party time, excellent

I did something recently that I rarely do. (So rarely, in fact, that it’s on–err, WAS on–my 30 by 30 list.) I had people over! People who aren’t immediate family! And for a non-holiday gathering! It was my turn to host the book club meeting.

Because I didn’t have the luxury of staying home on the day of, I started figuring out the ‘menu’ of hors d’oeuvres about a week in beforehand. This gave me time to get to the store and buy the ingredients and then begin actually making the less perishable items in advance of the Tuesday get-together.

Here’s what I made.

• Hot Crab & Artichoke dip. Of course.
• Bruschetta (recipe coming soon).
• Lemon Blossoms.
• Puppy Chow. (Does it ‘belong with the rest of this food? No. Do I care? Not even a little.)

Then I served it all with a red wine cheese ball and some salami (didn’t make those; but I put them on a plate!), along with various crackers and chips and some chopped up carrots. And wine. We mustn’t forget the wine.

As I mentioned, I prepared a lot of this food beforehand. I made the puppy chow on Saturday, for example (much to Mr. N’s delight) and the lemon blossoms on Sunday. I also made the crab/’choke dip on Sunday, waiting to bake it until Tuesday. On Monday, I chopped everything (except the tomatoes) for the bruschetta so that all I’d need to do Tuesday was toss it all together. (This was a bad idea, by the way: chopped onions and garlic in the fridge STINKS.)

When Tuesday came around, I had less than an hour between finishing work, and the party start-time. So upon arriving home, I…

1. Pulled the wines out of the fridge.
2. Stuck the dish of crab dip in the oven.
3. Grabbed the bruschetta ingredients, chopped the tomatoes and tossed it all together.
4. Peeled and chopped the carrots.
5. Sliced the salami.
6. Plated the crackers, chips, carrots, salami and cheese ball.
7. Pulled the now-hot crab dip out of the oven.
8. Realized that I have no nice-looking hot pads or thermal-protectant table coverings, and improvised.
9. Shoved all the dirtied preparation dishes into the dishwasher.
10. Cracked open some wine.
11. Scurried around for about 5 minutes, quickly snapping the photos below!

We’ve lived in this house for close to 2 years now and this is the most non-family people we’ve had in it at one time, ever. The only other time we’ve had more than four people here was for our wedding cake cutting/eating, and that was a total of six immediate family and one close friend. It was fun! I’d love to do this kind of thing more often. (Especially if it gives me opportunity to gorge on my own crab dip!)