pre-passover dinner party

Sunday night J and I hosted our first dinner party at the new house. It was meant to be a pre-Passover seder since J would be missing the holiday while deployed/early birthday party for a friend whose birthday would fall on the first night of Passover.

On the menu:

Matzoh Ball Soup

Salad with Roasted Chickpeas

Charoset

Brisket

Parsley Potatoes

Roasted Vegetables

Birthday Cake (Not kosher for Passover!)

We spent most of the morning and afternoon cooking and cleaning. I felt like such a grown-up, hosting an adult dinner party, breaking out our wedding crystal. J tried to convince me that we should also use our wedding china, but I was hesitant. I knew how many dishes would need to be washed when the party was over (there was 11 of us), and I just wanted to be able to toss them all in the dishwasher; our china needs to be hand washed.

It was a potluck dinner, but J made the brisket and the roasted vegetables, and I made the soup based on my grandmother’s recipe. As you may have gathered from previous posts, cooking is not my forte. I don’t mind baking as much, but the truth is that I’m just not that comfortable in the kitchen. On Sunday I must have called my grandma at least five times to make sure that I had bought the proper amount of vegetables, that I was cutting the vegetables into the correct shapes and sizes and that I was cooking the soup for the correct length of time. She told me, “It’s not chemistry; it’s cooking!”

The birthday boy receive a Pro Caulk kit from another friend and “caulk” jokes ensued for the rest of the night. (Try saying “caulk” three times fast, and you’ll see why we were cracking each other up. Yes, we’re really twelve-year-olds.)

All in all, it was a delicious, laughter-filled evening, and one that I hope we can do again soon.