Friday, August 21, 2009

My Big Fat Saturday Night


We are hosting a wine tasting party at our house Saturday night. The wine expert brings all the wine so we don't have to worry about that. We are serving cheese, crackers, fruit and other light snacks with the wine, then coffee and desserts at the end. I have the wine tasting area set up in the kitchen/hearth room and the desserts in the dining room.

Last night we bought cheese... all kinds of cheese. Now I have to figure out how to serve them. I don't even own cheese knives. I saw them in a Williams Sonoma catalog... one kind for soft cheese and another kind for hard cheese, but it didn't specify which goes with which... I wonder, do they come with instructions? I don't have cheese boards either, or those little signs on which you write the type of cheese. Oh dear!

I will have to find some good produce. My local grocery never has ripe pears. Also, I would like to have crudites. I will have to cut them myself because the ones in the store never look really fresh.

I have made a cheesecake and some brownies, and plan to make some key lime squares with a macadamia crust. The cashier at Kroger's suggested I just buy them at Sam's Club... are they as good as home made? I didn't want to take the chance.

Oh, and wine glasses... we have twelve for red and twelve for white. Should be enough for twelve people, right? What if someone wants to start over with a new glass? My sister suggested we need buckets to pour the wine into if they don't want to drink it all. And little pitchers for water to rinse the glasses?

Will people expect more than cheese, crackers and fruit? Am I making this too complicated? Am I obsessing about this too much? Have any of you ever hosted such a thing?

Update: I'm not going to worry about cheese knives. I'm going to use these cute spreaders I already have. They are inspired by my love of the beach, as you may notice!

5 comments:

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Woosh! Sounds like fun, unless the details get you down. I say do what you can and then just enjoy. I heard someone say 'you should not apologize for missing things or having less than what you envisioned...' it puts the focus in the wrong place.
I think you are going to have a good time!

judy in ky said...

Thanks Natalie! I think I will have a good time! Wish you could be here.

rachel said...

As you don't have to worry about the wine, and you have lots of good things to eat, don't fret about the knives and the glasses, and the other stuff that people are perfectly capable of sorting out for themselves, and just relax, enjoy your company, and they will most certainly enjoy yours! What they'll remember is the welcome, the conversation and the fun - just make sure you have some too. I wish I was coming!

Bearette said...

The flip-flop spreaders are cute. I think it sounds like a nice spread. You could probably get away with just crackers, cheese, wine and the key lime, but the brownies and cheesecake will give a nice feeling of abundance.

judy in ky said...

I wish you were all coming!