I think its safe to say that I successfully threw my very first grown-up dinner party. It was a fabulous night with great friends, good food and good conversation. And I learned quite a few things in the process. But first, the details.
Total number of diners = 14 (including Mr. Cob and myself)
Total number of dining tables = 1. Yes, I was able to fit 14 people comfortably around my dining room table! My one piece of advice if you have intentions of entertaining and fitting lots of people around your table - buy a pedestal table - if you have a four legged table it is hard to sit people on the ends/corners, but with a pedestal table it's a breeze. It also helps that we have 2 leafs to extend our table.
Different chairs used = 4 (breakdown: 6 black dining chairs, 4 chairs from our breakfast nook table, 2 green chairs from my yard sale purchase last April and 2 red chairs that were Mr. Cobs before we got married).
I used my new tablecloth that Mama Kae gave me for Christmas - it fit perfectly (and looked great)! And we broke out the fine china. I have 12 place settings so we had to use our everyday china for two of the place settings, but thankfully I listened to my mother back when I was selecting our china and picked a simple white everday set which compliments the fine china beautifully. And then I picked up some redish-orange cloth napkins and some green napkin holders. It all came together nicely.
The MENU was the hard part to decide on. Mr. Cob has a new grill that he's dying to use at any opportunity, so we went with Paula Deen's Bourbon Beef Tenderloin cooked on the rotisserie and it was delicious! I made a simple green salad and baked asparagus and rounded out the sides with the yummiest Twice Baked Potatoes compliments of the Pioneer Woman herself. The key ingredient: real bacon fried on the stove! I also made homemade Sangria - another PW recipe. (Sidenote: If you don't know the PW, you're missing out. She has a great blog and an incredible cookbook. And if you have a few hours to spare, checkout her love story: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - it'll make you want to move to the country and marry a cowboy!) The Sangria was the perfect combination of sweet and savory, but it sure did creep up on you. Be warned if you try it! (The main players are red wine, white wine, orange flavored rum and orange flavored vodka - now how's that for a combination).
The dinner party wouldn't have been as successful without our fabulous guests who all contributed to the food and drink. Katie over at La Vida Leipprandt, also a PW fan, made PW's salsa and homemade guacamole with chips for some appetizers. Kelly brought delicious sausage and cheese pastry bites. Jenn a couple of bottles of great wine. Tedra made homemade garlic bread. Lauren made her grandmother's carrot cake - from scratch -(my favorite) that was incredible! And Katie made an apple crisp that was flavorful and yummy despite its Weight Watchers endorsement! Thanks for all your help ladies!
It was fun to have a bunch of friends over and enjoy a night together. Some things I learned from our dinner party: I learnd that it always takes longer to clean my house and prepare recipes than I ever anticipate. It is a science to plan your meal so that all the food is ready at the same time - a science Mr. Cob and I have yet to figure out. As long as you keep the drinks flowing and some appetizers on hand, people don't really care if dinner takes 30 minutes longer than you were anticipating. Cloth napkins must be ironed after washing, unless you're going for the "wrinkled look", which I wouldn't suggest. And finally, Catch Phrase is one of the best games and is a hillarious after dinner event.
Sound's like a great evening! I still don't have the timing down. Maybe I'll try a few glasses of sangria before and or during the cooking process. Glad the tablecloth worked out.
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