Daring Dinner Parties In 20 Minutes or Less

Last night we hosted a rather impromptu dinner party to celebrate Dick's life. A few of my friends knew him and loved him, so since MJ was in town we decided to have them all over.

We genuinely LOVE social events of this nature, but usually I have a few days to plan (yes, it's true - I do occasionally plan things) and we almost always shoot for the stars - ie we plan rather extravagant menus with matching alcoholic beverages. Its a guaranteed good time.

Well, when grandma (MJ) rolled into town, I knew that it was important for us to do something, so we threw this dinner party together in about half an hour. I did most of the cooking which was TOTALLY out of the ordinary.

I made baked ziti with italian sausages (there were veggie sausages, too, since we have a few veggie friends), a garden salad, and plenty of wine. My mom brought a "Happy Anniversary Cake," which was super sweet since we hadn't planned on celebrating the big TWO until this weekend.

I am really only posting about this to toot my own horn. I'm usually the hostess with the mostest, while my personal chef handles all of the details in the kitchen during our parties, but this time I played both roles, since Whitebread had to work late and the party had sort of started with out him.

Everything went over super well. My friends all had a great time - in fact, we had to kick some of them out around 11 PM. My Dad was only mildly obnoxious and EXTREMELY amusing! And Grandma kept her hearing aid turned ON for most of the night (always a good sign).

One of my friends has a brother(Mark) in college in Cincinnati and when Dick grew too ill to care for himself, MJ hired him to come and help her out and he just happened to be in town, too. So, it was nice to see him. My Dad jokingly blamed him for his father's death...

Mark is actually going to give Grandma a ride back up to Cincinnati on Saturday, which is SUPER nice, so that my Dad doesn't have to make an extra trip. And Mark loves it, because MJ will pay for gas. Though Dad was certain to ask him not to kill his Mother, too.

My only downfall is my inability to cook the appropriate proportions. We have a tray and a half of ziti left and about 3 big bags of salad. I guess it's better to have too much than too little. Anyone want to come over to our house for leftovers?