Hospitality perks

Grilled Chicken Salad and Italian Cheese Bread

Besides the obvious -- good fellowship, laughter, and fun times -- hospitality has a few other perks that make me anxious to open our home regularly.

Motivation.

Motivation to clean, tackle piles of clutter, and clear the counters.

Motivation to cook an especially delicious meal consisting of more than just 3 things.

Serving a meal with many items (for example, salad and/or soup, main course, bread, vegetable, fruit, dessert) is a fun treat... and such a variety almost surely ensures some leftovers for the next day.

Of course, a 5- or 7-course meal is certainly not a requirement in order to practice hospitality. But because I do keep our daily meals fairly simple, it's fun to have something more elaborate every now and then -- and dinner guests is the perfect motivation! :)

Our menu for yesterday's guests:

Grilled Chicken Salad (a cool summer salad that we made entirely in advance; my mom has been giving us lettuce from her garden, so it's "salad season" for us!)
Italian Cheese Bread (an all-time favorite!)
Waldorf Salad (brought by our guests)
Baked Beans (on the stovetop on low heat... too lazy to dig out the crock pot!)
Fresh strawberries (courtesy of our kind neighbor's garden!!)
Disastrous two-layer chocolate cake

There was enough salad, beans, and cake leftover for our lunch today. (I did make more cheese bread to go with it!) We still have baked beans in the fridge for another snack/lunch.

And my house is still cleaner than it was all last week!! ;) I'm in the middle of several projects that have gotten me a little behind in my regular cleaning.

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salad

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2008-06-09 13:44.

that salad is beautiful!! its almost 100 degrees where I live, and Ive been trying to plan cooler meals. It all sounded wonderful!

Motivation

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2008-06-09 13:47.

My husband loves the motivation that comes with guests. He loves our clean house and my cleaning frenzies! The last time though, I went overboard for overnight guests- I had my husband steam cleaning carpets/furniture and washing the walls too! By the time our guests came, we were so exhausted, I'm not sure we really got to enjoy them!

I'm glad things went well

Submitted by simplbrandy on Mon, 2008-06-09 14:01.

I'm glad things went well for you, even if your cake wasn't the prettiest. ;-) The prospect of company is always a great motivator for me.

I've been thinking the same

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2008-06-09 15:53.

I've been thinking the same thing this weekend, after a get-together yesterday. We now have the leftovers for tonight, the clean refrigerator and house, and a beautifully manicured yard! Although I think my husband came close to sun stroke :-(

That sounds good!

Submitted by Martha Artyomenko on Mon, 2008-06-09 22:09.

It sounds really good. I like it when we have someone coming over as it makes me clean up a bit more too.
I though too think, it also makes me scared to have people over when i do not have the time to clean the whole house. I really want to have more people over so I am working on keeping the whole house cleaner and not being scared if it is not just perfect.

No good for the waistline!

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2008-06-09 22:50.

Tammy,
You have inspired me in so many ways, but I have decided that I will stay pudgy ( and happy) because I make it a point to visit your blog daily. I can just taste that cake and you can be sure I will be baking it very soon!
Now that salad looks lovely and healthy so I guess it isn't all bad:)