Summer Dinner Party

I made a massive error when I registered for my wedding. I assumed 12 placesettings would be more than enough for any event I would host that would merit china. I was wrong. My last dinner party fell on a date that worked for everyone, which meant dinner for 15. Luckily, my friend Courtney has a very similar china pattern that she let me borrow (and I still need to return.) Lenox or Waterford, plain china with a silver rim never goes out of style. I do have my grandmother's silver, which doesn't seem to have the same number of any piece. There were at least 15 spoons, forks and salad forks, but I was short a knife. Her silver also has one "child" sized set, so one guest had a knife about the size of a salad for. I wonder if she noticed...

The more the merrier definitely applied to this party! After much furniture arranging and re-arranging, with Miss F's help, I decided to push the kitchen table up to the dining room table so that everyone wouldn't be cramped on one table and we wouldn't be separated, I worried that the people stuck in the kitchen would feel like they were banished to the kids' table.  I had 20 feet of table to decorate, so I decided to keep it really simple.  I used three white tablecloths overlapped to keep things cohesive.  I put a Gerber daisy in dollar store vases at each placesetting, so there was a pop of color at each seat.  I printed out menus on plain cardstock with a pink Gerber daisy sketch on each to tie in with the simple flower arrangements.

Cooking for 15 was daunting, but totally doable.  I was able to prepare most of the menu well in advance, which made things easy come party time.  The menu included shrimp scampi bites, bruschetta with mozzarella and tomatoes, mixed greens with creamy Italian dressing, herb marinated pork tenderloin, baked penne with corn, zucchini and basil, mozzarella basil bread and a strawberry Italian crème cake for dessert.  The pork and pasta baked at the same temperature and time (I so wish I had a second oven,) which made things very easy.  I just added the bread to the oven to warm while the pork was resting.  Thanks to all my friends for all their assistance in plating and serving, there is no way I could have done it all for 15 people.  As always, it was an amazingly fun time and I am so happy to have so many fantastic women in my life.

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