Home > Feeding Frenzy > Archives > 2008 > February > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWhat’s your secret for low-stress entertaining?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My friend Lisa is one of those wonder-women. Even though she has a new baby, works full time and is training for a marathon, her makeup is perfect and she’s always dressed to a T. Fortunately, she is so real and funny, that you just can’t hate her.
When it comes to entertaining, like everything else, she’s able make it look effortless. When our families got together this weekend for dinner and a game night of charades, on arrival her house was as tranquil as a meditation retreat. She had two soups, a spicy Mexican chicken and a red bean and rice for her vegetarian husband, simmering on the stove. Baked potatoes, an all ages favorite, were in the oven. The salad I brought rounded out the meal.
The kids went wild for the chicken soup, gleefully garnishing it with a sprinkle from the accompanying bowl of shredded cheese and crushing blue tortillas chips on top. They felt the dinner was made just for them. The adults happily added fresh avocado chunks to their concoctions and felt the dinner was made just for them.
Dessert was big batch of just baked chocolate chips cookies. Some of the best cookies, I have ever had (and trust me, I’ve tried a lot of chocolate chip cookies in my time). I am determined to get that recipe and post it here as soon as I can, so check back.
Like Lisa, I am a firm believer when entertaining, especially for an all ages event, the less is more approach is the best to take. While I know the soups took time to prepare, by having it done in advance, we were all able to relax and be in the moment from the time we arrived. Serving baked potatoes was a brilliant addition.
What are your tips for effortless entertaining? Any no-fail advice?
Oh, and by the way, do I even need to add that Lisa’s team kicked butt in charades…or did you already figure that out??
Comments
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By Diner
February 13, 2008 4:40 PM | Link to this
Not much response on this topic. Is it because many of us do our “entertaining” around the snack table at soccer tournaments and track meets?