Entertaining a Crowd

There is a part of me that gets a lot of joy from entertaining. I love to cook. But when I invite a few friends over, the meal takes on a whole new meaning. Suddenly I have a goal ... pick a theme, set a beautiful table, cook a fabulous meal and entertain our guests.

It's interesting that entertaining is so much more fun that cooking.

On Friday night we hosted our "local" dinner club. (I call this dinner club "local" because we belong to another dinner club that we have been part of for 25 years. And just in case one of them reads this post I didn't want them to think they missed something ...) Anyway, the dinner was for eight people and since I recently "kind of redecorated" our dining room I was excited to host the dinner in the room formerly known as "the room we never go in to". 

(I also feel at this time I should come clean. I didn't "kind of redecorate" our dining room, I completely redecorated our dining room. In my defense, our new table was a Christmas gift from my darling husband. And with my excellent shopping skills, aka "I am a cheapskate", I was able to return our four-month-delayed-table-and-chairs from Pottery Barn and buy them for one half the price at the Pottery Barn Outlet. And yes, they delivered them the next day.)

Enough about that. Our dinner party was a huge hit. Let me explain why.
I am a huge fan of the show "Chopped". The basic premise of the show is where chefs are given a "mystery box" with four ingredients and are required to prepare an item using these ingredients and any others found in the kitchen. As you might have guessed, we played Chopped at our dinner (for the appetizer course). Which was pretty brilliant of me as it was one less course I had to cook! The ingredients in Box A (which was randomly selected by the gals) were fresh salmon, avocado, parmesan cheese and fresh pasta. Box B had raw chicken, goat cheese, dried apricots and fresh pasta. Everyone had a blast and I think they were secretly relieved that I had cooked the rest of the meal for them. And the food? It was fabulous.

It didn't take a lot to plan this and it was really fun. It just set the mood for the entire evening. Lots of laughter. Lots of wine.

I know you are wondering why I am posting about this. I just wanted to remind everyone how much fun it is to entertain. Even if it's family or friends next door, make a call and pick a date. It doesn't have to be formal. How about Tuesday Taco night? Or Sunday Potluck Supper? Just get a group of friends together. You will be happy you did.