NOTE: I did find a topic about this already, but it's nearly two years old, and I have a slightly different angle, so I'm making a new one.
Cookouts, barbecue get-togethers, and by extension, dinner parties...what're your thoughts?
Obviously, I'm talking pre-pandemic, but do you like going? Do you like hosting? Do you like doing the whole meal, do you prefer potluck, or do you dislike them?
I don't like going or hosting, mainly because I don't like cooking for others, and I don't like in-person socializing.
Also, if I were to do a whole meal for, say, 10 people, I have a terrible time scaling up. I can figure out how much to cook for about four people, tops, and from there, I end up way overestimating and making too much food.
What got me thinking about this, though, was a conversation I had with a niece recently. Some backstory:
My family, we never had cookouts or dinner parties. No kind of entertaining like that. That was for "fancy" folks.
For whatever reason, though, all of my siblings except for one (and there are six of us counting me) grew into adulthood and have embraced the family party thing to varying degrees.
I used to do a summer cookout, my sister likes to host Thanksgiving, two brothers liked to have parties for their kids' birthdays/graduations, and my oldest brother always did Memorial Day and Labor Day cookouts.
Back to my niece: I have niblings that range in age from their teens (two of my brothers started second families with much younger second wives) all the way into their 40's. The older ones all have kids if their own, some in their teens no less.
Talking to my niece, one of the older ones with kids, she made the comment, regarding the pandemic, that it was a shame no one could get together any more, because she missed coming to all the family cookouts.
I thought for a second, and then I said, "You know, we're all in our 50's and 60's...maybe when all this crap is over, we can pass the baton to the next generation." - meaning her and her cousins.
She immediately laughed and said, "Well, I'm not doing anything like that - the whole point in going to those things is to get a lot of free food without doing any of the cooking!"
I have to admit, that cheesed me off a little bit!
Anyway, to answer my own question, I don't really care to entertain. Way too stressful, nor do I really like going to big parties like that. I prefer to keep it to much smaller groups, just one other couple. Anything larger, I'd rather go to a restaurant.
What do you all think?
Cookouts, barbecue get-togethers, and by extension, dinner parties...what're your thoughts?
Obviously, I'm talking pre-pandemic, but do you like going? Do you like hosting? Do you like doing the whole meal, do you prefer potluck, or do you dislike them?
I don't like going or hosting, mainly because I don't like cooking for others, and I don't like in-person socializing.
Also, if I were to do a whole meal for, say, 10 people, I have a terrible time scaling up. I can figure out how much to cook for about four people, tops, and from there, I end up way overestimating and making too much food.
What got me thinking about this, though, was a conversation I had with a niece recently. Some backstory:
My family, we never had cookouts or dinner parties. No kind of entertaining like that. That was for "fancy" folks.
For whatever reason, though, all of my siblings except for one (and there are six of us counting me) grew into adulthood and have embraced the family party thing to varying degrees.
I used to do a summer cookout, my sister likes to host Thanksgiving, two brothers liked to have parties for their kids' birthdays/graduations, and my oldest brother always did Memorial Day and Labor Day cookouts.
Back to my niece: I have niblings that range in age from their teens (two of my brothers started second families with much younger second wives) all the way into their 40's. The older ones all have kids if their own, some in their teens no less.
Talking to my niece, one of the older ones with kids, she made the comment, regarding the pandemic, that it was a shame no one could get together any more, because she missed coming to all the family cookouts.
I thought for a second, and then I said, "You know, we're all in our 50's and 60's...maybe when all this crap is over, we can pass the baton to the next generation." - meaning her and her cousins.
She immediately laughed and said, "Well, I'm not doing anything like that - the whole point in going to those things is to get a lot of free food without doing any of the cooking!"
I have to admit, that cheesed me off a little bit!
Anyway, to answer my own question, I don't really care to entertain. Way too stressful, nor do I really like going to big parties like that. I prefer to keep it to much smaller groups, just one other couple. Anything larger, I'd rather go to a restaurant.
What do you all think?