Suburban Bliss:: Birth Control Via The Written Word

The Summers' Welcome To Summer Dinner Party

Hey, depression got you down? You should throw a party.

I've wanted to have a dinner party in our back yard to welcome summer. This year it was especially important to host a party because since we left the Dream House I've been more reluctant to host parties. I just haven't been feeling it. 

For months I've been collecting ideas and inspiration. But mostly I didn't do anything to get ready for the party until 3 days before the event. I point this out because it wasn't entirely pleasant but on the bright side it goes to show how reasonably easy it can be to throw a dinner party for 10. 

I knew I wanted blue hydrangea and a really bright pink flower to go with it. I wanted a menu we could prepare and serve outside and I wanted to eat at a big round table. My round table dreams were dashed into the ground by a miscommunication with the place I reserved the table from in April, prime wedding season and a car that's not big enough to haul a 60" round table. Darn. 

I used the hanging lanterns I bought to use at our New Year's Eve party. I got them from Paper Lantern Store. Unfortunately the large pink one I bought came with the wrong size metal brace so we used orange instead. Logan hung a cable from the porch out to another cable he strung between two of our pine trees. We're adding a string of lights to it and will leave it up year round. Cost: $25. I may buy the nylon version to keep outside for most of the summer.

The blue hydrangea I bought at our local flower shop weren't quite as blue as I'd wanted. 

But they also had peonies and peonies make me want to cuddle. With them. I know, it's awkward now.

My camera is still broken. It's incredibly painful. Thankfully my guests had nice cameras and brought them for me to use. 

There was soda and Sierra Nevada to drink, but also other yummy things.

Like Helen Jane's White Sangria. 

Maddie stamped the napkin rings. Ideally I would have used real flatware but I own 8 sets and had 10 guests so we went this route.

We made the award-winning fish tacos from that Beyond The Shaker Challenge dinner we attended this winter. Logan made these little cards for me to write what each of the toppings for the tacos were. Each card said something we love about summer. 

Our friend Phil is The Grumpy Barista. He roasts coffee beans and makes a delicious cup of coffee at Tasi in downtown Royal Oak. He makes a fantastic BBQ sauce and also a fire roasted tomato salsa that makes you want to marry him even though he's kind of grumpy and you're a straight man. I'm speaking from Logan's perspective here. 

We asked him to make a batch for us to give our guests as parting gifts. Logan made the label and it looks fabulous.

Another of our friends was having a birthday on Monday. His wife made delicious mexican ice cream and I bought sparklers to stand in as candles. The wishes you make on sparklers are a lot better. 

Or so I hear. 

Even more baby stuff.

I'm glad I'm at peace with my decision to cut my losses and stop having babies. I'm madly in love with the two I have, but I'm not particularly maternal. You may have noticed. I'm glad I'm at peace because it seems every where I look there are babies! Delicious, delicious babies.

On Saturday we went to a baby shower for one of Logan's coworkers. It's cute right? Logan works with kids, as I like to call them. James just had his bar mitzvah and now, he's married and having a baby of his very own.

I ended up picking up another Mighty Junior pick for our gift. I chose the Cone Sorting toy because aside from the fact that Jayne and James' baby will come out being super intelligent, it's the kind of toy you could have on a shelf and not want to punch yourself.

Neighborhood Holiday Progressive Dinner 2008

I spent a large portion of last week dreading throwing the dinner and dessert portion of our neighborhood's annual holiday progressive dinner. I can't shake this feeling I mentioned before that this holiday season just isn't doing it for me. I know it's my attitude and probably turning off CNN would help me a lot. But nonetheless this year I'm just not feeling the Christmas Spirit.

Now, last year I was absolutely thrilled to throw this party and spent quite a bit of time carefully planning things. I tried the recipes for my menu before the day of the party, I set up the tables and place settings a couple days before the event. We had custom napkins and stir sticks made and Logan even created a CD mix of Christmas music to hand out at the end of the evening.

This year, on Saturday morning our living room (that would become a dining room for 20) looked like this.

On Friday I did all the shopping for the party, nearly dying in line at the fabric store. No, no one tried to kill me. But the amount of time I waited to have my fabric cut and measured nearly killed me. I'm not at all exaggerating. I also braved Costco, without protective gear. I struggled, but I persevered.

We decided to make Beef Brisket, Potatoes You Leave In The Oven Too Long, and Whiskey Glazed Carrots. I started out using Pioneer Woman's recipe for the Beef Brisket, but then my friend, Chef Laura (not sarcasm, she really is a chef) told us to do it differently. So I don't even know how to tell you to cook this meat.

I started out with the marinade, had to discard it and wipe the meat off. Then I got overwhelmed and gave the entire task of cooking the meat over to Logan.

We substituted Cognac for the Whiskey in our carrots because someone drank all the Maker's. (Max.)

To make Potatoes You Leave In The Oven Too Long, chop your red skin potatoes into reasonably even chunks. Put them in a baking pan, add some olive oil and whatever seasonings you want. Then throw them in the oven until they're all crunchy and burnt. This recipe came from a time we, you know, left the potatoes in the oven too long.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the centerpieces for the tables because I don't like spending a lot of money in general. Plus I wanted to have a different look than the tables had last year.

