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On Sunday, I hosted my first-ever dinner party. You may remember me telling you about what my mom wanted for her birthday: for me to make dinner for her and the family. I decided to turn it from a simple family meal to a fancy(ish) dinner party because:

1. I read too much Pinterest and I was dying to pretty-up my house
2. This woman fed me (feeds me, actually) for years and years, so I wanted to make it good.

Last Saturday I hit up Bed Bath & Beyond for some essentials – cloth napkins, napkin rings (ones that match my cutlery, of course) and a white tablecloth.

On Sunday, it was a quite massive trip to the grocery store. I think everything in that cart, minus the toilet paper, was used for the dinner.

And since heavy cream does not exist for some reason in Northern Kentucky, I would naturally choose two recipes that require it. A 30 minute drive into Ohio later and I was the proud owner of these babies.

Since I had nothing to do until 5:30 when I was going to start cooking, I just putzed around the house and watched Rugrats on Netflix for a while. I even taught myself how to do fancy things with napkins

I got skillz…

After that, it was time to set the table.

 

 

Then I started cooking! I made the desserts first because the baking/chilling process was going to take the longest. And (whoopsie!) I didn’t realize until around 3 PM that my nutella ganache cheesecake was supposed to be baked and chilled OVERNIGHT. It was still a little loose when it was time for dessert, so my mom took it home and had it the next day.

No worries, though, we had a smores pie to feast on in the meantime. I didn’t get a finished picture of the whole pie, so here is my slice.

The rest of the dinner

1. Appetizers (potato skins, marinaded olives, cheese, salami and crackers & bread and dipping oil).

2. Dinner (Pesto pasta with chicken, asparagus & arugula and French beans salad with tomatoes and corn)

After dinner, my sisters found their way to my 1,000 piece puzzle. Completing one is on my 101 in 1,001 list, and I have been doing it for over a year (and making little progress). Well, now I have to start over, because they completed more of it in an hour than I had done in a year! Turkeys!

Overall, I deem this a success. Family, wine and good food, what’s not to like? This was especially important because I hosted this (unintentionally) on September 11, a time that should be spent with family. It was great being with loved ones on this tragic day.