Briefly, on entertaining quickly

We have a standing Tuesday night dinner with neighbors from our old neighborhood.  We alternate houses each week and the visitors bring dessert.

This tradition started when I was home full time, and I cooked elaborate dinners and decadent desserts.  Good times.  Now, with 4 full time jobs between the two families, we need to be more realistic.  Some weeks, like last week, we pull it together. 

This week, we ordered pizza.

And on top of the pizza?  That's a peanut butter pie.

With all the time I didn't spend planning a meal, shopping and cooking I made this peanut butter pie.  (oddly enough, posted originally by another Megan).  Minor tweaks - piled the whole batch of filling into one crust instead of two, and chopped a couple of peanut butter cups for the top.

We had just as good of a time, and there were a lot less dishes than last week!

Random Weeknight Entertaining

Whatcha doin'?  Anything fun?

Yeah, tonight we're having friends over for dinner!

Weeknight entertaining is not for the faint of heart, but a simple menu, some shortcuts, and dividing up the work by grilling the entree and asking the guests to bring dessert makes it totally doable! 

We're having

• Garlic herb cheese spread on baguette rounds
• Salad
• Steak on the grill (hot dogs for the kids, but Deuce will no doubt eat 1/4 of my steak)
• Lemon Spaghetti
• Steamed asparagus
• Booze
• and our guests are bringing dessert (I'm really pulling for cheesecake from Cheesy Eddie's)

I bought the cheese spread, because it's a weekday so I take shortcuts.  But I have made it at home and it's super easy.

1 pkg Good Seasons Garlic Herb dressing mix
1 C sour cream
1 C mayonaise
2 C shredded cheese

Mix it, spread it on baguette slices, and broil until bubbly.  Or, if it's a weeknight and you bought it pre-made anyhow, mix it up in an oven-safe baking dish until bubbly and serve with crostini or crackers.

Looking forward to a fun night in!