I ended up standing in line at the fabric store for 32 straight hours to buy some clearance fabric. It wasn't long enough so I cut it into four strips and laid them down the middle of the table. I didn't finish the sides because they weren't fraying terribly and I didn't feel like it. The fabric was $5.

To hide the places where the strips of fabric met along the 18 feet of table, I used strips of wide ribbon to cover them. (Two 12 foot spools of ribbon for $4 a piece.) I pinned the ribbon to the white tablecloths to keep it in place.

I'm not really good at arranging flowers so I decided to use fruit for this year's centerpiece rather than go back to the easy fullness of the hydrangea like last year.

While at Costco, fighting for my life, I came across boxes of the most adorable little pears you've ever seen in your life. The perfect color and the perfect size. They make me want to have a baby with a pear because they are so cute. (Also delicious, which is good since we have A LOT of pears to eat since the party). I bought two boxes of the pears for $5 a piece, I probably could have gotten away without the second box, but I used them on a raised pedestal on a cabinet in the room. Hey, who are those cute kids in my Christmas Card box?

To set this table:

I spent just under $25.

I pulled this party together in one day of errands and one day of cooking and prep work. It turns out I like throwing parties (aside from the running of errands) so even though a lot of people would be stressed out about the process of creating a party. I am in my element I think, ready for a cocktail and a quickie two hours before the big event. We even had a fabulous dinner party to attend the night before, so I didn't even have that head start.

Now, that's not to say nothing went wrong. I decided to save money on rentals and found this plastic flatware at Costco that "Looks so real you won't believe it's plastic!" Until you, actually touch it and it floats out of your hand because it's so clearly not real flatware. We borrowed our friend's large collection of plates they bought for their wedding reception. But I forgot dessert plates, so that was a bit of a drag, sending one of our neighbors out to their house to get dessert plates.

But, none of that stuff really matters and if you get caught up in those details? Guess what, you hate throwing parties. Everything will work out. Save the stress for worrying about things like the failing auto industry...things you have absolutely no power over. That's what I prefer to do!

Everyone had fun even though the flatware was crappy and the dessert plates were missing.

Hopefully next year we'll still be here to do it again.

Suburban Bash: The Kind Of Lazy But Still Fun New Year's Eve Party

I meant to share our New Year's Eve party with you. This was the party that broke my back so to speak. There was the Holiday Progressive which left me invigorated and then all the last minute Christmas preparations I did, then Christmas dinner with my extended family, our trip to Chicago, followed by frantic de-Christmasing and preparations for 12 adults and 17 kids under nine to ring in the New Year. I was exhausted. I wanted it to be fun for the kids but to be honest I sort of wanted to throw a bunch of confetti at them and call it the New Year.

Still, it's not often kids get to stay up until midnight (or later if no one's killing each other) and I don't get to spend the first minutes with my best friends all the time so I wanted it to be reasonably special.

I made this event potluck-ish, emailing the guests while still in Chicago asking them to bring their own drinks and an appetizer to pass. I made just a vegetable tray with two dips, these really yummy Brussel Sprout, Bacon and Cheddar skewers (huge, huge hit both times I've made them).

Did they eat it?
Max and Maddie didn't try it.
Logan did and said, "I love these. Come to think of it, I've never tried a brussel sprout in my life!"

I just don't know where Maddie gets her inhibited taste buds from.

Suburban Bash: Holiday Progressive

This weekend was our neighborhood's Holiday Progressive dinner. They've been doing this for many, many years but since this was our first year I jumped at the chance to serve the dinner course. Then, when there wasn't anyone to host dessert I said I'd do that too. Then, I said, "Why don't you all just move into my house for a week! I'll buy you Christmas presents and fill your stockings too!"

Because that's how happy we are to be living here.

I asked veteran neighbors what the downfall of hosting dinner and dessert would be and they said, "Well, if you're the last house, people usually stay for a longer time."

Which is funny to me because Logan is always the last one to leave a party, usually after the hosts go to bed and turn out all the lights. So this would be perfect for us.

I love having parties and since moving we don't entertain more than we used to, but the act of doing it is a lot more pleasant. There are lots of ways to make your party smoother and less stressful, some you can afford (using paper napkins instead of cloth) and others you can not (hiring a caterer, wait staff, bartender and a separate venue). But after thinking about this for a while I think the only way to have a really fun party is to enjoy the process of throwing a party.

Logan and I both happen to love throwing parties, I like parties because I grew up in a house where I was ashamed to have people over. It was often dirty and smelled of smoke. Also there was that man who was more than likely drunk in the living room. Embarrassing. Having people to my home and making it warm and welcoming and feeling at ease with the chaos and mess of it all is my way of appreciating all we have.

Logan likes parties because he loves wearing a lampshade on his head and mixing cocktails which put people into jolly comatose states.

Here's how we made this party work, complete with pictures.