Dinner Party

Arthur and I hosted our first dinner party this past week.  Neither one of us have a lot of experience in planning social gatherings- actually probably no experience is more accurate.  However, as a couple, one of the things we want to do is open our home to others and make them feel welcome.  My mother is a wonderful hostess.  She can put together a quick meal for 30 people without breaking a sweat.  I have always been impressed with this skill and I think it has skipped a generation.  While I am finally mastering something beyond mac and cheese and PB&J sandwiches (I had some classmates in PT school who thought I was a vegetarian since I always had peanut butter and jelly for lunch) for Arthur and myself, I was hesitant to cook for a crowd.  So our "crowd" at our dinner party was one person, my younger brother.  My younger brother will eat most things especially if there are large quantities of it, so the standards wouldn't be too high.  Especially right now since my brother is living in a house without a microwave or oven, anything relatively warm was going to be good.

Our menu was pretty simple-- creamy chicken penne, grapes, a spinach salad, garlic bread, and pudding for dessert.  We also pulled out the "company dishes"-- these are the special white dishes I convinced Arthur we needed on our wedding registry.  As far as he was concerned he owned 3 plates and I owned 4 so we were in business and didn't need to mess with registering for anything in our kitchen.  I think we all know who won that disagreement.  I also found some place mats and felt like I was back in 4-H foods working on my place settings and menus for the county fair.  (Note: I only survived 2 years of 4-H foods and most 4-Hers that actually stick with the foods project probably come out as pretty good cooks-- I was a foods drop-out therefore I make a mean PB&J).  I did learn to set a table and also learned about making sure a meal has a variety of colors which I think ours did.

As I was making dinner I was somewhat surprised by how easy some cooking can be.  I have always avoided it because it looks like it would take hours to put together a good meal.  Then I made some delicious pudding in 30 seconds-- I added some milk and whisked-- that is something I can handle.  I then made the penne-- boil water, add some noodles, drain, and open random cans of things for a sauce-- not too bad.  For garlic bread I spread some butter, sprinkled with garlic powder and something that was green flakes in the spice rack-- and it was great.  We even had some extra time before the meal to kick back and relax before my brother arrived.

After the meal we sat and talked and then the evening's entertainment was watching some YouTube videos-- and a good time was had by all.  After my brother left, my wonderful husband pitched in to help clean up like he does every evening (did I mention that he is a keeper?).  So one dinner party down, who knows how many more to go.  Omnia Vincit Amor.