Family dinner time – summer style

You may call them friends, I call them fam. Same dif.

so cute!

I love cooking. I love eating. I love my friends. Having all of those things happen together = heaven for me.

T-dogg and I have hosted a few dinner parties in our day. We typically keep them very low-key and we like to have gatherings that are interactive. We have done make-your-own pasta night… yum. We’ve done do-it yourself pizza night with the kids – always a hit!

Most recently we decided to go spanish style. This party was 100% inspired by miss Jen. Surprised? I didn’t think so. When she posted about all of the wonderful things to eat when it is ungodly hot out she got me on a gazpacho kick like no other. Also, because of Jen, whenever I think of gazpacho I automatically think tortilla Espanola, bread, and spicy fake brats. Why on earth would I do that? Well… you see when you decide to do a week-long bike tour and Jen is in charge of food, this is what you get on your very first night? Jealous? You should be.

 

Spain on TRAM

 

Spain in our house

 

Amongst many other reasons I love family dinner parties is because in our circle everyone is always eager to bring something which translates to easier on us and more fun for everyone.

Interested in replicating this for your next dinner party? Do it! You will thank me (and Jen). So will your guests.

This is how it all went down…

Tommy and I tag teamed the gazpacho from this recipe of course. And she is SERIOUS when she says put each vegetable SEPARATELY into the food processor. It really matters. We doubled the recipe. There were seven of us and we had a ton of leftovers. I think one batch may have actually done the job since we had so many other “sides”.

so good!

 

Emily made the tortilla from a random recipe we found on google that for some reason I can’t find right now. Jen has a very special, very delicious recipe for her tortilla Espanola but she ain’t sharing it with anyone so this had to do. And do it did, it was delicious. Not as delicious as Jen’s but sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches. Sorry no link:( Em’s recommendation is to be sure to cut the potato uniformly so it cooks all at the same time.

 

Jon and Henriet were in charge of bread and desert. They got both at Trader Joe’s and the bread was actually very good-gotta love that! If you decide to go the fancy route my two fav spots for bread and dessert are Rustica and Salty Tart. I’ve never tasted anything from either that wasn’t delicious.

T and I also provided the brats – these are our favorite. With this meal we love the mexican chipotle flavor but be warned – they are SPICY! We like the Italian flavor for most other occasions.

The official drink of the night was Tincho inspired by my girl Allie over at The Savvy Lush! This stuff screams summer and has me bumpin’ to DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince in my head. *Side note-I just walked away from my computer to make one of these bad boys. Hits the spot.* Now, with this group we don’t mess around with the drinks so there was quite the variety.

You will want to make the gazpacho the night before to allow all of the wonderful flavors to work their magic and if you are really inspired you can make the tortilla Espanola the night before too. They serve the tortilla as a tapa in spain and they serve it cold. If you are going to make it same day perhaps try making it in the morning so it has time to cool.

yeah-that’s 4 coolers for 7 people. Hmmm…

 

Megs and Em

 

Brette and Jen were off the hook for bringing anything this time because T-dogg and I decided like 12 hours before the party to have it so we had everything else covered. So instead we scored BIG TIME and they brought us our own little host gift. At least we will pretend that is what it was. It was actually a bartering tool for our homemade maple syrup from T’s farm . We are happy to oblige.

So there you have it folks. One of the easiest, most delicious dinner parties we’ve had in a while.

 

in all their glory

 

And the best family a girl could ask for.

Tagged as: family dinner, spanish