Hosting a Girlie Dinner Party

Firstly, Happy Mothers Day to all you Mums!!

Being a busy Mum myself. I have a 14 and 12yr old and I run my own business. I work very long hours. I made a promise to myself at the start of the year that I was going to make an effort to see my friends more. Once my youngest started senior school in September and the school runs stopped, I found that it was easy not to keep up with friends like I used to.
I make sure that once every couple of weeks I take a break during my work schedule to meet with friends and have a coffee.
This week I hosted a girlie dinner party for 5 of my favourite girl friends. They didn't all know each other that well but I knew that they would all get on.
I wanted to treat them all to some lovely food and table treats and make them all feel special.
It was so much fun.
For me personally, I love all the planning.
I sent each of them a little invitation.
I made the invites using the Prima Instascrap cards here.

The dinner party went down really well. I was so happy to spend such a lovely evening with these lovely ladies. I dressed the table beautifully.

 

 

 

 

I made sweet little table favour/place settings using old jars, washi tape and tags (and blossom from the garden)

 

 

I used the washi tape from my March and April Cocoa Daisy Kits.

If you would like to make jars like these, I have a full tutorial here.

They are great as little vases and I also use them as tea lights.

 

 

And I made lovely food all from scratch to treat my friends.

 

 

 

 

I really want to recommend these Cheesy Pretzel Bites that I made to go with the homemade tomato and basil soup. They were amazing. I love baking and I think this has to be one of my all time favourite recipes. I found the recipe on Pinterest here.

 

 

 

To go with them I made a normal rich tomato and basil soup.

 

 

To jazz it up a little I made the most delicious cream cheese and basil ice cream. I know it may sound a little odd, but the creaminess and cold of the icecream in contrast with the rich hot soup was so good. I urge you to try it. The great thing is that when hosting a dinner party, both the soup and the ice cream can be made the day before. 

 

If you have an ice cream maker, here's the recipe that I made. I was inspired by this sweeter recipe here.

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• a good couple of hands of fresh basil

• Special equipment: an ice cream maker

Blend cream cheese, milk, sugar, and salt in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, then stir in cream. Freeze cream cheese mixture in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours. Let ice cream soften 5 minutes before serving.

I highly recommend an evening like this.
It was so much fun to treat and spoil my friends and it made a lovely change to play in the kitchen and cook for people that really appreciated it rather than kids that moan at you as it has 'lumps' in it : )

I'm doing afternoon tea next month and I'm already planning.
Enjoy your Mothers Day all you lovely Mums xxx