Dinner Party Prep

Updated--Lisa asked what I decided to do with my hair...so I put a photo at the bottom...

{getting ready to make arrangements}

I am busy cleaning, cooking and primping for our Valentine Dinner Party.  I am so excited.  We have some fun things planned but we are a touch out of practice.  While we do entertain a lot, lately most of it has consisted of more casual family dinners.  We have not hosted a dinner party in a while.  And the best part is that these are some of our closest friends and we have all known each other for many, many years.  Because we are all such good friends, I have no nervous jitters at all.  It is such fun to entertain people who really know you and love you just the way you are.  It takes some of the pressure off:)

Here is our tentative menu plan. I say tentative because I keep tweaking it.  I am trying to choose things that will not require me to be cooking much during the actual party. So, most of this can be prepared tonight or tomorrow and then heated or served at the time.

I am planning to serve our appetizers in the living room by the fire.  We will be serving grapes wrapped in goat cheese and caramelized onion and cranberry crostini paired with Champagne or my favorite Prosecco.

Next, we will have a salad course of mixed greens topped with lime marinated lump crab meat with tomato, avocado and cilantro. I created my own recipe but a similar one is here.

For the main course, we are serving Beef Wellington (thanks Olivia for the suggestion) and a potato, butternut squash and gruyere gratin and marinated asparagus.

And for dessert I am making a dark chocolate ganache tart with either fresh whipped cream or Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream (thanks Kristi for the suggestion and recipe).

Hope y'all have a great weekend!!!

{above my kitchen sink--it is a dark rainy day}

Dave and quite a few of you thought I should cut my hair and I almost did.  But my stylist and I both wanted to keep it long for now.  So, I got a nice healthy trim instead.  I am not ready to give up my newfound love of curls and sock buns:)  Here is a photo for you, Lisa.  I am SO awkward photographing myself:)





Oops the flash went off on that one;)