Lessons learned: First “serious” dinner party

N and I just had his parents and little brother over for dinner this evening.  It was stressful getting prepared, but in the end it was a hit.  Along the way, we definitely had a little drama here and there.  At one point I thought to myself, “How does N’s mom do it?!  Whenever she has us over she’s completely prepared and looks fabulous!”  This was not the case with us tonight.  (Of course.) Although in the end, everything ended up okay.  However along the way there were definitely some things I took away from the evening:

1. I need more serving plates & bowls.  We had virtually nothing to put the food in other than what it was cooked in.  Tomorrow N and I have decided to head to “It’s New to You” first thing to pick up some vintage treasures.
2. I also need more serving spoons & such.  I mean…people can’t dip out those veggies with their fingers, can they?  I never even realized I had nothing to scoop [and dip] things with.
3. I need a tablecloth for the dining table.  There were a couple of spills that almost gave me a heart-attack because all I could think about was….”MY DINING TABLE!!!”
4. I also need more dinner plates.  I broke two of my antique bone china dinner plates [shown below] last night and I almost started crying.   I’m still more than a little broken-hearted about the whole thing…but I’ll just keep searching ebay non-stop until I find more.  There not easy to find though…they were discontinued in 1851.  *sigh*

And as I mentioned in the last post…my New Year’s resolution for 2009 is to have people over more often.  This was the first attempt…and I think it turned out well overall. 

Easy dessert for a New Year!

Happy New Year you guys!  I’ve been enjoying taking some time off from the blog these past few weeks and just having fun with friends and family.   There has been a flurry of parties, food, long drives, laughter and music.  I’m thrilled that 2008 is over.  It looks like 2009 is going to be a good year.

And with that, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to entertain more often.  So we’ve started off by inviting N’s parents over for dinner tonight.  He’s making all the food (as usual), but I offered to make dessert.  The other week I was in NYC and went to Magnolia Bakery, and noticed their assortment of delicious cakes.   Well one of them is a simple icebox cake.  And it reminded me that “hey, I know how to make that!”  It’s delicious and a snap!  Just make homemade whipped cream (heavy cream, sugar & vanilla extract)…and spread it in between layers of Nabisco chocolate wafers.  Easy.  Done!  I decorated mine with strawberries and made a little special strawberry compote on the side.  I can’t wait to eat it tonight!