Would you Like to Join me at my Table for Dinner with Friends?

I have shared with you this week, on the blog, on Instagram, and stories and on Facebook all of the details about the Dinner with Friends dinner party that I hosted last weekend. I hope that you were able to follow along as I shared the preparations, the menu and recipes and all of the details for this very special evening. 

I hope that you enjoyed it all because, guess what? Why don’t you join me for Dinner with Friends together at my home in Waco, Tx!

You are invited to be my guest for Dinner with Friends

October 23, 2021

Waco, Texas

I am hosting a Dinner with Friends at my Waco home on October 23, 2021 and guess who the guests will be?

Ten of you!

I am so grateful for each and every one of you and I thought, what better way to not only show my gratitude and appreciation, but also to get to know some of you.

I am so excited!! So, here are the details:

Dinner with Friends

October 23, 2021 in Waco, Texas

6 o’clock in the evening

Dinner will be enjoyed at an amazing tablescape and consist of a seven course meal, prepared and shared by me (and my best friend Mary Liz)

How will we select who gets to attend?

This is the most important part, and there is an area in the entry form for you to let us know why you want to attend this Dinner with Friends. This is important to us, we want to get to know you better and understand why you want to share an evening with us. It is a Dinner with Friends after all, so lets be friends. Give this some thought and help us get to know you. Think about why you want to have dinner with us, be creative and have fun with this. 

Five couples will be chosen. A couple can be you and your spouse, partner, friend, parent, family member, you get the idea. However, everyone attending must be over 21 years of age. 

You can submit your entry beginning today, 5/5/21, and the submissions will be accepted through midnight on May 31, 2021.

If you are selected to attend, we will reach out to you by email by June 15 to let you know!

When you have composed your thoughts on why you want to have dinner with us, click the link above to submit your entry by midnight on May 31, 2021. You will be asked to provide:

1. First and Last Name;
2. Email address;
3. Where you are located, City, State, Country;
4. Your Instagram handle;
5. If applicable, and your blog address;
6. Your thoughtful description of why you want to have dinner with us.

If you are selected to attend, be prepared with:

1. Excitement, enthusiasm and a positive attitude;
2. The ability to commit to attending Dinner with Friends on October 23, 2021 in Waco, Texas;
3. The ability to travel to Waco, Texas (travel and accommodations are not provided by My100YearOldHome and are the responsibility of each guest);

If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments. Until then, I wanted to share with you how I managed to pull off the first Dinner with Friends that I hosted last weekend!

How I Managed to Pull Off a Seven Course Dinner

I have had a number of questions this week both from friends who attended last weekend’s Dinner with Friends, as well as from blog, Instagram and Facebook comments about how I pulled off this dinner.

I thought I would breakdown how I planned the dinner from idea conception, shopping both for tablescape, food and drinks, to cooking, plating, serving and most importantly, how we set the tone for the dinner so that everyone attending, including ourselves, felt relaxed, comfortable and would be able to enjoy the evening.

Dinner with Friends Party Planning Timeline

Don’t Try to Do This Alone

If you want to host a seven course meal you will need help. My best friend, Mary Liz, who works with me full time, and I planned the entire dinner together. We planned the menu together and split up the items. It was so much easier to know that we each had our own courses to make, and I never could have done this alone.

Of course when it came down to it, we both helped each other when we could to get everything done.

Before I get to the actual day of the dinner party, I wanted to mention that three weeks ago, Mary Liz and I came to Waco so we could figure out what we needed to buy and decide how and where we were going to plan this dinner.

Most of you know that our home in Waco is an Airbnb. Our kitchen is well stocked but it doesn’t have enough plates or glasses or pans for a seven course meal. It also doesn’t have any candles (fire hazard concern with guests) and the dining table wasn’t big enough to seat 12 people.

We went to Round Top and bought a lot of glassware and dinnerware (for next to nothing!) for the tablescape and also shopped at the vintage stores in Waco. We figured all of this out as you can see by visiting my blog posts titled How to Plan for a Dinner Party with Friends and The Best Dinner Party Recipes.

We also bought a lot of new tablescape items such as chargers, glass plates, more wine glasses, candlesticks and votives, and more. You can see all of those items at the bottom of this blog post.

