My Beef Wellington Dinner Party

I'm finally back! Sorry. Sometimes it just takes all of your mental and physical energy to plan for an event. I was pretty consumed for two weeks and now the event is over and I'm back. It all started with my idea to host the next dinner party for our college dinner group. We had been in our new house for three years and never hosted our dinner party group here! Partially because I never knew what we would do with the kids. In those three years, I was mostly nursing and busy with two babies and didn't want to give anyone too much work by leaving them there. Now the little ones are a little older and easier and we decided it was finally time! We asked my parents to take the kids during the dinner portion and would pick them up in time for bed.

When we decided to host, I asked Ted if we could FINALLY buy furniture for our dining room. He agreed it was a good time to buy, now that he had a job and we had paid off the basement. So three weeks before our dinner party, we went shopping for furniture. I might have blogged about it, but in case I didn't, it was a mad rush from store to store with four kids in the car. Ted would pull up to a store, I would dart in and decide if there was anything I liked and I would report back to Ted in the car. It was a crazy day...but I knew what I wanted. Something simple. Sometimes that's hard to find. Are last stop was Macy's, where we knew we had seen a set we liked a couple of weeks earlier, while shopping at the mall. We liked it even more this time around since we had done all our homework before hand. That day we purchased a dining room table, 8 chairs and a china cabinet.

The Friday before we had our dinner party, we had our family room and dining room carpets cleaned. The furniture was delivered the same day (we had to store the pieces in the living room until the carpet dried). Now for decor! I knew right away that the window needed curtains. Before it looked fine without them, but now I need something to balance the china cabinet on the opposite wall. I was on a mission! That same Friday night I ran to JC Penney's and found some panels in the right shade of red that I was looking for (burnt red). I bought two pairs, one for the living room too! I had to wait until Wednesday to get the dining room ones because they had to be ordered through the catalog. I needed a longer length for our sunk in dining room.

The rest of the week was busy with purchasing a new pepper mill and salt shaker, steak knives (we only had 6), water glasses, wine glasses and art work for a big, blank wall. We already had plates that I had collected when I discovered the beauty of cranberry toile. I picked them up in different patterns and liked the idea of mix and match and not having them all in one print. There were plenty of things I borrowed too: a table cloth, a glass water pitcher, a meat thermometer and a pastry brush.

It was so exciting to set my table! I've never done a formal table before! I've never used my new dinner plates! It was bigger to me than the climax of the meal. My dining room was finished! It had a personality now. I didn't realize how much this would complete the house and complete me. Having everyone over and using the room was going to be the best part.

These dinner parties range from casual to formal (but rarely formal in attire). We've done it all: dinner theatre, Oscar parties, theme parties, appetizer nights, pizza nights, etc. Anything goes. Our dinner party friends started as a group of five couples with no kids. In about 12 years, we've weathered a divorce, a death of a spouse, added a couple, and 16 children. It's continued to be an "adults only" affair where we can eat, drink, talk and laugh. We forget about the worries of the world for about 5 hours. We love this group. I wanted to give them something special. I decided to make a Beef Wellington that I had eaten over the holidays at a friends...and loved it!! I had never made a Beef Wellington, but I knew that eating one was heavenly! This recipe is a beef tenderloin, covered in a mushroom/wine/gruyere cheese mixture, baked in a puff pastry and covered with a mushroom/wine sauce that is out of this world.

I wanted to make sure we bought even meat because we were hosting 12 people. Since the divorced friend broke up with the guy she was dating, we ended up having 11 people. I bought a 9 pound beef tenderloin, that was trimmed down to 7 1/2 pounds and then cut in half. I wanted to make sure I had enough, but it was too much. I probably could have gotten away with the 7 pounder that I saw, but oh well.

Ted and I prepared for the party all day. When the guests came, it was time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. And we did! For me, when everyone was there, it was not about my house, not about my new dining room, not about my place settings or new curtains...it was about using it all to entertain them and let them know their importance to us. I love entertaining to show people how much we love them and want them to have a great time at our home. That's what it's all about.