Dinner Parties

One of the things I was most looking forward to when we moved was hosting dinner parties. I absolutely love having people over, cooking a (hopefully) delicious meal, and playing the role of hostess. We are having our very first major party this Saturday and I am beyond excited for it. Last week, I decided to invite a couple of friends over for a pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is my favorite time to eat and I was really missing the food. I made a turkey breast roast in my slow cooker, whipped up some spicy corn soup, made stuffing, and of course had string beans. I wish I could have made macaroni and mashed potatoes but I was working with a limited pantry of supplies. The meal turned out well, granted it was only for 4 people but baby steps in the right direction.

Then this past Friday, I invited my aunt, her family and a couple of friends over for dinner since my sister and brother-in-law were in town. I was very excited to grill or rather have Kunal grill the food I prepared. I went from 4 people to 10 people. It was a good time though. We made Mexican style shrimp and chicken kebabs as appetizer and fajitas for dinner. Definitely learned a few things but I feel pretty ready for having a mass quantity of people over this weekend. I realized that I cannot partake in the multiple glasses of margaritas as that will lead to being lazy when it comes to cleaning up. This makes for a not so fun morning when walking into a messy kitchen. I should also prepare everything possible the night before so I'm not stuck getting food ready while everyone else is socializing.

My biggest flaw in the kitchen is that I cannot bake/make any dessert items. I tried making a cookie cake once and it turned out harder than a brick! I guess now that I have everything else down to a science, I can concentrate on sweets so I don't have to feed my guests cake and ice cream from the store.