architheque

I had a dinner party at my house Friday night. It was awesome. As I was desultorily cleaning up Saturday morning, I realized I’d learned a few things.

First is not why you should have a party at your house, but why you should have said party on a Friday rather than a Saturday. The reason? If you have it on Saturday, you will spend all day cleaning and prepping. By having it on Friday, I had to split my cleaning and prepping among the weeknights prior, and I had to be smart about it because I had limited time and energy after a full day at work. I spent maybe three hours getting ready - compared to the eight or nine I would have spent on a Saturday. Nobody at your party can tell the difference, so why not take the less effort/time route? Plus, when I woke up Saturday, my house had been dusted, vacuumed, and all decks swabbed, so I had no Saturday chores! I had the whole day to myself!

Second, here are good reasons to have the party at your house instead of your friends’:

All the old stuff in the pantry gets used up in your larger than average cooking spree. When your next grocery outing rolls around, you’re allowed the luxury of all new lemons and garlic.

People buy entry to the party with goodies that never get opened. And they don’t take them back home. I have no idea what this is, but I’m sure it’ll make my next party very nice.

The dishes at the top of the cabinet that you never use get used. And thus washed. Which beats having to bring them down during Spring Cleaning and complaining about the inch of dust and grime on them because you never use them.

You try new recipes, have a huge test panel at your command, and everyone raves about your good taste.

Since most people would rather bring a bottle of Two Buck Chuck than have to cook something, everyone opts to bring a beverage. You generally end up with more than you started with. More ammo for the next party. Or for yourself…

Leftovers for breakfast. (Warm Bean Salad with Walnut-Arugula Pesto, at the bottom of the article, without the arugula and with the anchovies because I couldn’t find arugula at the store!) This is very very tasty the day after.

More corks for your collection…you know, for that corkboard you’ll someday get around to making.

You get to keep the cake.  ‘Nuff said.