throw a dinner party

What am I scared of? I love entertaining and I’d just rent a room too.

my fiance invited his friend/best man and girlfriend over for dinner - very impromptu, actually - and since it was saturday, i was already in the process of cooking and cleaning, so i was primed for it.

we started with salsa and guacamole, of course. then i served an exceptionally good seafood ceviche that i bought from a sweet guy with a cart on the street. the main course was chicken fajita soup, which needs tortillas, cheese and guacamole in the bowl (in that order, pretty much) before the soup is added. and then we ended with apple pie that i made from scratch—a la mode, of course.

it was all so easy, probably because there were only four of us. i put everything on the kitchen table so everyone could get as much of whatever they wanted. and i insisted on no leftovers, even sending them home with soup because they liked it so much.

now that i’ve had a test run, i think i can handle a bigger group, even though my place is not all that big. it’s all about getting organized, serving things that can be eaten with fingers or buffet style, and keeping up with the garbage as it accumulates.

next, i think i’m going to have friends up for dinner at a nearby restaurant and then have them over for dessert afterwards…

Today I made a commitment towards this goal, and a commitment to my kitchen. Which is odd, as I am going to be moving out of my current place and into a new place and neither of the kitchens belong exclusively to me and they are shared with other people therefore my commitment to kitchens is a bit of the Mormon polygamous nature. Today I bought dishes. Beautiful, clean, simple, white dishes. I’ve been living on my own for almost six months, and I have no dishes. My current roommate has lived in his house for over 9 years, and encouraged me to travel lightly, as he already had a house-worth of stuff. “All the necessities,” he told me. I later discovered that was a lie, as he had a type of can opener that only hobos living under train-track bridges in movies use. Also he had no Magic Eraser, but that is a topic for another day, worthy of it’s own blog post.

So I found myself at “Old Time Pottery” today, which is a store that makes good people do bad things. Imagine every conceivable plate, dish, cup, fork, knife, and spoon. Now imagine them in a GIANT warehouse at bargain prices. Flash forward 2 hours and that is how I ended up with EIGHT complete sets of serving ware for under sixty bucks. Normally that would be great, but I don’t even know SEVEN PEOPLE in this town. Let alone seven people I can invite to a sit down dinner. Oh yeah. I forgot. When my roommate said “All of life’s necessities,” that was code for “I don’t own a dinner table.” So now I can invite seven hypothetical friends to eat off of my lovely new plates on their laps in the living room or perhaps the dining room next to our 2 arcade machines under the watchful eye of the naked black lady holding her boob painted on black velvet and hung on the wall.

Perhaps not.

The “score” of the day were two unusual pieces, a butter dish with a cow lid, which looks a lot like the white porcelain cow that lays in the manager of our nativity scene near the llama (don’t ask, I don’t know if there was really a llama when the baby Jesus was born, but it was always the epicenter of childhood fighting between my sister and I … screw the donkey! I want to put the llama in the manger!”) The pièce de résistance, which I could not turn down at a whopping $7, is a casserole dish with a lid in the shape of a bunny rabbit. While, at first glance, it may appear looks as though you have a white rabbit resting peacefully amongst your plates, SURPRISE! It is really macaroni and cheese!!! Oh how my seven guests will be surprised and amused at the whimsy of the macaroni rabbit.

Truthfully, one of my motivations for wanting to live alone is the ability to throw my first real dinner party. The whole experience. Salad plates, water glasses, multiple forks, NAPKIN rings. For whatever reason, (perhaps that I’ve been reading too many pink-covered self-help books?) the successful dinner party remains a steadfast landmark in my mind, noting the day I arrive as an independent mid-20s modern girl. From the invitations to the platters to the centerpieces.

A little quirky. Leave your shoes at the door. Dessert first. An array of cheesecakes with champagne.

Why the celebration, you ask. Why not? It is Wednesday, after all.

And after the last guest has left, and the final thank yous have been uttered, I turn towards the mess waiting on the table – all the tokens of a good time had. I blow out the votives, take a Diet Dr. Pepper out of the fridge, put some ELO on the record player, and collapse on the couch.

I’ll deal with it tomorrow.

1. my house is kind of small and not well designed for many people to be in it at one time.
2. my mom dislikes people in the house.
3. we have a small table.

so maybe this will be a small dinner party. whatever. a dinner party is a dinner party.

Jan 14.

This one’s on hold until I buy the house.

Guess the first step is to pick a date.

I want to make new friends and I’m sure there are many other people who feel the same. I love to cook so I can give it a personal touch. My goal is to make it as unselfish as possible. no charge. Wish me luck.

it wasnt quite dinner, more like pizza, alcohol and music!