A couple of weeks ago, we had a few people over for dinner – we knew these people through Joe (mom’s boyfriend), and had met them at the Meetup at my house back in August. Mark’s daughter has been pretty sick lately, so we wanted to give her a nice afternoon filled with good food and Wii playing to cheer her up a bit.
So we planned on and expected 7 for dinner. A couple of hours before dinner, we found at that 7 would be 13, because the other kids were coming along too. 
After the panic passed, we went about stretching out what we had planned to make to feed double the amount of people. Since I usually cook for an army anyway, it really wasn’t too tough.
One thing that wasn’t originally on the menu, but made it there after I realized that we would have more people is this tomato salad I whipped up with stuff we had in the fridge. So, so simple. I’m submitting this recipe to the Culinarty blogging event.
Heirloom Tomato Salad
basket of assorted heirloom tomatoes, cut into quarters
1 onion, thinly sliced
handful of torn basil leaves
olive oil, to taste
balsamic vinegar or glaze, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
Mix all ingredients together, and allow to sit for an hour before serving to let flavors meld properly.
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We also served a ratatouille tart from Sassafras Bakery, a cheese plate, some Italian salad with homemade creamy Italian dressing that Joe made, some garlic bread that my mother made, some baked ziti and spaghetti with meatballs and sausage, the antipasto below (from Carfagna’s), and a couple of kinds of cake.
I was unsure if we’d have enough room for everyone (or if I could handle a dinner party for 12 at my house), and we came up with a great solution. We set the main table:
And then pulled the table from the dinette into the foyer, so we’d have some overflow. It worked swimmingly.
Now that I know that I have the room to handle it, maybe I should plan more dinner parties?
