company for lunch!!!

One of my New Years Resolutions for 2010; have company once a month.  So how do I think I am going to achieve this better this year than the last yes, nearly 3 years in my own house?  I am going to be different:  I will put it on the calendar. The weekend after my wonderful house cleaner has come to make everything beautiful and spiffed up at my place.  I will make it a plan.  Plan out the plan.  Make it happen and enjoy entertaining in my house!

It wasn't too hard to decide who to have for lunch...Jeff & Debbie had invited Terry over 2 weeks ago and when the day came, he didn't go.  Warren has been trying to go to lunch with Terry during the week, for a month, but work has been busy and it hasn't happened.  So I decided to have those two couples over and let them spend some time with Terry.

The age old question...what do you fix?  What do the general people like?  I have favorites...but that doesn't mean they will like them.  It has been cold and soup is always good, yah soup! One of my favorites is...Tomatoe Soup.  But you see, I live alone and some things I have never made from scratch.  This includes Tomatoe Soup.  Grab the cookbooks, hmmm, which one shall I try...Sylvia Woodall's? Pioneer Woman's? Betty Crocker? oh yes, this one, this Cuisine at Home Tomatoe Soup recipe looks delicious! I can do this...and this I will do.  One recipe makes 10cups.  Thats probably 2 cups to a soup bowl, so 2 batches.  Sunday morning, I wake up like WAY too early for any waking body to be stirring around, its the weekend, whats wrong with me?  5am???  puhhhhlease...so I decide I am going to turn over and sleep some more.  Then I wake up an hour later than I had wanted to.  It's okay...No problem, I can do this.  Tomatoes were already cut up and in pans to be roasted in the oven as I did this last night.  Once they were done, I put them in the blender and pureed away.  Two batches done.  All is going smooth.  Then the next batch I decide to fill it up more because if not its going to take all day to puree this 10lbs of roasted tomatoes.  Ugh, what were you thinking?  seriously Misty???  Due to the amount and the force of hot liquid, it squeezed out everywhere it could!  Off button, where are you? Hurry Misty, awh thats VERY HOT and it hurts.  Dadgum!  Okay, I can deal with this.  Take a deep breath, remove half the liquid, wipe everything down, start again.  Batches and batches and batches of hot roasted tomatoe stuff.  Well, you see the blender is glass, but the top is plastic, this soft plastic stuff and do you know what it does when you do batch, after batch, after batch, after batch of hot mixture? It sinks down in and creates air pockets around the cap and the sides.  I thought Cuisinart was a good brand?  No???  Oh, you think, no big deal?  ugh, you are wrong!  More roasted tomatoe soup is escaping and now I am more than slightly irritated...in fact, I probably am mad. It is all over the cupboards, the glass, the floor, the cooking magazine, the walls, EVERYWHERE!!!  I dO NOT have TIME for this!!!  Irrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhh!  Who said I wanted to have company? and that in order to entertain I must make my soup from scratch?  Nobody but me, just me with these great ideas that are not always practical to life.  Yes, it was me who said this!  Okay Misty, chill!!!  You have white cabinets, that means at least you can see what needs to be cleaned up, stop chewing yourself out, just get it done.  I did, and as I finished up my task, I am thinking, what did I not plan? yup - extra time.  How did this happen?  life is not perfect, thats how.  How can I prevent it next time? allow more time for the mishaps and things not to go as planned.  So, yet again, I arrive late to meeting...this time, not just 5 minutes, but 25!  Keep your chin up, yah, so you think that everyone is thinking you slept in too long, were lazy, spent too much time on yourself, but they don't know the truth....walk on! ***********  Meeting is over, I visit for about 20 minutes and then head out.  I get home to get the grilled cheese sandwhiches together: pesto and mozzarella cheese and regular cheddar cheese on bread from Central Market.  Then my company starts to arrive.  Warren & Kelly & Alec Amyett arrive first.  Then Jeff & Debbie.  They ask, Where is Terry?  Well, I thought he would ride with one of you since we are all going back to the same place tonight...no?  Well at minimum he would follow one of you.  Did I think to give him directions?  Nope...but I gave the others directions!  So I call to check in, he is lost, is frustrated trying to talk on the phone to me while driving.  I told him I was just trying to help.  He says he will figure it out.  I knew he was on a street between me and Gilbert & Connie...but which one?  and how does he get from there to here? right? left? north? south?  He arrives like 10 or so minutes later.  Lunch is ready...we eat.  Everyone is hungry and says its yummy, but I personally think there is too much ground pepper in it. Either everyone else is just being nice or I am just being overly critical.  I told everyone to eat up because I did not make any dessert...and they did!  In the middle of lunch, Alec states that "the vent is falling" pointing to one of my airducts in the kitchen.  He is right...it is!  We all laugh.  We sat around in the living room and visited, looked at the binder I have of some of Terry's drawings/artwork, I read Alec some stories, we drank coffee...then it was time for everyone to leave. 

As I reflect it was a FUN day...I am glad I made this resolution to entertain and have a plan to have people over and cook for them, Titus 2:8 be hospitable...can't wait for next month!
(Just gonna learn that I must plan a bit more time so I am not upset with myself and have allowance for mishaps...)