DINNER PARTY MEAL

You know that question that you get asked sometimes about what you would do with your life if you didn't have to worry about money at all? 

I have varying and many responses to that question, but one that stays up there in the top five is that I would host dinner parties. Lots of dinner parties. With friends, neighbors, and strangers. The trickiest parts of a dinner party to me is the money and time, so if neither were an issue, I think I would enjoy even more of it. I like everything else about it: the planning, the strategy, the shopping, the prepping and arranging, the cooking, even the cleaning (it's a great excuse to clean), and then of course the conversations. 

Repeatedly over the years, as I have gotten several years into putting in the kinds of things that are important to me, I get to see the adage of "the more you do something..." come true.  I can see that it does indeed get, if not easier, more a part of who I am.  And that's the goal isn't it? That the thing you love, the activities you put the hours into, become things that a natural rhythm of life? Not easier, but better, and more cohesive with who you are.  In the case of hosting, my experience has been: the more you invite people into your home, the more normal it will feel, the more 'failures' you will experience and grow from, and the more you will want to do it. 
  

Some ideas and recipes from a recent summer dinner that I would do again (inspired by this post): 

Appetizer: Fig Caprese salad - Used burrata instead of mozzerella, and added walnuts. Basil leaves a must. Served it with salami and sliced baguette.)
Drinks: Bees Knees cocktail 
Salad: Cherry Tomato and White Bean salad - I love this salad!
Main course: Instead of the one-pot Zucchini Basil Pasta the post mentions, I went with this Basil Zucchini Parmesan Pasta and it was delicious, easy, and paired so well with the pasta.
Other drinks: A bottle of white, a bottle of red, and water 
Dessert: Sorbet in coupe glasses with Pellegrino splashed in

The other thing worth mentioning about this meal was that there was no meat, but we didn't miss it at all because everything was so flavorful!