Friends for dinner

Table set for dinner

As my regular readers know I love to entertain, and after the Christmas/Summer busy season I’m ready to get back into it again. The key is planning your meal…

I planned and shopped yesterday and before heading out today I made a mexi-bake for dinner and got the girls to help tidy the house.

Next step is having a clean, tidy home….

Kitchen clean and tidy

the table set…

table set for dinner

and everything organised BEFORE your guests arrive…

Ready for guests

so that you can enjoy the time with your friends…

Dinner with friends

And be sure to serve dessert (tonight we had caramel coconut tart) and something yummy with tea & coffee.

Desert - Caramel Coconut Tart To serve with tea/coffee

It makes me sad to hear people say they’d like to entertain but it’s too hard. It really doesn’t have to be and a little planning goes a long way. Keep the meal simple (things that can be made in advance if you prefer) so that you can relax and enjoy the company of your friends – that’s what it’s really all about. When we got back from Jamberoo I had about 1.5 hours till our guests arrived. I got Kevin to vacuum, while I made aΒ  simple salad andΒ  the dessert, set the table and got the kitchen cleaned up. I even had time to get changed , put on some make-up, and check my e-mail before our friends rang the front door πŸ™‚

6 thoughts on “Friends for dinner

  1. Looks fabulous Libby! I love the idea of having it all organised before your guests arrive. There is nothing worse than having people over and not having any time with them because you are slaving in the kitchen!

    I love the way you take such pride in what you do.

    Cheers,

    Michelle

  2. I love the idea of having everything organised before guests arrive and I agree, it’s not hard to entertain with a little planning. Looks great, Libby πŸ™‚ I love seeing pictures of your kitchen πŸ™‚

  3. Your placed looked like it was gleaming! Your right about it not being too hard to entertain. With a little planning and the emphasis on simplicity and enjoyment, it can be done.

  4. Hi Libby, it looks like you had a really good day – nice day and lovely dinner at night. I love that you lit the candles. I’m still waiting on the candles I ordered from Adelaide to arrive πŸ™‚

    Do you have 2 dining tables? Because I remember you bought the glass one but it looks like you’re sitting at a wooden one. I wish we had a dining table – we don’t have room for one in our house. We have an outdoor setting which sits on the grass but it’s far too cold to use it now for dinners.

    If people come over at our house, we all share the coffee table…lol but mostly we do BBQs which are outside.

  5. I love to entertain too, but because our home is so child-focused (majority rules) we tend to keep it more casual!

    We went to a dinner party over Easter and the host served dessert and another treat with tea/coffee which was really nice.

    I don’t often eat dessert and don’t drink tea or coffee, so think I need to focus on it a bit more as everyone was super impressed with her efforts!

    How do you make that caramel tart?

  6. We discovered a long while ago that if we waited to make the perfect meal we would never have people over. Sure we have had some big special meals but more often than not we do something real simple like soup & bread, wine & friends. Simple, yummy (no daggy tin soups LOL) and always fun to catch up with friends.

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