Thursday, June 07, 2007

Weekly Dinners


Last night was my first Weekly Drawing Dinner. Here is the concept: I have created a list people's names and I put those names into a bowl and draw out a few people each week to join me for dinner. I just bought a new cookbook that looks like it has great stuff and I want to cook something new each week and also get to know people better. The point of drawing is to mix up everybody so they get to possibly meet new people or get to know others better as well. Also, this will help me be a little more outgoing and improve my hostess skills.

Last night I had my cousin, my roommate and a few fellow ward members who weren't really acquainted with each other. I cooked Grilled Raspberry Glazed chicken with a side of green salad with Raspberry vinagrette dressing and biscuits. Everyone said it was very good. I would have liked mine if my chicken had been cooked all the way through. I'm just relieved that I got that one and everyone else's was fully cooked. I felt like the conversation went really well. Loralee helped out a lot with that. Then Alyson had brought a lovely dessert, cake and ice cream. I think there might have been a few awkward moments but they were very fleeting.
I concluded dinner with having the attendees draw for next week's lucky winners.

Then most of us stayed for a movie. Loralee and I are starting a weekly musical night. So we decided to combine the two things. I had her draw which movie out of my musical collection we would be watching. She chose Summer Magic. I was excited because she had never seen it before. I love this movie. There are a few boring moments but overall a wonderful movie. There isn't a kiss at the end but that is understandable as the love interest doesn't enter the movie until the last fifteen minutes of the film but he does it in a dramatic way. I giggled a little. Plus the songs are so great. We sang along to the ones we knew. My favorite is the "Act Feminine" song. Here are some of the lyrics:

Laugh but not loudly (ha ha)
If he should make a joke.
Be radiant, but delicate
Memorize the rules of etiquette
Be demure, sweet and pure
Hide the Real You!
This is what a girl should know
If she wants to catch a beau.

Love it!

Anyway, I think the night went really well. I hope that subsequent dinners will go as well if not better. Though they probably won't get treated to a movie unless they want to.

7 comments:

julie said...

You amaze me! What a great concept! Sounds like everyone had a great time. I'm impressed with the weekly idea, too. I love to cook and I still don't always have time to cook for MYSELF, let alone others! Kudos to you and good luck with future dinners!

Cassie said...

Well, I'll see how it goes for about a month and if I get too stressed or it costs me too much money then I might scale it back to every other week.

Alyson said...

It was a lot of fun, and the raspberry chicken was delicious!! I hope my name gets drawn out as often as possible, but that would kind of defeat the purpose.

Booklogged said...

Just talked with Aly. She said it was a delightful evening and the food was delicious. I love raspberries, so I better get the recipe for that chicken sometime.

I know, you could do a Weekly Drawing Dinner out here sometime and fix raspberry chicken.

The whole Weekly Drawing Dinner is a terrific idea. Maybe it will encourage me to start a Weekly Homecooked Meal.

i i eee said...

What a fantastic idea! Sounds delicious and delightful.

This is meta, by the way.

Cassie said...

Booklogged, I would be happy to cook dinner for you all. Maybe I'll come across something even better.

Rachel,
Oh my gosh! I miss your blog. I was so sad when you deleted it, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess. I'm sorry that someone's negative comments put the nail in the coffin. Hope everything is going well for you these days. Love that you are reading my blog.

Framed said...

I'm so glad it turned out well. And I love Summer Magic. It's one of my favorites. I want to live in the Yellow House.