[Fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Solumina

Jake has invited his family over for his birthday dinner. He decided to do this yesterday, the dinner is today (was going to be tomorrow but his parents want to take us out to dinner tomorrow, not really sure why they couldn't do that today since we had already made plans for tomorrow but that is kind of a different rant). There are a few problems with his family coming over for dinner:

1) I've never cooked for them before (actually I've never cooked a full meal for guests before at all, let alone my in-laws and for a special occasion) so this is kind of a big deal for me and Jake doesn't seem to get that.

2) I work on Thanksgiving so, in addition to being Jake's birthday dinner, this is kind of my Thanksgiving with his family.

3) As much as I like to cook and as I have proven myself to be able to make really yummy food I haven't really gotten down the concept of timing properly so a whole meal doesn't usually end up finishing at the same time, which is fine for just the two of us, we'll just start munching on whatever finishes first.

4) Our place isn't the best to host than four people and there will be at least five, most likely six (the sixth being Shannon's boyfriend, who by the way happens to be a restaurant manager and fantastic cook so no added pressure there). Hell we only have four place mats and four chairs for the dinner table, although the chair situation can be fixed using our desk chairs but still we will have to get a little cozy to fit everyone. There is also the fact that our place is small, it's big for a one bedroom apartment and I love it to bits but still it's not very large so things are going to get a little crowded, no matter how we try to arrange things.

So much for a relaxing day off with my husband.

Can you make it a picnic on the floor? Or an outside picnic if the weather is nice. That way you can get away with salads and don't have to worry about timing.