Planning For Last Minute Guests

I love to entertain. It is definitely in the top three of things I like doing, just after reading and pet keeping. I will more often than not beg off on an invitation to go out to the latest hotspot nightclub, or even to the movies, but ask to come over and I will pull together something to eat and give the house a quick "sprucing" and be happy as a clam all the while. I never say no to someone coming over. What could be greater than getting to enjoy the pleasure of the company of a friend without ever having to leave your house.

Anyway, Jackie and her husband Henry came over for dinner the other day. It was fairly last minute, so I did not have days to plan a menu or theme for the evening. I work at Target, so when presented with needing to feed people at the last minute, it takes some creativity to come up with a cohesive menu based on the few raw ingredients I sell at the store and what I know I have in my fridge and pantry.

Thankfully, I have two guinea pigs who eat nothing but fresh veggies so I knew I had a whole head of romaine in the fridge. Also, I had just read the latest issue of Everyday Food from Martha Stewart so I knew I could cobble together a Penne Bolognese substituting ground beef for ground turkey. The menu in the magazine included a recipe for a feta cheese salad dressing, and I had feta left over from my last dinner party. I grabbed a package of Alexia frozen dinner rolls (there was a time and day when I used to bake my own breads, but unless I have serious time on my hands these days I "get real" with myself and go for high quality store bought breads), and created a garlic butter spread which Jackie flipped for.

Garlic Butter Spread

4 to 5 cloves pressed garlic

1 tbsp dried parsely (or fresh, but remember, we are cooking on the fly here)
1 stick real butter (use the real thing and live every once in a while damn it!)

Before you prepare the rest of your meal, put the stick of butter, parsely, and garlic in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set on the stove top near where you are cooking so the butter can soften. Towards the end of your prep, mash the softened butter with the garlic and parsely, transfer to a pretty bowl or ramekin and pop into the fridge until you are ready to serve the meal. The butter will have set back up just enough to give you a wonderfully flavorful spread for your hot bread and your friend, who normally doesn't eat that much, will have finished four rolls before she even knows what happened.

As for the table, I first picked out my placemats, because if you are like me they are not all immediately accessible. So I grabbed some fun, light and springy yellow and green Vera placemats and then began to set the table. Now I have an eclectic collection of Fiestaware so as I started to set the table, I realized I could do something resembling a theme using just my yellow and green pieces and my large yellow Pyrex mixing bowl to serve the salad. It was an easy table to set, but by putting just a little thought into it it looked like I had spent quite a while fussing over it.

So that is my process for throwing a last minute dinner party. I hope my thought patterns can help you plan your menu and your limited time the next time you have friends agree to drop by without multiple days warning.