Entertaining

This last Sunday we had the great opportunity to have our good friends, the Southwicks, over for dinner and Robert's little brother and his girlfriend. When we were first married, we loved to entertain people at our home. We would usually invite another couple over for dinner and games and we would go all out for dinner. But since moving to Rigby, we have had many things that have put entertaining by the wayside and I forgot how much I have missed cooking for other people and just plain enjoying other people's company for an evening. We are starting to get low on our meat supply and I only had two roasts to choose from for dinner, both being on the slim side for 6 adults, so I thought I would try making Hutspot to help make up the difference. Hudspot is a traditional Dutch dish my mother's father told us about and that I grew up having once or twice a year. It is basically potatoes, carrots and onions all peeled, cut and cooked until mushy and mashed together with gravy on top. It was a big hit and I am so grateful to have such a strong husband to help with all the mashing! The other big hit of the night was the dessert. The Southwicks have been in Boise for the last year or so and have not had the privilege to try my cake creations and requested that I make something special. (ok, they didn't say that exactly, but it was explicitly implied) I am making a cake next week for my sister's baby blessing and then two weeks later we are making a dozen pies for Thanksgiving, so I decided to go a little lighter and try filled cupcakes. I think most have picked up that my favorite combo is the cream cheese frosting with strawberries with either white or strawberry cake, so I made white cupcakes and filled them with a variety of fruit fillings (including strawberry) and iced them generously with cream cheese icing. I should have taken a picture, but by the time I thought of it, all 24 cupcakes were gone - and yes, they were that good! I really liked the idea to fill the cupcakes, although I need to work on sensing how much filling I have squirted in. So another success is added to my belt of yummy desserts. Thanks so much to the Southwicks for driving out to our place and bringing Ticket to Ride - it was great to enjoy the old times of entertaining friends with good food and fun!!