I Knew You Were Coming So I Baked a Cake!

Last night, I threw my very first grown-up dinner party. My roommate and I had four guests over, and everyone had a marvelous time.

The menu:

Green Peppers & Grape Tomatoes

sauteed in olive oil with cumin & celery salt

Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken (for the meat-eaters)

Bowtie Pasta (for me)

Carrot Cake (from scratch!)

Brownies (from scratch!)

(My roommate made these, and they were amazing!)

Iced Tea

Water

Dinner conversation followed a winding path, as dinner conversation is wont to do. We covered topics from the Viennese Winter Ball menu to hula hoop construction, symphony concerts to the Disney College Program. Post-dinner, we relocated to the living room. The following excitement ensued:

*One of our guests tuned my roommate's autoharp. They proceeded to play an autoharp-recorder duet of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." There is videographic evidence of this. I have been forbidden to share it.

*Another of our guests is a hula hoop fitness instructor. She gave a short lesson in hula hooping, and then attempts were made with a fair bit of success.

*My feather fans made a brief appearance. My skill is limited, but they're just so fluffy and gorgeous, I couldn't leave them in the box with company over. One of these days, I'll actually learn to use them (and have the confidence to strut about unabashedly with them).

*And finally, there was an hour-long swing dance lesson, covering the basics of 6-count East Coast Swing. With that, much success as well.

On the whole, the evening was a smashing success, and I look forward to future dinner parties. Hopefully, with the weather turning warm, we'll be able to have gatherings out on the balcony. And by balcony, I mean rooftop deck-type thing. It's bigger than our kitchen. It might be bigger than the living room. In any case, it's a marvelous place for a party so we shall simply have to have one.

Also, I was singing this song in my head while I baked the carrot cake: