A Dinner Party

This past weekend hubby and I had our friends Dory and Tim from The Doyle Dispatch over for dinner. I love to entertain and definitely don't do it enough, so I was excited to plan a yummy meal and get out all of my fun serving ware. Side note: I wish I could be that quintessential Southern woman who sets the table every night and uses my good serving pieces, but some nights I can not even get it together enough to have dinner at the table. Yes, I am talking about dinner on the couch. Oh dear, I feel like I have just revealed a deep dark secret to you. I will blame part of it on my profession (which I love), but after taking care of 17 other little people all day and running on full speed every moment, the only thing I want to do when I get home is put on my pajamas at 3:00 and laze around and do nothing relax and rest.

Annnnnway as usual, blah blah blah, I am off topic. SO--on the menu were some of my favorites, and luckily our guests seemed to like them too!

We started with baked brie. I topped it with cranberry jalepeno jam and pecan chips. This jam is so delicious and I have also served it over cream cheese as an appetizer. I got it from my friend who sells Wildtree. Have you heard of it? It is a fabulous company that offers quick, simple, and delicious food items AND all of their products are all natural and organic. So amazing! Here is her website if you want to check everything out. Seriously not a product promo, I truly love this stuff! Annnnnnyway....I served the brie hot out of the oven with some crackers and it was mega delish!

For our main course we had hubby and I's absolute favorite soup and a fall/winter tradition in our house: Ina Garten's roasted potato and leek soup (recipe here). Oh yummy yummy. Everyone must try this, and it doesn't really require too many ingredients or steps. The recipe is really simplified if you have an immersion blender because then you can dump everything in the pot and blend it up at once. Best.invention.ever. I didn't take a good picture of the soup served up, but you top it with these crispy shallots and fresh grated parmesan cheese {my mouth is watering...}.

With the soup I served a simple salad of baby field greens, pears, shaved parmesan, and dried cranberries, as well as some warm crusty bread with butter or garlic dipping oil (also from Wildtree).

For dessert we had chocolate lava cakes courtesy of Trader Joe's. Gotta love something you can take out of the package and stick right in the oven!

We were pretty lucky hosts, because not only were our guests our great friends who we really enjoy spending time with, but they brought us some pretty rocking host gifts. Hubby received the most ridiculously awesome beer/drink caddy that was handmade by Tim! Make sure you check out the super cool bottle opener he attached to the side. It was filled with some of hubby's favorite beers as well as a few Cheerwines. They know him so well. :) How amazing is this:

And lucky lady me got some homemade brown sugar scrub. Mmm it smells like sweet deliciousness and it is fabulous for my poor winter cracked hands. In fact its so good I think it could be used for more than hands. After my next shower I will be smelling like a cookie...watch out!

I hope you enjoyed visiting our dinner party!