But Amanda what do you think? Do you go out and meet people outside the house? I grew up in a family with some tendencies towards isolation. It made me really appreciate the joys of a social life, though these days I need to work on my tendency to not bother.
I do stress a bit about cleaning and this is for friends coming over. One day I realized that I got to enjoy the clean house for only about an hour because after they left it really needed cleaning! Now, I definitely tidy up but only clean really egregious areas and give the powder room a once over.
I get stressed out about getting all the dishes ready at the same time. But I get stressed out about that when I’m just cooking for us.
Thanksgiving is a mess because hubby wants squash soup as an appetizer. We also have mashed (more like whipped) potatoes which I’m anal about not allowing to get cold and stiff. First year I served the soup and then whipped the potatoes while they were eating the soup. This year I whipped the potatoes and then put the bowl in a warm oven while we ate the soup.
These are things an experienced cook feels comfortable with, but I haven’t done a lot of cooking.
Plenty of dishes - house is always clean.
You need this recipe. It is a life changer.
FlyMe, you need a warming drawer. Your anxieties about serving cold food would go poof! 
Thanksgiving is a PITA, and violates my cardinal rule of serving meals to guests, which is avoiding last minute cooking. Not that it is not also one of my favorite meals ever. But the rush to get a zillion warm dishes on the table and guests in seats at the same time just about does me in. Bunsen, are warming drawers part of higher end ovens, or? Not sure how this might work. I have one oven, which I know is the problem.
Warming drawers are sold as built-in, individual modules. You can buy a countertop commmercial warmer (a box or a crockpot of sorts that keeps the food at a pre-set temperature).
So are Bob Evans if you take them out of the container, put them in a dish and stir/mash them, and bury container in the garbage before your guests arrive. 
Another reason I don’t like to entertain is the layout of my house. It was built in 1972 and all the rooms are separated. No one uses a living room anymore. We remodeled our kitchen 16 years ago, but made the mistake of not knocking out walls to make it really big, for a nice huge island. We have no island now either, and there is just no room. People like to congregate in the kitchen and there really is nothing for them to stand against unless it’s my kitchen counters, but that is do awkward with me needing my kitchen. No one ever goes into other rooms it seems. At this point I don’t know how long we will stay in this house, and are less than 3 years from paying it off. I just really don’t want more debt.
We’ve been slack in redecorating the FR and it’s really outdated, so that embarrasses me now, too. I think we would entertain more if I was more proud of my house I suppose, and it had a flow that was better for company. It’s actually a nice size square footage on the main level, but these old houses…grrrr.
DH and I like to invite people for dinner. 6 or 8 people works for us. Go-to meal with those who eat beef is tenderloin. Obscenely expensive but really easy to serve and everyone likes it (if they eat beef). I like scalloped potatoes as a side dish, and roast asparagus (or roast green beans). Timing is not critical for any of those three–you do need to take the tenderloin out when its internal temp is as desired (DH likes 125), but then it can sit. All those can cook in the oven together while we have some cheese and crackers (with some dried fruits and nuts on the plate too) with our pre-dinner drinks and/or wine. If I’m feeling especially ambitious, I’ll make caramelized onions and Hollandaise sauce to go with the tenderloin. The hollandaise has to be done at the last minute but it’s the only thing that does, so I can relax and enjoy the visiting, instead of stressing about the cooking. (And I have a cheater’s way of making hollandaise that works well. Put all ingredients (melted butter, lemon juice, seasonings) in a blender and blend the hell out of it. Pour into your serving bowl and microwave 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat, checking every 30 seconds, until it’s thickened and cook. Beat vigorously with a fork before serving. (People think I slaved over the hollandaise. Nope. Also works for Bearnaise sauce.)
During salmon season, I’ll serve that. I cook that the way I was taught by a caterer: wrap each serving (in foil) of salmon individually with its own herbs and seasonings. Bake foil packet at 400F for anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes–the timing really doesn’t matter, because the foil keeps it moist. Also good with that hollandaise sauce.
If we have vegetarians joining us, I’ll make a mac-and-cheese side dish too.
For Xmas we had a crazy collection of food restrictions. 3 vegetarians, 2 lactose intolerant (1 veg, one not), 3 shellfish allergies, one who was also allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and soy. We ended up having stuffed artichokes, filet mignon, spicy sweet potato spears, a few shrimp (a special request), and spanikopita (made with olive oil and sheep feta so it had no lactose). Also a few more sides that I can’t remember. We all survived but H got wheezy grilling the shrimp outside so I wouldn’t repeat that.
@dmd , I have a recipe for a quick béarnaise sauce too. Still have to make it last minute , but by then, everything is done so it’s good to only have one thing to focus on
One downside to open floor plan houses and entertaining is not being able to hide all the pots and pans that come with cooking dinner. Even if you do a lot of prep ahead of time, there will still be stuff on the counter, in the sink.
No, I cannot seat 16 at my dining room table. It seats six comfortably or eight if people squeeze. What we do is bring in our kitchen table which is a parsons table, turn my dining room table horizontally and have the parsons table be one vertical on one side and then we have a Costco table for the other which we turn horizontally so people for the most part do not have their backs to one another, but some of them are kids so that makes it a bit more flexible. I do have matching tablecloths and linens for all three tables. I have 11 chairs between the dining room and kitchen chairs, one desk chair and the rest are folding chairs but they are pretty comfortable ones.
have you been “entertained” by the couples you are having over? Are they Martha Stewart types that you feel you have to live up to? >>>>
yes and no, no not to that level, LOL.
We had a crowd at Thanksgiving including yds’s gf’s mom and brother, strangers to us. It was pretty…difficult. We had a cooking disaster that set us back 2 hours eating. I think this is part of the reason I’m nervous about the upcoming dinner party.
I had to buy another table, but this works out great. We just set it up and add it onto the dining room table, which we had already turned longways into the living room area. Folded up, we had a perfect spot under the front living room window.
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/stakmore-traditional-expanding-table-in-cherry/1044831967?Keyword=card+tables
We would need it eventually anyway, when grands come along and start growing up.
Don’t take it to heart. Cooking disasters are the stuff that legendary holidays are made of! It gives you all something to laugh about in future holidays!
Yup, the makings of family history, that and vacation disaster stories. “Remember that time…”
Ohhh… We should start a Cooking and Entertaining Disasters thread!
“Ohhh… We should start a Cooking and Entertaining Disasters thread!”
Oh yeah, that would be funny. I have some major ones, that are quite unpleasant to remember, but would make you all laugh pretty hard!