assorted shapes and sizes – for meat, fish, seafood, bread
• 2 – 4 small bowls for condiments, spices, other little things like corn holders, toothpicks