A crystal glass of the Oak Bluffs Sunset Spritzer, hydrangeas and ocean light in the background
House of LaDore Gatherings

Gather

How do you know what you want out of life
if you've never seen it before?
Here, you can.

Entertaining · Family · Friends · The Beautiful Ordinary
An Invitation

This is a room with no walls.

The Eight Rooms taught you to live with intention inside your own four walls. Gather is what happens when you open the door. It is every beautiful thing that happens when people you love sit down at your table, settle into your living room, and stay a little longer than they planned to.

This page will grow the way a real gathering grows — one recipe, one pour, one conversation at a time. It begins with two things passed down: a cocktail born of a porch and a sunset, and a cornbread born of a mother's kitchen. Old and new, inherited and invented, sitting at the same table.

✦
House Pour · No. 001

The House Welcome Spritz

From The Living Room · The Eight Rooms, Article No. 3

Before the first conversation begins, offer your guest something beautiful. Hospitality starts with the pour — a crystal glass, a delicate garnish, and a drink that quietly says, "You were expected."

The House Welcome Spritz — crystal glass with cucumber ribbon, white orchid, and St-Germain bottle

Ingredients

  • 1 oz St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
  • 4 oz chilled Prosecco, Brut or Extra Dry
  • 1 oz sparkling mineral water
  • 2 thin cucumber slices or one cucumber ribbon
  • One wide lemon peel
  • One food-safe white edible orchid, white viola, or white pansy
  • Optional: ¼ oz honey syrup for a softer, sweeter finish

Instructions

  1. Fill a crystal wine glass with ice.
  2. Add St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur.
  3. Pour in chilled Prosecco.
  4. Top with sparkling mineral water.
  5. Express the lemon peel over the glass.
  6. Garnish with cucumber and one edible white flower.
Serving Note

Serve before guests sit down. The most generous thing you can offer another person is the feeling that you thought about them before they arrived.

✦
House Pour · No. 002

The Oak Bluffs Sunset Spritzer

A signature House of LaDore cocktail
The Oak Bluffs Sunset Spritzer in a crystal coupe, garnished with blood orange and mint

Vibrant, refreshing, and beautifully balanced. Inspired by golden hour on the porch, ocean breezes, and gracious summer gatherings — this is the pour that says the evening has officially begun.

Ingredients

  • 4 oz chilled hibiscus tea
  • 2 oz Prosecco
  • 1 oz orange liqueur (such as Triple Sec)
  • Splash of sparkling water
  • Orange slice
  • Fresh mint sprig
  • Ice

Instructions

  1. Fill a crystal wine glass with ice.
  2. Add the chilled hibiscus tea.
  3. Pour in the orange liqueur.
  4. Top with Prosecco and a splash of sparkling water.
  5. Gently stir to combine.
  6. Garnish with an orange slice and fresh mint. Serve immediately and enjoy.
Hostess Note

Inspired by warm summer evenings, porch conversations, and the timeless elegance of Oak Bluffs.

A House of LaDore Heritage Recipe

Mama's Cast-Iron Cornbread

Some recipes are passed down on recipe cards. Others are passed down by watching, remembering, and learning by heart.
Mama's cast-iron cornbread with a pat of butter, blue toile table setting, From Mama's Kitchen card

Ingredients

  • 1½ cups self-rising flour
  • 1 cup Martha White® Corn Meal Mix Self-Rising
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ¾ to 1 cup milk
  • ¼ cup oil (vegetable oil, melted butter, or coconut oil)
  • 3–4 tablespoons vegetable oil, for the cast-iron skillet
  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal, for browning in the skillet

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Add 3–4 tablespoons vegetable oil to a cast-iron skillet and place in the oven until hot.
  3. In a mixing bowl, combine the self-rising flour, corn meal mix, and sugar.
  4. Add the egg, oil, and milk. Mix until smooth.
  5. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven.
  6. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon cornmeal into the hot oil and let it brown lightly until golden and fragrant.
  7. Pour the batter directly into the skillet, over the browned cornmeal.
  8. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (approximately 20–25 minutes).
  9. If desired, broil for 1–2 minutes for a deeper golden top.
  10. Serve warm.
Dedicated To
Naomi Huddleston

This recipe is lovingly dedicated to my mother. Her kitchen was a place of warmth, generosity, and fellowship. Through every meal she prepared, she taught us that food was more than nourishment — it was an expression of love.

"Powerful Cooking."
For the Table, the Sofa, the Porch

Questions Worth Asking

Entertaining is not about filling silence — it's about making room for the conversation that actually matters. A few from The Living Room, and a few new ones, made for whenever people gather under your roof.

i.
What is a meal from your childhood you'd give anything to taste one more time?
ii.
Who taught you how to make a guest feel welcome — and what did they do that you still do today?
iii.
What's a tradition from your family you didn't realize was special until you left home?
iv.
If your home could only ever smell like one thing, what would you choose?
v.
What's the best compliment a guest has ever given you about your home?
vi.
Who is someone you've been meaning to invite over — and what's stopping you?
vii.
What does it look like, exactly, when you feel most at home?

A beautiful home was never meant to be looked at. It was meant to be filled — with food, with music, with people, with the kind of conversation that lasts past dessert.

This is where you come to see what that life looks like. And then go build it in your own house.

✦
Come on in.
The House is fine. 🤎