Entirely built upon the joys of others whose stories I have read and clubs I desire, I have crafted a group of couples and we are actually planning a dinner club.
Like, a thing.
On our calendars.
Every. Single. Month.
So...
Dinner Club.
Although Shauna Niequist (and Jen Hatmaker, my bestie) each do Dinner Clubs, let me tell you how original I am. Well...not too original, as it is. I am taking their ideas and running with them.
Why reinvent the wheel, I ask you?
I am aware that Shauna's club is an all female club and I know if I lived closer I would be a permanent guest, but Jen's is more of a couple's get-together, and that is how I am leaning.
In exactly 16 days, Big Strong Man and I will be hosting 3 other families for dinner.
This means a total of 4 husbands, 4 wives, and 9 darling children.Tonight we had a family over for dinner. No, we didn't eat them, we invited them over to eat with us. hehe I have been working on the menu for over a week and impressed myself with the layout. Not that everything was perfect- it was not- but there was a LOT of effort put in and I think that was known. This family of four is one of our Dinner Club families.
The menu:
wine coolers and Fat Tire
bacon-wrapped dates with goat cheese
ranch potatoes
plain potatoes
Hawaiian rolls
Hellman's chicken, with an alteration
and Pizzelle with filling.
The bacon-wrapped dates with goat cheese are a recipe of Shauna's and she tells it best. Let me tell you: I thought these were delish! I was totally hesitant about the goat cheese and not a huge lover of bacon (odd, I know). Actually, I don't quite like dates that much either...still, I wanted to try these and I am SO GLAD I did. SO yum-yum!
The potatoes are fairly basic. I cleaned, peeled, sliced and boiled about 500 pounds of potatoes. Once these were well cooked, I drained the water and mashed them, eventually adding milk and butter and sour cream. For the ranch potatoes, I mixed-in more sour cream and a packet of Ranch salad dressing.
The Hawaiian rolls were store bought. Yum. Add some butter. Yum, yum.
The Hellman's chicken is like a treasure. Although it is RIGHT THERE on the wrapper, I never bothered to look until a friend pointed it out and told me about her love-relationship with it. Why not? <- that's my motto. So I made it and, yep, it's amazing!
I pretty much follow the directions except that I bathe my already boiled (and cooled) chicken strips in the mayo and the cover them in Panko. (The directions say to only put the mayo on top and to use Italian bread crumbs.) I like my way better.
The Pizzelle was another surprise I am glad I embraced. I saw the package at Aldi's the other day and decided then and there that that would be our dessert. I had only to prepare the filling. Precious Olga @ Olga's Flavor Factory shared her filling recipe and I borrowed it.
OLGA- this is DELISH!!! (p.s. her blog is super lovely. I began reading and had to make myself stop. Olga, I want to be your friend!)
So, that was tonight. In addition to eating, we talked about our Dinner Club.
The details are still in the works, but here is what I gather:
*4 couples (nine kiddos, total)
*children eat prior- this is a meal for adults only
*we rotate homes on a monthly basis
*whoever is host prepares everything (this gives us anxiety. Well, by "us" I mean everyone else. I am super excited- is this crazy? Am I mad?)
*this includes clean-up
Naturally, we have a few kinks to figure out.
I, for instance, would like to add just one more couple but have been shot-down by Big Strong Man and tonight his sentiments of "this is getting out of control" were agreed upon by Jeremy, another male voice of wisdom. I agree that going from 8 to 10 adults and 9 to 14 children is a lot, but I hate excluding friends I long to do life with.
On the issue of host does everything, I have posed the question of "should we split the workload?" If the hosts takes care of the main course and offers their table, it would be really grand to have the three other families filling in with drinks, appetizers, and dessert. I imagine this is the way we will eventually go, but you know me. I insist on doing it all and thus will be the case for our first Dinner Club. Once we figure-out who can be best to fill each role, I am fully confident we will embrace the help.
Our children (ages 7months-6years and everything in between) will arrive already fed and will be kept entertained with the telly. Yes, a movie should buy us adults a solid 90 mins of eating and talking like the 30-somethings we all are. Tonight we talked about hiring a helper to keep the nine littles in line and entertained. This is a good thought and is also likely going to be a go. PLUS, this buys us more time uninterrupted. Yes, I can see this is going to work!
As Big Strong Man and I are first-up to host, I have been putting so much thought into our meal and am thinking of this as our menu:
wine and beer
That is it.
It is all I have.
I TOTALLY thought I would do a mango chicken teriyaki, but I cannot find the recipe.
I MAY do the Well Salad Shauna makes in Bread & Wine.
Alrighty then, off to find my menu!
Have you ever been a part of a Dinner Club? Have you ever had the audacity to start one of your own? Care to help a girl out with suggestions?
As always, thanks a bazillion!!
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