We’re having friends over for dinner tonight. That’s not an unusual event for most of you, but it is around here. Our house is small, so we tend to head over to other folks’ digs when it comes to social gatherings. The family we have coming over last invited us to their house, and it’s our turn to reciprocate. I cleaned the house yesterday, and if we can just prevent the kids from eating Doritos on the living room couch, everything should look okay, so that’s not a problem. What’s eating me, then?
I’m panicked to cook!
This family lived in Kansas City for several years, and our dinner at their house consisted of two amazing and unique salads (one lettuce, one orzo) and these pork chops done Kansas City barbeque style. I mean, the guy has rigged up this fancy smoker and knows his rubs and all. The food was amazing. Jon might be just a smidge intimidated to grill up steaks. Doesn’t the Guy Code state that All Men Shall Be Grill Masters? (Although, Jon does do a pretty good job of grilling, and fares much better than I do with my dried out chicken and pepper brickettes.)
And their food was much fancier then the spaghetti we usually serve up here. Ordering pizza just won’t cut it this time. So I spent last night scouring recipes to try and find something easy, yet more upscale then grilled cheese sandwiches. I have the kids all day, and a doctor’s appointment right before they arrive. Yet, I am attempting fresh fruit crostadas for dessert. Am I crazy? And when is it too early to start drinking wine?
G – one word – CROCKPOT!!! Call me if you want to talk food!
R – Ah, man, if it wasn’t 90-something degrees outside I probably would cook something a la crockpot. OR my grandma’s creole recipe (my go-to!). But neither of those sound like Good Ole American Labor Day Weekend dinners to me. There’s a small part of me that is excited for the excuse to go to Whole Foods…
Ooo, I feel for ya. We don’t have people over. Our house is small too and it just makes me too anxious. When we’ve had family gatherings on occasion, we made lasagna, garlic bread and salad and that was easy and everyone seems to like it.
It’s natural to feel the way you do. Some people are just natural entertainers; they excel at it. You can’t compete with those types (because they live to do it–and it sounds like you don’t (me either). I think they key to being able to enjoy it, is to try and get most all of it ready so you can just chill and visit and drink some wine or beer with good company. It will be fine.
Not only should you start drinking wine, but make sure you serve it and you’re good to go! We live in a small house too….actually, it’s a condo on the third floor of a building. The people below us hate it when we entertain so we try to keep it at a minimum, but I love to have people over. Hope all goes well and you have a great time!
One thing I’ve learned about having people over is that it’s not about the food…it’s about the event. Not to sound cheesy, but if you worry so much about what you’re serving and how people will like it, you’ll miss all the fun! And wine is appropriate anytime!
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I like to make things that I can prepare ahead (something slow-cooked – a tagine, or curry, or lately even ribs – so yummy when you cook them in the oven for hours:). But I always make dessert first – either the night before (some cakes taste better the next day) or first thing in the morning… Then it’s not so stressful when the time comes! I also have friends that I used to have dinner with regularly, and we just agreed that whoever was visiting would bring the dessert – that worked really well:)
Hope you have a fun evening,
Kristina
Michael Ann – Next time, I’ll certainly go easier. I tried to hard, but then again, it was fun to mess around in the kitchen! The food turned out to be pretty good.
Kristin – Tried as I might to get everything done before they got here, I still spent most of the time in the kitchen. That’s when I’m thankful we have a small house, as there’s not really anywhere else to go!
Callie – We all had a great time. The kids went absolutely nuts running around – if we’d been in a condo, we’d have probably been kicked out!
Mamawolfe – That’s so true. My dessert? Didn’t even get brought out because we were having such a good time talking.
Kristin – if it had been cooler, I would have done something stewish or whatever, but at least my husband was in charge of grilling the steaks. My dessert didn’t even get served because we spent too much time during dinner chatting.
Glad to hear that it went well…if I was your guest I’d be happy with pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches! Yum =)
Sounds like a perfect evening! I agree–it is fun to mess around Whole Foods and make something fancy once in awhile, and it sounds like you balanced the challenge with a healthy dose of fun.
Oh, I hope it went well! And any time is ok to have wine – it’s 5 o’clock somewhere!
Rachel – mmmmmmm….pizza….
Su – I could spend hours and a ton o’ money up at WF!
Nan – it went pretty well, so well that we forgot to serve dessert. And the kids had a great time.