When I sat down to make my 30 before 30 list, I did a lot of Googling. I Googled sample 30-before-30 lists and got tons of hits. These helped me curate my own personal list, and one of things that kept coming back (aside from travel, that was a big one) was hosting some sort of an event. I love the idea of connecting with people over good food and drinks, and that's how this one landed on the list.
A challenge of this was scheduling: during the school year, everyone is bedraggled and tired and I couldn't see myself putting together a three course dinner and being in a good enough mood to entertain. So, I kept putting it off. That is, until the marvelous Julia Krakauer told me she would be coming to Austin in July. Jackpot.
Julia is one of my oldest, dearest friends (we met in 6th grade) and gets equally excited about things like hosting a dinner party. (Maybe this is why we get along so well. I'm sure it doesn't hurt.) I asked her if she would help me pull this off and to my extreme delight, she agreed! I immediately started thinking of the menu and guest list, we picked a date while she would be here, and now it's happening wheeeee!
The week before, I kept alternating between "I'm so excited!" and "OHMYGOD everyone is going to be in my house and I have to clean and what if there's a cockroach and there's cat hair everywhere" so you could say it's been a bit of a roller coaster so far. Preparations so far have included everything from buying a new table to fit everyone, getting around to hanging pictures in my house, and cocktail mixing/tasting by Julia. Once she arrived, we got down to business shopping, chopping, arranging, cooking, tasting, etc.
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| The flower queen at work |
Menu
Featured cocktail: The Palomaesque from Food and Wine Magazine, carefully curated and crafted by Julia.
Appetizers: Chips and assorted salsas.
Course 1: Gazpacho from this recipe. We used peppers from my farmshare, which made it extra delicious.
Course 2: Tacos! (Obviously.) We did two different types of tacos: Spaghetti squash and black bean from Smitten Kitchen and Caramelized Pork Tacos with Cucumber and Pineapple Salsa from one of my favorite food bloggers.
Course 3: No dinner party is complete without dessert. Brown sugar cake with ricotta mousse and blueberry sauce (from Food and Wine) rounded out the evening.
Takeaways:
1) Having another person help me with all the preparation was HUGE. Chopping would have taken me three times as long, there may have been zero flowers, and the cocktail game would have suffered if Julia had not been here. I think if I were to do one on my own in the future, I would make one dish and have everyone else bring a side dish to complement. Otherwise, I can see how it would be absolutely overwhelming.
2) I let go early on of the expectation that things would be perfect, and that helped me to enjoy everything much more.
3) Listening (and singing along) to Taylor Swift while doing prep work helped calm my nerves.
4) I wish I had taken more pictures, but I think the fact that I wasn't reaching for my phone during the dinner is a testament to how "in the moment" I was, which is more important to me anyway.
5) It was one of the most fun nights I've had this summer, with some of my favorite people all gathered in my house having good food, conversation, and drinks.
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| Taco assembly line |
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| Daniel trying to befriend Miranda |
13 down. 17 to go!
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