Challenge #4: Have a Party

But wait, you say, I'm not a party person.  Or maybe you say, but I don't have any money for a party.  Or maybe you say, I have no room for a party.

Let me clarify "party".  By party, I do not mean some raucous drunken bash.  By party, I don't mean a soiree for dozens of people, complete with table linens and wait staff.  By party, I don't mean coughing up a chunk of change for fancy eats.  Nor do I mean inviting a bunch of people--or even one person--to your home.

Unless you want to.  Then, by all means, go right ahead!

What I am thinking of is more along then lines of planning something that is out of your normal routine.  For us, and why I chose to make having a party this week's challenge, this means changing up our normal menu and dinner time regimen for the Super Bowl.

We don't invite a crowd to our house on Super Bowl Sunday.  Normally, we don't invite anyone at all.  But we still call it a party because on that day, DH, I, and whichever of our offspring are home, eat stuff we don't eat very often, and we eat it not at the dinner table but in the living room in front of the TV.

Maybe eating in front of the TV is not out of the ordinary at your house.  In which case you'll have to figure out something different for your 'party'.  ;0)  For us, however, meals are eaten together at the table, so to eat in the living room is somewhat a special event.

This year our Super Bowl menu seems to be evolving to look like this:

• buffalo chicken wings (from scratch, using wings from chickens I raised last year--on butchering day I always put the wings from parted-out chickens into a separate freezer bag just for Super Bowl), 
• either a cheese ball or a dip made with cream cheese & sour cream with herbs and garlic, 
• crackers, 
• a rather bland batch of homemade venison hunter sticks cut into pieces and doused in BBQ or chili sauce (think cocktail weiners), 
• probably some carrot and celery sticks
• pickled hot peppers and dill pickles
• cake or cupcakes or brownies  (in other words, some sort of dessert probably involving chocolate)

Definitely not our ordinary healthy dinner fare.  But, you know what, that's what makes it a party.  And we're not spending tons of money on ready to serve chicken wings and cocktail weinies and cheese balls.  Nope, we're taking stuff we all ready have and making it into party food.

If you don't want to do Super Bowl, your party can have some other theme.  Maybe you want to have an Olympics party.  Or a Valentine's Day party.  Or maybe invite a good friend over for lunch any old day.  Or have a weekend baking session with the kids.  Or get together with your parents or siblings on a day that isn't a holiday.  Maybe your party is just being alone for an afternoon while your spouse takes the kids out for some activities without you.  Ahh, peace and quiet!

Point being, a party can be whatever you want it to be, as long as it isn't your same-old-same-old.  It is something you plan, look forward to, and enjoy while it's happening.  Have a party.