Do you entertain???

rascal

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i love cooking, and I love talking, I'm a salesman, I love what I do so I love people and cooking. I also love friends and family here for meals. A Saturday normally has 4 of our friends around for dinner, then a game of euchre, that's always hilarious and a great way to finish the night. I normally do a 3 course meal but my wife thinks we spend too much on food. Especially if we have fillet steak. Our friends say they are frightened to ask us to their places as they aren't very good cooks. They are good cooks as well.
Do you guys entertain much and does it cost you a lot of money? I'm lucky that I do lots of swaps so I don't spend a lot. Are you a showman that loves to show how good you are in the kitchen??

Russ
 
Nope, i'm a hermit once i come home with only chatting over the fence or across the road with neighbors occasionally. I do love my alone time...its my time to create. Plus being a vegetarian really cuts down on people that want to gather at food time with you. This area is not overly vegetarian as we don't even have a vegetarian restaurant in town. People like their meat and i have a meatless house.
 
Nope, i'm a hermit once i come home with only chatting over the fence or across the road with neighbors occasionally. I do love my alone time...its my time to create. Plus being a vegetarian really cuts down on people that want to gather at food time with you. This area is not overly vegetarian as we don't even have a vegetarian restaurant in town. People like their meat and i have a meatless house.

You may be living in the wrong town (or country)! Vegan a vegetarianism is very big here in the UK and I eat vegetarian most of the time. But, I too, love my 'aloneness' and I perfectly understand what you mean about creative time. When I visit my friend we do have dinner or lunch parties sometimes, for which I cook. And I enjoy that,but they are small affairs.

Back in the day (whenever that was) I used to host dinner parties and found it quite stressful. Now I just cook for a few friends sometimes.
 
We used to, but now it is pretty much just the 2 of us. I don't like crowds, so I stay away from things like chili cook offs and other such events.
 
You may be living in the wrong town (or country)! Vegan a vegetarianism is very big here in the UK and I eat vegetarian most of the time. But, I too, love my 'aloneness' and I perfectly understand what you mean about creative time. When I visit my friend we do have dinner or lunch parties sometimes, for which I cook. And I enjoy that,but they are small affairs.

Back in the day (whenever that was) I used to host dinner parties and found it quite stressful. Now I just cook for a few friends sometimes.

Nowadays, I find it stressful as well. I'm so concerned and worried that everyone is enjoying the meal and perfect, I don't enjoy myself and relax. I prefer small intimate dinner parties.
Years ago, my roommate in New York was a real social butterfly. She gave cocktail parties all the time, with standing room only in our tiny apartment. Not for me.
 
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We rarely entertain. Although, we do host the family for traditional hollidays. I usually stick to the classic dishes typically served for the occasion. What I find more steessful is the cleaning up after. For some reason everybody has a knack for diapearing into the living room after dinner.
 
We entertain about 7 or 8 times a year.

My family has always had a tradition of trying to get together for at least 2 or 3 holidays at one of our houses. Easter, Christmas, a Summer party (sort of a general birthday party to celebrate everyone since there are so many Summer birthdays), and Thanksgiving are the most common familial get-togethers.

I have 5 siblings, so the parties years ago were first at my parents' house, then my eldest sister's since they lived on a lake back then, and she is a fantastic cook.
My brother, the actual oldest sibling, and his wife are anti-foodies, so parties at their house were few and far between. And you had to listen all day to my sister-in-law talk about how much effort she put in. Over and over.

Then it suddenly skipped the next 2 sisters and we all met up for the aforementioned holidays at my youngest sister's house, er, mansion. Since their place was so big and had a pool outside and gameroom in the basement, it just fell onto her to host. She's not much of a cook, but between hiring caterers and her "help", she had great parties.

I miss those days when we all lived fairly close together and almost the whole extended family would show up.

And now it's my turn to host the family parties. My wife and I both love to cook, and she does an incredible job cleaning the house both before (you can perform surgery safely in most rooms) and afterwards. But we are scattered down the Atlantic coast now, from Massachusetts to Florida, so usually only half of the family can make it for any holiday. Some sleep over, so the party can last 2 or 3 days. But they're family, so mi casa es suyo.

Outside of these holidays and family parties, we host a few more during the boating season for friends and their kids. We meet at the lake, spend the day swimming and water skiing/tubing, then it's back to our house. While the kids play kickball, Whiffleball, or football in the backyard, and the parents get drunk on the deck, I go into high gear and grill up a storm while my wife sets out all of the previously prepared salads and sides.

I really enjoy having everyone over, and don't mind the work involved.
 
What I find more steessful is the cleaning up after. For some reason everybody has a knack for diapearing into the living room after dinner.

:laugh:

We entertain about 7 or 8 times a year.

My family has always had a tradition of trying to get together for at least 2 or 3 holidays at one of our houses. Easter, Christmas, a Summer party (sort of a general birthday party to celebrate everyone since there are so many Summer birthdays), and Thanksgiving are the most common familial get-togethers.

I have 5 siblings, so the parties years ago were first at my parents' house, then my eldest sister's since they lived on a lake back then, and she is a fantastic cook.
My brother, the actual oldest sibling, and his wife are anti-foodies, so parties at their house were few and far between. And you had to listen all day to my sister-in-law talk about how much effort she put in. Over and over.

Then it suddenly skipped the next 2 sisters and we all met up for the aforementioned holidays at my youngest sister's house, er, mansion. Since their place was so big and had a pool outside and gameroom in the basement, it just fell onto her to host. She's not much of a cook, but between hiring caterers and her "help", she had great parties.

I miss those days when we all lived fairly close together and almost the whole extended family would show up.

And now it's my turn to host the family parties. My wife and I both love to cook, and she does an incredible job cleaning the house both before (you can perform surgery safely in most rooms) and afterwards. But we are scattered down the Atlantic coast now, from Massachusetts to Florida, so usually only half of the family can make it for any holiday. Some sleep over, so the party can last 2 or 3 days. But they're family, so mi casa es suyo.

Outside of these holidays and family parties, we host a few more during the boating season for friends and their kids. We meet at the lake, spend the day swimming and water skiing/tubing, then it's back to our house. While the kids play kickball, Whiffleball, or football in the backyard, and the parents get drunk on the deck, I go into high gear and grill up a storm while my wife sets out all of the previously prepared salads and sides.

I really enjoy having everyone over, and don't mind the work involved.


I'm exhausted just reading your post! Good on you though... I'm just a lazy old wimp.
 
I guess I shouldn't add that I often say goodby to our guests, help clean up, take a shower, then head off to work for the night... Lol.
 
Lol, funny you should say that.

When my wife gets on me about doing too much, I put a pair of underwear over my pants, tie a long bathroom towel around my my neck like a cape, and stand with my fists on my hips and say, "I'll be fine, Lois."
No kidding.

She hates that.
 
Yesterday was nz trotting cup day, I used to go but crowds are just drunk young people out of control, so I host a day here. 25 adults and about 8 kids, I made and supplied food all day with a hot ham at 6 pm to finish the day. Last people left at 10 pm last night. I'm having a day off today. I'm knackered. Everyone enjoyed it. Zzzzzz

Russ
 
Lol, funny you should say that.

When my wife gets on me about doing too much, I put a pair of underwear over my pants, tie a long bathroom towel around my my neck like a cape, and stand with my fists on my hips and say, "I'll be fine, Lois."
No kidding.

She hates that.

Lol, that's funny. A while ago my wife had been teasing me and I'd stopped to get gas, I bought a car wash and started to go through. I punched the number and drove in. As the jets of water were coming down the side I put her side window down, just enough to wet her, then I put it up. You should have seen her waving around trying to stop it,lol. I then said , we're even,lol. She still gets nervous going through the car wash.

Russ
 
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My daughter, my partner and my hairdresser are the only people to come to my house - but not at the same time...
 
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