Dinner Party

What better time to try out new recipes than for a big group of friends?  We recently invited our new friends over for a dinner party.  I wrote and rewrote the menu at least 5 times througout the week and only came to a final decision while standing in front of the butcher at the market.  I'm not sure what came over me, but I asked for lamb to slow cook.  I explained to the butcher (in Castellano, of course) that we were having 9+ people for dinner and he directed me on how much to purchase and he even cut it up for me.

I came up with this recipe after looking at various ways to season and cook lamb.

It was a hit!  Easy because it cooked all day and I only had to do about 20 minutes of prep work.  I also threw together a Caprese salad and greek cous cous. 

The food was great, but the company was even better!

I'm planning my next get together now...any suggestions?

We went to our friends house for dinner last night and had a wonderful time!  The food was delicious and the company was even better.  We talked about lots of things but one of the topics was Entertaining.  I love hosting a party and preparing for it.  Each home we have lived in has been very different from the last and yet, we have had a great time with friends and family and I have enjoyed finding new ways of decorating and entertaining.

I was thinking back to when we lived in an itsy bitsy studio apartment and had my cousins over for dinner.

I didn't have much to work with as far as decor so I took an old jar and some asparagus from the farmers market and pretended they were flowers.  We had a folding table and chairs that fit just perfectly in this little nook between the kitchen, 'living room' and 'bedroom' (which was all one in the same, really).

Since this was a colorful table, and I had my asparagus bunch, I got out my orange water pitcher for beverages and my measuring cup from Anthropologie to serve the manchego cheese in.  It was before we moved to Spain and we had a 'tapas' night to celebrate our upcoming move.  This was a wonderful night and so fun to get ready for!

i love entertaining!