Food Bloggers For Dinner Meme

A meme!

This meme was created by Angelika of The Flying Apple. The question she poses is: Which Menu Would You Serve Blogging Friends For A Welcome Dinner Upon Their First Visit to Your Home? And asks us to "describe a sort of signature menu revealing much of your personal cooking style and culinary preferences." You can read other bloggers' entries here. Thanks to the always witty and amusing Anne of Good American Wife for tagging me. You can read Anne's entry here.

First let me say, I have a no-dinner-parties policy. Dinner parties are intimidating. Dinner parties are formal and involve multiple courses. Dinner parties are all about "entertaining." I am more about hanging out than entertaining. Plus I have some organizational issues that make me a less than ideal candidate for serving a number of people multiple course meals. Stuff happens. I realize I don't have key ingredients. Everything takes longer than I expect. I can never seem to coordinate things so that everything is ready at once.

All of these things make me avoid dinner parties. Instead I have people over for dinner. Or better yet, I have people over for supper. Doesn't that sound more inviting? So I'm reframing this question to be: What am I going to serve when my blog friends come for supper?

If this was a real supper rather than a virtual supper these are the steps I'd take in deciding on the menu:

1. Spend an unreasonably large amount of time considering and rejecting possible menus.

2. Consult cookbooks, epicurious, blogs

3. Finally decide on a menu.

4. Then reject it

5. Then repeat steps 1 through 4

I would save myself a lot of time if I had a few go-to menus. I am working on this.

One of the good things about supper vs.a dinner party is that there's no expectation of a starter course and a main course with multiple side dishes. You can even serve something like a stew that is a meal in and of itself and only needs bread and a salad on the side. I think this is a good idea. Keep it simple so you can spend time with your guests rather than cooking.

My vote for this occasion would be mussels. They don't tend to be the sort of thing that people eat at home all the time and they are easy. The thing that takes the most time is cleaning them but that can be done before hand. My two favorite ways to serve them are Mussels with bacon, lime, and cilantro  and Spicy Thai steamed mussels. Both of these are fabulous tasting.

For this occasion though I am going to go with the Thai mussels because they would go nicely with this avocado salad. I would also serve bread of the crusty baguette nature on the side because the mussels will create a wonderful soupy broth. Rather than wine, I'd serve beer. More casual and convivial.

A good thing about the mussels is that they are not a heavy meal which leaves room for dessert. In this case, chocolate mousse.

We'd eat in the kitchen. It's cozier than the dining room and I think food bloggers are more kitchen than dining room types. Is there anything better than a lively group with lots of laughter around a kitchen table?

I can't think of any foodbloggers who I wouldn't want to invite for dinner. I've never read a foodblog that made me thing I wouldn't want to have a meal with that person. But since I have to narrow it down, I'm tagging Ann of A Chicken in Every Granny Cart, Sher of What Did You Eat? and Ximena of Lobstersuad. They all seem like the sort of person you'd like to hang out with in the kitchen. It would also be nice to invite some newer foodbloggers who I don't really know because it's always nice to make new friends. So I'm tagging Kristen of gezellig girl, Heather of The Lovely Scones, and Melissa of Counter Intelligence. But I hate to leave anyone out! Please feel free to drop-by/tag yourself if you're interested in joining us.

And a virtual supper is so much easier than the real thing. No cleaning the house, no grocery shopping, no spending an entire day cooking, and no dishes afterwards. How freeing.

Comments

[the bee]

Hey Jujubee,
Any menu would begin with an artichoke in my home.. yours also?
Alas the bee is very lazy and my preffered company meals are make ahead cassarole type dishes.
I would like to be like The Barefoot Contessa ... Jeffrey is coming home ( and then in a breathless voice ) and I'm zesting a lemon. Keep remembering that those of us that are fair cooks look up to you as the gold standard. Please keep cooking, posting ,taking photos and if Mike comes home early ? Zest him a lemon .

[angelika]

Hi Julie, I love the way you honestly tell us that a big dinner is not your thing - and I like your supper choice. Mussels ! Good idea - that's really something we do not have at home every day (honestly I never prepare them myself). So everybody invited to your home should consider oneself a very lucky person !

Your menu will be on my list tomorrow. BTW, I have just found out that the blogger you tagged YOU has never sent me a note ..... I now fear I have missed some.

[Kristen]

Whee! I'm gonna tackle this one as soon as I finish up my Chinatown posts.

[lobstersquad]

Hi there
It sounds like a perfect dinner/supper/whatever, I only wish it were real. It´s fun now in the make-beleive, imagine if we were all actually there.
I´m still running over menus in my mind, I´ll have it asap.

[Heather]

Hey there, I'd love to participate! Should I post my entry as a comment?

[ann]

ha! this is the only way i could ever have a dinner party!
my apt is so small that i once had 2 people over (bringing the grand total to 4) and it was soooooooo uncomfortable!
so thanks for the invite, it may take me awhile to plan, but i'll get to it by the holidays (LOL!)

[sher]

Oh my!!!! What a fabulous meal! I adore mussels and that recipe is to die for. And the salad is just perfect. Thanks for tagging me, and I too love this type of cyber meal. I don't have to worry about what to wear. :):) Now I need to put on my thinking cap and plan my meal!

[Tanna]

Yes, I loved to come! And the kitchen is such a great place to guests and then the clean up just seems to happen so naturally and all at once! Perfect.