Yesterday, I had the most wonderful opportunity to have some of the neighborhood mommies over for a getting-to-know-you lunch. Four women who just happen to live around the corner from me, all have babies who will be close in age to my little one on the way. What better time to entertain them all than when I have two free hands, and the benefit of a little sleep to propel me into my food preparation hostessing ways. My stipulation? Next time they’re here after my little princess arrives, we will most likely be ordering a pizza.
When I was only a few months old, my mom also started a playgroup with four other ladies. 29 years later, we’re all still friends, and the connection is so meaningful. I feel very fortunate to be able to do the same for my future little girl–especially with such fantastic people who live walking distance away! We were already talking about how our children will grow up together, bike over to each other’s houses, have parties when they’re older, and create lasting memories.
For now, it’s really about us adults socializing–bonding over girl-talk and stories about the precious newborns in front of us. When it came to food, I decided to turn to some of my favorite go-tos for easy entertaining. Often, I make dishes I’ve already posted about (like my Reese’s Cup cookies for a friend’s holiday party this past weekend!) and all my time spent cooking doesn’t even merit a blog post. Well, that hardly seems fair now does it?
So I decided to share with you anyway, perhaps reminding you of some dishes from the past. The joke is that I haven’t exactly memorized all 500ish recipes I’ve written, so when the time comes to recreate them, I actually have to reference myself! I too follow the ingredients list and step-by-step photos, which is quite helpful for testing just how user-friendly That’s SO Jenn really is. Are you all finding it helpful??
Cooking for others is sometimes a challenge, especially when it’s the first time. You want everyone to feel comfortable, and hope you make something that’s popular across the board for all taste buds. I started off with my usual query ruling out any allergies, restrictions or major dislikes. When they all gave me the go-ahead to proceed without caution, I came up with a soup/salad combo that would be both filling, yet light for lunch, with freedom to prepare both in advance. After searching through my repertoire, I landed on my horiatiki salad, jazzed up by an addition of chickpeas and artichoke hearts, along with my kale, chicken meatball and black eyed pea soup (per Hubby’s request for leftovers as his dinner upon returning from work.)
For appetizers, I served my sundried tomato white bean dip as well as cheese and crackers. Fresh cut pineapple with high heel shoe toothpicks (they’re so cute!) and That’s SO Jenn’s s’mores balls were my choice for dessert–Such a hit that after we all ate more than one at the table, some of the ladies even took a few of the marshmallow, graham, chocolatey sweets in goody bags for their long trip (0.2 miles) back home.
What started as an 11am get-together, turned into coffee, baby holding, lunch, talking, dessert, laughing, more coffee/hot chocolate, and eventually the realization that it was 6:30pm! What a treat when time flies that way, especially amongst new company. Soon enough, I’ll officially get to be part of the mommy club, but for now? Well, this was a pretty great start.
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