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Hamsters are terrifying! {the dinner party} Sunday Snapshot

Sunday, February 12, 2012
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We had SO much fun!  We laughed so hard!

Alright let me back up a bit.  You know how I said that I was not nervous about the dinner party--- well that changed Saturday morning.  Friday night we went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and I had ONE margarita.  But since I am such a lightweight ( I seldom drink), I came home and fell asleep rather than do anything to prepare for our big dinner. 

So, I woke up kind of panicked Saturday morning.  I had a little melt down about whether we would be able to get all the shopping and cooking done in time for our guests arrival. In my panic, a few tears might have been shed--(which I am very embarrassed about now).  Dave and I quickly made our lists (which we meant to do Friday night) and took off to different grocery stores to get various supplies.  When I came home, Kate told me that she "did all the dishes" and she was in the process of wiping all the counters with granite cleaner.  She was moving around swiftly "cleaning" the kitchen with her step stool. Bless her heart.  It was SO sweet.   I was very touched by her kindness (but I did have to re-do the dishes).  She said, "Mom, you really should have hired some helpers for your party."

Okay, so about the food....I think I was a bit overambitious with the menu (and unnecessarily so).  Just to give you some feedback about the recipes.....  Both appetizer recipes were new to me and they were both very good.  Kate helped make the goat cheese wrapped grapes. I covered them in goat cheese and she rolled them in pistachios. I am not a walnut fan, so I used chopped pistachios instead.  These were super easy to make and all the guests were pleasantly surprised and amused by them. They paired very nicely with our champagne.

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The other appetizer was AMAZING!  I will definitely make it again.  It was a caramelized onion and dried cranberry compote on crostini.  I toasted baguette slices, spread a thin layer of whipped cream cheese and topped with the compote and a sprig of parsley.  (We used dried cranberries instead of fresh).  YUM!  I loved this one.  It was the perfect touch of savory and sweet.

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So the mixed green salad with lump crabmeat did not turn out so well.  As I was making the marinated crab, I thought the crabmeat smelled a bit off.  Long story short, the crab was bad and we wasted a lot of time and money on that.  I was very disappointed but had to improvise.  So, we served a mixed green salad with avocado slices and a homemade raspberry vinaigrette instead.

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(just before we sat down for the salad course)


Okay, here is where it got SO FUN!!!!!!  Dave had read about a dinner party game online where you place a random sentences under everyone's plate.  People have to try to work their sentence into the dinner conversation without being detected. So Dave put a sentence under all our chargers.  It was HYSTERICAL!   We could not stop laughing.

Here are some of the sentences:
I want a pony (worked in seamlessly by a very manly Southern friend).
I could have been an artist (or a hoarder) assigned to one of our very athletic Texas male friends.
I was almost arrested last week (given to our most innocent and saintly friend..she did not pull it off).
I could have dinner with Hillary (a male Republican friend).
I would live on the international space station for 3 years  (given to a good female friend).
I hope sea turtles don't go extinct. (my friend Cathy really worked hard to get this one in).
And mine was Hampsters are terrifying!  I would just bust out laughing every time I even thought about saying it.

What was so fun about this game is that we all know one another pretty well and two of the men are good salesmen and sometimes say "off the wall" things.  So for them, it was easy peasy to work their sentences in.  In fact, they worked other odd things in that we thought was their assigned sentence.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun this was.  We laughed and laughed and laughed.


We had invited 5 couples to dinner.  Two of the couples had other commitments.  One of them was going to a wedding and did not think they would make it but they ended up coming straight from the wedding and joining us as we were eating the main course.  For a few minutes, we did not tell them about the random sentence game.  We looked and sounded either completely ridiculous or drunk so we had to tell them what was going on.

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{Dave flambéing the green peppercorn /brandy sauce}

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{the enormous Beef Wellington}

As far as the main course went, the beef wellington was delicious and we are glad we made it. However, I think that a regular tenderloin with a red wine reduction sauce would have been a ton easier and just as good.  So Dave and I think that the Beef Wellington was good but not completely worth the effort and time that was involved at this point in our busy lives. We realized that simple and uncomplicated food would have been fine as we were having so much fun that the food was almost secondary.  The potato, butternut squash and gruyere gratin was fabulous!!!!!  We will definitely make it again and I would highly recommend it.

After dinner, I had planned a game of the OldieNewlywed Game (we've all been married 15-20 years).  So, we divided up and the husbands and wives and answered questions about one another.  We came back and played the game while having dessert.  Again, we laughed so much and really had a great time! Dave had ordered the BEST handamde chocolate truffles in the whole world for each couple as their "prize" for playing the Newlywed Game.

 The dessert was fabulous and easy to make too.

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Today at Mass, one of my friends told us it was the best dinner party she and her husband had ever been to. Of course, that made us happy.  We just wanted a really fun night with our friends.  I am telling you, if you have a dinner party, you have to do the sentence game.  You will laugh so hard.   We are so blessed to have such a great group of wonderful friends.

Sunday Snapshot

24 comments:

  1. Oh, wow. That sounds like SO much fun. I am going to use that sentence game. Love! Glad you guys had a blast.

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  2. Sounds like so much fun! And that dessert -- looks so delish!!


    Happy week!

    janet

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  3. sounds like y'all had a great time. You're great hosts. it all looked beautiful and YUMMY!

