This blog is way left of center...
your home is beautiful and i'm sure everyone was happy.
people make the party. truly.
and then again, at your place the mighty tot is there so why worry? ; )
ditto....the table and chairs looked great....as for the stress, sounds like every dinner party I've ever hosted.
Looked great. It is all about spending time with your friends. They don't care if dinner is late or not perfect. They will remember you invited them into your home. I also find it is helpful to make one fabulous drink and have it ready when they hit the door=)
I think I was stalling on the "fabulous drink" because if I'd had those margaritas ready at the door, I would have passed out before finishing dinner!
Lovely place settings and gladiolus arrangement. It sounds like a great evening.
Heather had it right. People really only care about spending time with friends. A great meal will be remembered as well; but, most the time its about hanging with friends or family.
I host family sit-down dinners every couple of months. Its usually two fleshy dishes (one meat, one seafood), a veggie dish, a salad, a starch and a dessert. There's often a soup thrown in for good measure. The first few times were brutal and every dish finished at a different time. After the first few times you get used to it and learn what to prepare ahead of time (like chill the white wine, clean the veggies and get the soup all ready to go.) Serving 'family style' helps the conversation along and makes your job easier, too. For Japanese dinners it usually isn't possible to serve family style, so those are a bit harder.
I'm used to it enough now that I usually smoke a bowl before starting. Alcohol just makes me tired, so I stay away from it until the kids are put to bed.
It sounds like you did a fabulous job. Trust me, enough practice with this and you'll have the timing down. I used to be in awe of people that never seemed to break a sweat doing this sort of thing. I did finally get the hang of it but now it's been so long since I've done it I'm sure it would be like starting all over.
Really, what everyone else said. Do it often enough and it becomes easier as you pick some easy signature dishes that are so familiar you can make them asleep or make them the day before and reheat.
And, I second the "it's about the company" everyone else said. Of all the dinners I've hosted over the years, I remember who was there and the fun we had--I couldn't give you menu if I tried and I cooked it.
Lovely place settings and gladiolus arrangement.
Yeah, all except for the vase having a slow leak in the bottom which I discovered this morning after having it sit for 2 days on that wood credenza thing. Nice rings now!
Nice rings now!
Bummer!
To answer the question of the day:
We went to a party at a friend's house whom we haven't seen since before the babies were born. It was a bash with about 45-50 people, pool, jacuzzi, pot luck meal and far too many drunken people.
The girls had a good time wandering around the back yard looking at flowers and grass. We have a native garden, no grass, so the green soft stuff was something new to them. We let them walk around barefoot and enjoy the shady ground. Lots of fun!
I miss walking on soft grass. Can't do that here, on the rare occasion when the grass is green. We have these grass burrs. Another thing to love about Texas!
We had a FABULOUS time, kona and txrad! kona, you're a natural born party-giver. Everything was tasty (Alton II ate too much!). This afternoon, I was wishing I had eaten more! konarancharitas: perfect!
konarancharitas - i need to trademark that!
yeah, i know what it's like to have a house full of guests and dinner's gonna be late...
you probably could have assembled your casserole the day before even, and had it waiting in the fridge, ready to pop in the oven. hell, i've done lasagna a week in advance and stashed it in the freezer till the day before. side dishes can be a bit trickier. salads can be a good idea, since you can prep your ingredients well in advance and assemble when you need to. drinks that can be mixed in advance are also a lifesaver. often i'll mix up a huge pitcher of margaritas and then serve them on the rocks (my preferred method anyway 
), or any other cocktail that needs a shake at the most... cosmopolitans, whiskey sours, etc.
i do the hardcore douching of the house a couple days in advance, so all i need to do the day of is vacuum and perhaps give a few things a quick dust. the only thing i do the day of is the bathrooms. men and their body hair, you know how it is.
if you liked having your friends over, my advice is to do it as often as you can get a group together. size-wise you were right on. having more than 6 for dinner is something that has to be built up to. the more often you host a dinner party, the easier they get. you'll learn all sorts of useful tricks and get a grip on time management a lot quicker than you might think.
most important, though - don't get all cute and think you're going to serve something complicated. if it's just friends, believe me, it's not the time to try making something that involves a whole lot of ingredients and techniques you don't often use.
sorry for rambling so much, but dinner parties are a subject very near and dear to my heart. i don't get to throw them as often as i'd like (damn my friends and their overscheduled lives!), so it's a real treat for me when i do get to have one.
btw... i used to be a vegetarian and i still have a grip of really killer recipes i'd be willing to share ;p
I'd love to see a couple of your old favorite veggie recipes!
That is some pretty tame "carnage"! Congrats on pulling it off. The few I've thrown have been stressful enough that it doesn't seem worth the trouble. But it can be a good time.
A lot of the "carnage" was already in the dishwasher. But I'll admit, I have seen almost as bad after just the two of us got drunk and cooked.
Hooray for dishwashers to help with the carnage. As you allude,Kona, I remember seeing pics of far worse than this carnage either here or on the other site. Is it still around, black something? It hasn't popped up in my feeds in forever.
If txrad ever wants to share his lime bar recipe, please share. I am swimming in pecans because my aunt's trees produced this year.
Congrats on your dinner party and it looked lovely. When is the next one? 2019?
Your table setting looked great.
As you know, I love doing dinner parties and can hardly wait until I have a place to do it again and know enough people to invite here.
My best tips are to do as much of the cleaning as possible a day ahead and try to find recipes that you can do at least a portion of hours ahead of time.
I made the eggplant stacks you had at my house early in the day and put them in the fridge until it was time to bake them. I make a couple of casseroles that I can do the same way.
I bet your guests had a blast and I wish I could have been there.
Congrats, Boyz - sounds like a beautiful meal with great company!
Me, I took my date to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra play under the stars, then went home and ate pussy.
Hey, "tastes great, less filling."
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