Outdoor Fall Dinner Party
The goal of this Outdoor Fall Dinner Party was to achieve good old-fashioned camaraderie while being seated at the dinner table. More often than not it is has become extremely difficult to find a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table that everyone can actually sit down together and enjoy their meal. The hustle and bustle of everyone trying to find someplace to sit has worn me down. Partially because I wanted to be in an adult setting (kids were welcome of course) and partially because I love to entertain I wanted to find a way for us all to enjoy a true dinner party for the holidays. An event where no-one felt obligated to provide space for and everyone nearby could enjoy. In some way we were all connected, either neighbors or co-workers who have become friends over the past year or two. The location was the mini playground in between our apartment buildings. Most of us could just walk out our front door.
November 3rd was the chosen date so that it did not interfere with anyone's Thanksgiving plans during the week of the bird. Again a way to avoid the rush of people coming and going as most of us have multiple friends and family dwellings to visit. The time was early afternoon of course as I despise evening holiday meals because you waste your whole day in anticipation and preparation rather than enjoying. Thank you to Gramma Sharon for instilling the good value of lunch as the main holiday dinner meal. Besides why remove the option of being able to eat leftovers for dinner?!
This dinner party was Co-Op style so that there was absolutely no need for a host or hostess. Everyone was in charge of a minimum of two things on the list whether they were dishes of food, beverages, ice, coolers, tables, chairs, etc. The Co-Op made this style of dinner unique and a fun way to refresh a potluck! To be honest I did play the role of a coordinator so that all the items on the list were accounted for however to clarify for your own co-op party there was no actual hosting. In order to make sure everyone had a fair shot of being involved I did send out a letter with the co-op ideas and commitment requests. That was only to ease the process of set-up and food.
The Food:
Michelle and Brian your mashed potatoes were absolutely delicious!! Leah and John thank goodness for your double batch of green bean casserole to provide for those wheat monsters and those GF. And that was quite possibly the best homemade cranberry sauce ever. Nadine, gosh darn those sweet potatoes were the most beautiful I have ever seen served at a holiday dinner. And thank goodness those were real and not the yucky traditional ones from a can with brown sugar and marshmallows poured on top. Emma and Adam, you always have the best beverage selection and we can always count on your sommelier mind to guide us through any occasion. Ben and Rose, ummm THANK YOU for bringing us a pie from Quacks on 43rd. Bless you! Brittany, we definitely could not have called this a holiday dinner without your rolls and pumpkin pies. Additionally, I am glad that you brought your dad to carve the turkey!! One spoiled thing that I did gain from my family was that we always had an electric knife to carve the turkey so when it came to manually carving this year I was out! Too bad as John and I actually made the turkey!! At least we didn't have to cut up our sage dressing and cheeseball!! And thank you to all the guys as they put up our emergency tents in the case of rain. We only had about 10 minutes of droplets though, just enough to make the tablescapes appear as if there was a purposeful dew sprayed on them.
And of course since we live in Texas I suspected that someone would want to dump BBQ sauce on their food. Haha! Brian you were the one...had I known earlier I would have sent that gigant-o bottle of Rudy's BBQ sauce home with you.
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| The table scatters were mini plastic acorns. |
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| A fun and clean way to add crackers on the table. Get a couple of mini pails from your craft store and stuff with tissue paper. |
