A few weeks ago, I hosted a dinner at my home for a few friends. It wasn’t your regular dinner party because we actually made part of the dinner as a group, then ate it.
Kerry and I have become friends with an amazing sommelier, who offered to prepare a pasta dinner for us and a few friends. Orietta, who is from Italy, made a delicious sausage ragu and we all participated in making the pasta from scratch. Yes, we actually made our own pasta! It was unlike any dinner I’ve ever hosted or attended. It was so much fun.
Luckily, I have quite a few large butcher block cutting boards made from our old maple counter tops when we remodeled a couple of years ago. So, we all poured flour onto our cutting boards, beat an egg into it and kneaded our dough into smooth balls. Each of us, manned with our rolling pins, rolled and cut thin strips of fresh pasta. We made beautiful delicate linguine.
It had to rest for a half an hour before cooking, so it was the perfect time to share a bottle of Dom Perignon, an amazing and generous gift from one my guests, who is the chef and owner of a popular restaurant in our area. I’m not a champagne drinker, but after having my first taste of Dom Perignon, oh yeah, pour me another glass. I think I can get hooked…if I could afford it.
Anyway, our pasta dinner was delightful. Another guest made a beautiful salad, we had some pugliese bread, and of course, lots of wine.
I wanted everyone to go home with some sweets, so I made my Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Grahams for my dinner party favors. Some were dipped in milk chocolate, some in dark chocolate. And I wrapped them in spring colors to make them cheerful.
I used cellophane bags that you can purchase at any craft store. The seal on the front of the bags says, From the Kitchen of Pearl, a cute touch if you have them. The little green and blue buds are picks from the craft store also. I spent a total of two dollars on them. The ribbon came from my stash, but you can also buy 3-yard rolls from the craft stores for about a dollar. It doesn’t take a ton of money to dress up a party favor to look like a million bucks.
Yes, you probably noticed it’s a pretty big bag of goodies because well, these were special people. But, smaller favor bags would look just as impressive.
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