Soup Night

So tonight I threw a little dinner party, which I called Soup Night. (My new favorite thing about FaceBook is that I can create "events," and invite people to them! It is SO HANDY.) I invited about 20 people using that application, and then another few who weren't on FaceBook, because I didn't want to leave anyone out.

At some point last night, though, as I started counting up the people who might be coming, I started to get a little nervous. When I got out my largest pot this afternoon to make the evening's eponymous soup, I got even more nervous; I wasn't sure it would hold enough for 10 or 12 people. I decided that I would just use all the ingredients I had, and fill the pot as full as I could, and hope for the best.

I peeled and diced a full five pounds of potatoes, but they didn't look like much. I called my mom, who assured me that five pounds of potatoes should feed 10 people, though she did suggest that I double the cornbread recipe. I'd also picked up some crackers, and had dough to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

As it turns out, there were 12 of us total, and I ended up with only about half a cup of soup left at the end of the night, which I interpret to mean that I didn't have quite enough. There were two pieces of cornbread, though, and lots of crackers, and at least half a dozen cookies, so people clearly didn't starve. (Genetically predisposed as I am to want to make WAY too much food, though, I would have been happier with more leftovers; I think people would have eaten more soup had I had it.)

Aside from being a bit stressed over not having enough food, I had a great time. There's something about saying up front that dinner will be "extremely casual" and consist just of soup, cornbread, and cookies, that lowers expectations delightfully--as does holding a "dinner party" in the middle of the week.

The thing is, it's just way more fun to cook for, and eat with, other people, and people are so happy to eat someone else's cooking, with friends, that they overlook things like a lack of real furniture and a slight scarcity of soup. I think everyone should hold more dinner parties. I certainly intend to.