Okay, so! We had a few friends over for dinner on Friday night. It was ostensibly just to get together, however, my friend “K” and I are seriously considering homeschooling our children. My darling husband is not on board…yet. K’s husband is. So I was really hoping that Scott and “L” would talk about it. It thought it might be helpful to hear a man’s opinion in favor of homeschooling. (Not sure how much impact it made, but that still remains to be seen :))

So anyway! Above is pictured the pre-dinner party chaos. It always seems like I struggle executing even the simplest of meals! It all came off just fine, but I always envision myself having these cute little labels on everything for guests, and breezily answering the door, and everything is perfect. And it was just fine, but…it was close! Here is the finished product. We had soup and sandwiches. We had white chicken chili and Italian Wedding soup, which has become my new favorite this winter. Side note: my children would eat chili every day if they could.

As you can see, we had cold cuts, various cheeses, and this divine, super-seedy mustard, and sliced baguettes to have DIY sandwiches (because, carbs). And ultra-fancy box mix brownies, I don’t really think there’s any better dessert anyway! Sometimes I’ll swirl peanut butter or Nutella or something in them to make them a little fancier for guests, but I was so short on time this go-around. I’ll blame it on my lingering at the grocery store sans children #bliss!!! And as pictured above, I had my little sous-chef threatening me NOT to TOUCH her “salads” she had prepared for her guests. I am the one who chopped those veggies for the wedding soup, mind you, but I just chopped more! Sigh. It’s hard to keep your patience when you’re under pressure like that, and the kitchen is a bloody disaster an hour before your company comes (see above,  dirty floor and counter chaos).

AND! This is hilarious, I was trying to make rice crispie treats for the kiddos, got the butter melted, the marshmallows in, and it turned into a congealed, clumpy mess! Has this ever happened to you? I couldn’t even mix in the cereal, it was like it just rested on the surface of said congealed, clumpy, butter-marshmallow-mess! Do marshmallows expire? They’d never been opened! Did I step away from them too long?? Like I said, how, HOW does one mess up rice crispie treats???