#15 - Prepping for Feasting

The feast begins in two days! A mouth festival of Italian delicacies, hand crafted salamis, olives, cheeses, Caesar salad that will leave you drooling with its garlic lemony goodness, juicy homemade meatballs, pestos, the sauciest of tomato sauces, and after you've gorged yourself on crusty bread and satiated your thirst with wine and blood orange cocktails, we wind it down with rich crumbly Italian wedding cookies to dip in your spumoni. You might have to roll yourself home.

Or at least this is what we plan to serve on Saturday night, barring anything ending up burned, destroyed, dropped or forgotten on the stove. For me, half the fun of having a dinner party is the prep work and the planning. Joe and I are hosting the Bravely Obey Summertime Italian Feast (#15 on that pesky list) at our house this weekend.

I'm excited. I love parties. I love hosting. I love using some of my favorite people as guinea pigs as they try out recipes that I've never cooked before. Risky? Yes. Entertaining, certainly! The worst that happens is we order some festive Papa John's pizza and drink boatloads of wine.

Four other couples will be dining at our rustic Italian table (read: card table pushed up next to dining room table, draped in a rustic white table cloth) and I've got my stack of recipes, my Lidia's cookbook, which inspired the idea in the first place and I'm ready to get cooking. And I'm not eating for the next two days in preparation. No, seriously. Stay tuned...