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  4. Your dinner party sounds wonderful. I love how you guys incorporated so many different fun games into the event.

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  5. You always do such a beautiful job decorating and entertaining. This looks like such a wonderful dinner party. The games sound hysterical and I'm happy that you all had such a great time.

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  6. What fun!! Everything looked gorgeous!! We will definitely have to try the sentence game!

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  7. oh! I want to play that random sentence game...too funny!

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  8. Oh my goodness... I'm laughing just reading about it!
    And everything looks BEAUTIFUL :)
    Sounds like a FANTASTIC time, so glad it all worked out well!!

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  9. The sentence game sounds like so much fun! Can't wait to try it.

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  10. Beautiful dinner party! I love the sentence game- hilarious!

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  11. I'm thrilled that everything went well. I love the sentence game, great idea. The food looked fabulous. Well done.

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  12. I am new to reading your blog and you have inspired me to begin one of my own. I have to say you are my guilty pleasure and I thoroughly enjoy seeing how other couples celebrate their lives together. You did a fabulous job sharing and preparing your dinner party...Congrats!

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  13. Oh Kim, you and Dave sound like the best friends to have "in real life." I'm glad that everything turned out well and I feel so inspired to host a dinner party now!

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  14. beautiful house and party!! so elegant like in martha stewart magazine :)

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  15. I am sooo impressed Kim! What an absolutely beautiful dinner you pulled off AND were able to document it while you were doing it....VERY IMPRESSIVE!! Hey, you could always become a caterer, I would hire you, everything from the table to the food looks devine. How sweet is that Kate? Is she free in a few months for MY first dinner party? LOL...actually probably in a few years is more like it:)
    Love the word/sentence idea...must have made it such fun. I am a game lover so thats right up my alley!

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  16. Everything looked perfect! Looks like an amazing party!!

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  17. From the wonderful dishes to "almost glitches" in the preparation...all turned out SUPERB!! Never heard of the "sentence" game...sounds like a lot of fun. As I mentioned in another comment post, my husband and I also participated in a newlywed/how well do you know your mate on this Saturday!! We laughed so hard that night that my face was literally hurting!! We competed against 7 other couples. The couples marriages were as follows..30yr, 25 1/2 years (US), 18yrs, 10 yrs,7 yrs, 6yrs,2yrs and 6mos. The answers were hilarious, the 18yr married couple *both remarried after the death of their spouses* was by far the FUNNIEST couple there. They were well into their middle 70's and truly precious!! All the questions were "clean cut answers" but the one question "what subtle hints do you give your mate to know when you are "in the mood", every one had cutesy answers NOTHING R rated, THEIR answer was *he chases me around the room and heck I just let him catch me* I almost fell outta my chair!! He shyly laughed and said...well hey...I'm may be up in age, but I still got GAME!! We placed 4th! Each couple in attendance was served a wonderful dinner and afterwards we received a gift bag of goodies, the folder of all of answers, as well as a certificate of participation! My husband and I were laughing WAY after the event. Still in awe that after being together 29 1/2 yrs *which incl 4yrs of dating and 25 1/2 yrs of marriage* my husband had NO IDEA my tonsils were removed! *sidenote* the couple that was married 10yrs one! He pulled ahead on the bonus question

    *what day of the week did you meet your spouse on, where were you what was the one thing you said...that captured her heart?* My husband said (on a Saturday-which was CORRECT at a CAFETERIA *which was CORRECT* and he said "Hi, my name is ___ that alone just captured her heart"! Which was ALL WRONG!!! Ha-Ha!!! He tickles me to pieces sometimes!!

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  18. I so get the one margarita thing..i will never drive after one drink because I to am a light weight. Everything sounded delightful and looked so pretty!

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  19. I am so going to try those appetizers....they look delicious!!

    It sounds like your dinner party was a lot of fun. I can only imagine how some of those sentences were worked into the conversation:)

    Everything looked beautiful. Fabulous fun, lots of fun, with great friends.... what more could you ask for!

    xoxo,

    Lisa

    PS. Happy Valentine's Day~

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  20. Wow! Fun! Fantastic! The food looks divine and I was laughing along with you all. When I entertain, I do try to keep it simple. I tend to stress out before I entertain and have learned, for me, over the years, that simple things yield the same delicious results. Though, that Beef Wellington... Oooh, I bet that was worth every ounce of effort. And it got you some Wow factor points as well, I am sure!

    xoxo

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  21. Sounds like a fabulous evening, with incredible friends and delicious food...YUM! And I have to say, I almost killed myself laughing over your sentence. I would have died laughing every time I went to say it too! What a great idea of Dave's!

    Jill

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  22. I loved reading about your dinner party! Your table looked so beautiful and your menu sounded divine! The cranberry appetizer would work well for my Valentine luncheon. Hope I can remember it in a year! I haven't hosted a couples dinner party in a while. I'll have to do that and incorporate the sentence game. I LOVE party games. xoxo

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  23. I loved reading about your dinner party! Your table looked so beautiful and your menu sounded divine! The cranberry appetizer would work well for my Valentine luncheon. Hope I can remember it in a year! I haven't hosted a couples dinner party in a while. I'll have to do that and incorporate the sentence game. I LOVE party games. xoxo

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Thank you for your kindness.