I delegated. <\/strong>When my friend Doris asked what she could bring for dinner, I wasn’t too proud to accept. \u00a0Silly as it may sound, I asked her to make the rice. \u00a0I hate making rice. \u00a0I’ve heard that a rice maker would be the solution to this problem, but I refuse to buy another appliance. \u00a0Anyway, her bringing the rice eliminated a lot of stress in my life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I compromised a little. <\/strong>In an ideal world, I’d make my own taco seasoning, serve humanely raised organic beef and use real dishes. \u00a0With 2 days to plan this meal and no interest in spending my parents visit in the kitchen or all of my paycheck on meat, I adjusted accordingly. \u00a0I bought 2 packages of <\/span>McCormick low sodium taco seasoning (which I grew up on), normal supermarket ground beef and paper plates. \u00a0In my defense, I only have enough dishes for 8, so the plates were sort of a necessity. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I prepped some stuff the night before. <\/strong>Friday night I cooked and seasoned the beef. \u00a0Saturday morning I shredded the cheese and chopped the tomatoes. \u00a0Nothing else for the meal was difficult to prepare, so the hour before the fun started wasn’t stressful. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I made my guests do the work. <\/span><\/strong>The make your own taco bar meant that the only tacos I had to assemble were my own. \u00a0I didn’t pour drinks either: we put all the beverage options out on the counter and let everyone fend for themselves. \u00a0People are smart, they can manage.<\/span><\/p>\n We didn’t eat at the table. <\/strong>Our dining room table seats 6, if we’re lucky. \u00a0So we set up some extra chairs in the living room, plus our plastic folding tables, and ate there. \u00a0The kids sat at the coffee table, which is where Brian and I usually eat anyway, so it seemed totally normal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I made plenty of food. <\/strong>I was a little worried that I’d run of out food. \u00a0How much do a 7, 9 and 13 year old eat? \u00a0I made 2 pounds of beef, 2 cans of black beans and heated 26 tortillas. \u00a0At the end of the night, we had 1 serving of assorted fillings and 3 hard shell tortillas left. \u00a0Perfect. \u00a0The taco bar also allowed people to freely get more food when they wanted to.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I didn’t worry about the little things. <\/strong>So what if my serving dishes didn’t match? \u00a0The point of having everyone over was to socialize, not to show off my Fiesta collection. \u00a0I focused on that goal and, as a result, so did everyone else.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I had such a good time and felt so accomplished when the night was over. \u00a0I can’t wait to do it again. \u00a0(Thanks again to Brian for doing the dishes!)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.relishments.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_3905-400x300.jpg\" "\\"taco")
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.relishments.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_3902-400x300.jpg\" "\\"seating")
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