I really like entertaining, though my schedule and the limited number of Friday and Saturday nights in a week often prevent me from hosting all the get togethers I’d like. Since we bought the house over a year ago, Brian and I have hosted 3 open house style events where we’ve invited anyone we thought might enjoy themselves. We’ve also had several smaller dinners with one or two people or couples at a time. I like having people over, sharing my space and, of course, providing the food.
Though my tendency is to show off and try to wow people with the food I cook, I’ve really relaxed about my events over the past couple years. In my short experience, I’ve discovered that people are really bad at RSVP-ing and, if a lot of people do come, they generally bring food or beverages with them to share. So I’ve become comfortable with cleaning up the house and making my standard few items and seeing what happens. The point is to enjoy the company of other people; the party plans don’t have to be perfect.
This time around, the party spread looked like this:
Cheese, crackers, celery sticks, Vegetarian Buffalo Chicken Dip, pita chips, salsa, tortilla chips, Blue Diamond whole natural almonds and Blue Diamond Rosemary and Black Pepper Almonds. I am borderline-obsessed with that dip; it makes an appearance at all of my parties. I’d also thought about making popcorn, but that didn’t end up happening. After I was out of time to prepare, it also occurred to me that there wasn’t anything sweet on the table. Oh well.
And, in the end, it was good that I kept the food simple and just included things I really like because only 2 people ended up showing up this time around. That’s the risk you run when you plan a party for a Friday in July and most of your friends are teachers. But I’m a firm believer that the people who show up are the people who are supposed to be there. We had a lovely time – we played a game and ate too much food (at least I did) and talked for hours. If I’m lucky, we’ll try it again before school starts. Why not?
This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds, who provided the almonds for this event.