Three days before the dinner we made a massive shopping list and went to HEB Plus in Waco and found everything we needed. Actually, we did forget a few items so we did have to make another trip. Haha.

Dinner with Friends Menu

It took us a few weeks to settle on the menu. We waited until we had all of the dietary restrictions and preferences from all of our guests and this is the menu we decided on. Just so you know, we had previously made every single menu item on this list, many times before.

The Seven-Course Menu

Nibbles – Boursin Cheese w/ Fig Jam, Grilled French Baguette Rounds, and Sweet and Spicy Nuts

Tomato Bisque with Grilled Cheese Sticks

Crab Cakes with Lemon Dill Sauce

BLT tomatoes

Salad with Pears, Shaved Toscano Cheese and Sugared Pecans with Champagne Vinaigrette

Sea Bass with Soy Glaze and Ginger Butter Sauce and Grilled Chicken with Pistachio Avocado Sauce with Brown Rice and Roasted Vegetables

Mud Pie

Here is how Mary Liz and I divided up the cooking:

Leslie – Crab cakes with Lemon Dill Sauce, Sea Bass with Glaze and Ginger Butter, Chicken with Pistachio Avocado Sauce, Grilled Vegetables, Mud Pie

Mary Liz – Nibbles (cheese, crostini, spiced nuts), Tomato Bisque with Grilled Cheese Sticks, Brown Rice, Salad with Pears, Cheese, Pecans and Vinaigrette

Meal Prep and Setting the Tablescape

Remember that I cook for 250 people for our Christmas party so I can pretty much take any menu and figure out how to make it work so that I am not cooking everything at the last minute.

Here is our schedule for the 36 hours before the dinner.

Friday All-Day Cooking Preparation

• cook spicy nuts and sugared pecans for salad and store in ziploc bag
• cook soup, store in refrigerator
• make crab cakes and lemon dill sauce and store in refrigerator
• cook bacon and clean cherry tomatoes for BLT Tomatoes, store in refrigerator
• chop peppers, onion, and asparagus and store in ziploc in refrigerator
• make champagne vinaigrette dressing and store in refrigerator
• make mudpies and place in freezer
• Make soy glaze and ginger butter sauce for sea bass (except for butter at end) and store in refrigerator
• Arrange flowers
• Set the tablescape (Can I just mention that this tablescape was amazing!)
• Set up bar
• Set up plates for all seven courses in the kitchen

Saturday Morning Cooking Preparation

• prepare cheese and fig jam in serving dishes and refrigerate
• plate nuts and store on counter
• stuff tomatoes and store in refrigerator
• make crostini for cheese appetizer
• cut crusts off bread and stack, cut cheese and assemble for grill cheese. Store in ziploc in refrigerator
• cook brown rice and store in refrigerator
• Fill water large water bottles (that sit on table) and chill in refrigerator

Saturday Late Afternoon Cooking Preparation

• cut sea bass into portions and store in ziploc in refrigerator
• grill chicken but only cook about 30%, remainder will cook in oven
• slice pears and slice cheese for salad
• place all ingredients (except for avocados) for chicken sauce (pistachio avocado sauce)and store in refrigerator
• fry crab cakes and place in baking pan for warming

One Hour Before Guests Arrive

• place chicken on baking pan for final cooking
• place seabass on baking pan and top with soy glaze
• place ginger butter in sauce pan and set butter aside for final cooking
• fry grilled cheese and transfer to cookie sheet (to bake just before serving)
• plate salads on serving plates and refrigerate

Once Guests Arrive

• heat soup
• warm grilled cheese
• light candles on table
• place wooden boards with Nibbles on table (one per couple)
• fill water glasses
• pour wine

During Dinner

• We heated the food one or two courses ahead of time. We introduced each course with a story about the menu item which was very fun! We both sat down after we served the item and were able to eat with our guests.
• Whichever one of us was preparing the next course meant the other one cleared the plates. We both served each course together.

If you are enjoying my blog, you can sign up to receive my blog updates here. .

Links to the Items Shown in This Post

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Pin the image below to your recipe or entertaining boards on Pinterest (just click the Pin button in the top left corner). You can also follow along with me on Pinterest!

For more real-time updates, follow me on Instagram @My100YearOldHome