We're having a dinner party tomorrow. It's just going to be us, and 2 other couples, which is about one more person than we think we can handle. I am cautiously optimistic. I normally have really bad parties. Think poor Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Well, maybe not QUITE that bad, but not terrific. Things will happen like only 2 out of 11 people who were invited actually show up... and no one else RSVPd. Throwing parties makes me think that no one likes me. It's not a good feeling.
However, these are DH's friends that we're inviting, so maybe he's better liked than I am. We know they're coming, anyway, so hurrah!
I need to learn how to throw cheap dinner parties. I've spent in the ballpark of about $60-$80 on food for this party. We're serving $30 worth of flank steak (DH and I are hoping we'll have leftovers!), I'm making tiramisu from Barefoot Contessa Family Style, which required going to my local Peet's Coffee and asking for 12 shots of espresso (we don't have a coffee maker since we're tea drinkers), and seeing the saucer eyes of the barista because she actually thought I was going to drink it all. As it turned out, I did not need NEARLY that much. I could have done with half. It also required buying a bottle of run. Then, halfway through assembling the dish, I had to go back to Trader Joe's to buy a second box of ladyfingers because I ran out. I couldn't have just done a box of Trader Joe's truffle brownies (which are really good, by the way!) and served it with the most excellent Double Rainbow vanilla ice cream we already have in our freezer, but no. I am making up for the fact that I kept wanting to order tiramisu when we ate at the tasty little Italian place when we were at my conference but kept being too full. No way to ensure that I'll eat a ton of tiramisu like making it. Ugh. Because you know I really need to eat food that has 16 ounces of mascarpone cheese in it. I should have just ordered the tiramisu at the restaurant a few weeks ago.
We're also serving, get this, smoked salmon, plus chips and Trader joe's onion dip for appetizers. We're having three side dishes in addition to appetizer, flank steak main course, and dessert, because DH thinks that the other two guys will be big eaters. DH is a big eater, and honestly, it's hard to top him, but he's right. Better to be prepared than to not have enough food.
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2 comments:
I think your party sounds awesome! It IS better to have more than enough food and hopefully spending all the $$ equaled success. And you shall be known hereafter as a party thrower extraordinaire. How did it go?? And my mother-in-law makes a fab tiramisu that cheats and uses “strong coffee”. Cheaper!
(found you through the msg board!)
The tiramisu was INCREDIBLE!!! It was so good! I think next time I'll use instant espresso powder instead of going to the coffee shop.
The party went well- we were quite pleased. I think the food could have gone over better, but oh well.
I think our next party might be chili-in-the-crock-pot. We'll see, though. I'm definitely encouraged, though.
Good to see you here, by the way!
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