Writer and author Lisa Przystup has mastered the art of cozy winter dining. From a warm and inviting tablescape to the perfect playlist, she’s lending her tips for making the most of hibernation season.
Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Lisa Przystup, I’m a writer and the author of “Upstate: Living Spaces with Space to Live,” I live in the Western Catskills with my husband and our dog Gus.
How would you describe your hosting style?
Frenzied? I wish I could say that I was a calm, cool and collected hostess but I really do tend to get overwhelmed in the hours leading up to everyone arriving. Thankfully my husband is unflappable and an amazing cook—I’m more than happy to play sous chef to his chef. We work well together as a team: he communicates warmth and care through the food he cooks while I do it through the scene I set—floral arrangements and place settings and candles and music.
Do you have any winter-specific gathering traditions, whether it's with family, friends, or on your own?
After the holidays things tend to quiet down and everyone just kind of hunkers down at home—during this time gatherings are a little more casual (think one-pot dinners and a movie or game night), which is actually kind of nice—dinners end up being less performative and have an unfussy almost familial vibe.
When the colder months carry on, how do you approach nourishing yourself? Are there certain comfort foods you always gravitate toward?
Winters up here are really long—the first snow is often at the end of October and the last snow can come as late as early May—it’s a slog of a marathon so every little thing helps. Nourishment takes the shape of small, quiet rituals: lighting incense and candles once the sun sets or making the bed with heavier flannel sheets. As far as comfort foods go I love leaning into soups and stews—they’re so warming and easy and carry you through to the next day.
Go-to weeknight recipe? Go-to dinner party crowd pleaser?
We have a handful of low-lift recipes—a couple come to mind: kale, white bean and sausage stew and this Italian radicchio and chickpea soup are on heavy rotation. Also love just throwing broccoli and chickpeas on a baking sheet and roasting them and serving them with farrow and a jammy egg. Go-to dinner party crowd pleaser: fresh oysters from Island Creek Oyster—they offer free overnight delivery and it always feels like such a treat.
What’s on your dinner party playlist?
I usually just throw on my liked songs on Spotify which clocks in at a whopping 1,063 songs. Sometimes we’ll kick the evening off with records—Harry Belafonte and S.E. Rogie are a couple faves.
Anything you like to stock up on for dinner party prep?
Ice and toothpicks.
Dishes before bed or in the morning?
Oh man…I would love nothing more than to leave the dishes for the morning—they are truly the very last thing I want to do at the end of an evening of hosting but the payoff of waking up to a clean kitchen outweighs my dislike of late-night dishwashing sessions.
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