Open House Policy

I love dinner guests. I love houseguests. I love it when friends stop by to drop something off and end up staying for a tea or wine.
And...
I love living by myself in my own space. The better to entertain you with, my dears.

As you may have noticed, I don't tend to shy away from visitors, rather I love the idea of getting to show my neighborhood off and share space with friends I haven't seen for awhile. It's familial and even the odd unexpected dinner guest will be fed. We can always add a little more water to the soup pot.

That said, as I've been preparing my house for one of its favorite guests this week, I got to thinking. What are some of the things you do to make your friends feel at home in your home? You've all likely entertained to different degrees and everyone has their own spin...I'm very very curious about this.

A lot of the time it can be about compromise. For instance, I will always have something my dinner peeps like to drink on hand and a snack of some kind but there may be some dishes in the sink, I may give you a cutting board to put you to work and please disregard the laundry basket overflowing on the other side of that wall yonder.

My mom would cringe at the state of my house when I've allowed people over. Nay...invited people over:) No one's ever seemed too surprised, there's no pretension (my hair expands by an inch for every 30 degrees the oven I'm standing over heats up) and no one ever leaves hungry.

If I have a house guest, a few surefire things...

1. Still with the beverage and snack to suit their tastes and time of arrival.
2. Blankets that still smell like a dryer sheet and when appropriate, a blow-up mattress already made into a bed in my "office."
3. A spot cleared for any luggage with a clean towel sitting atop.
4. Something homemade. A pizza, some crab bites or even just brownies. There may be dust bunnies that scare the shit out of HoneyCat, but there are always baked goods in Wicked Park.
5. If I have extra time/product, I'll throw shampoo in the shower that works for their hair. My old job gave me a ridiculous amount of product (Tenses are interesting because I'm not technically done but almost. You catch the drift). I'm hoping to get a few recipes for #4 out of my new one!

Now fortunately/unfortunately tonight, I have a little extra time to prepare because J's first flight was cancelled. Looking like a late one so I'm holding the flank steak and the herbed summer squash and potato torte. But I'm keeping the peach and blue or blackberry amazingness that I'll start compiling on my return to the homefront.

I think I may be able to top that pie...