Hospitality & Entertaining – Entertaining On A Budget

While extending hospitality doesn’t have to involve anything extravagant it can become fairly expensive in a hurry.  Sometimes the budget just doesn’t allow spending a lot of money on one meal or event.  Fortunately, entertaining at home doesn’t have to be expensive. 

Here are some of my favorite ways to keep entertaining at home budget friendly:

Serve a taco/burrito buffet.  Inexpensive ingredients like beans, rice, and vegetables can be used to stretch more expensive items like meat and dips.  It also allows everyone to customize their own meal to their liking.  This works especially well if you’re hosting a large group, or if anyone has any dietary restrictions. 

Serve soup or chili.  This works especially well during the colder months. Chili is inexpensive to make, and you can stretch it even further by serving rice and/or macaroni noodles with it.  Biscuits, bread, or cornmeal help to stretch it even further, and are just perfect with soup or chili.

Have a brunch or serve breakfast for dinner.  Breakfast foods are typically less expensive to make, and most people don’t seem to have time for a big breakfast due to work.  Take advantage of that and serve breakfast for dinner or host a weekend brunch.

Serve what’s on sale/in season.  Let the grocery store sale ad or what’s ready from the garden help determine your menu.  In season foods usually taste better anyway.

So what about you?  What are your tips and tricks for entertaining on a budget? 

Hospitality & Entertaining – Little Touches Make a Big Difference

You don’t have to go all out or do anything extravagant to make someone feel welcome in your home.  Sometimes the smallest things are enough to do it. 

One of the best examples I can think of is when Nick and I first started dating.  He has a friend, Ben, whose mom, Martha, has become sort of a second mom to Nick over the years.  At the time, Martha cooked a big family dinner once a week for everyone (and I do mean everyone) who wanted to come eat.  The first time I met their family was at one of those dinners.

It came up that I don’t eat chocolate.  I didn’t think much about it.  I know it’s weird not to eat chocolate, and I’m used to skipping dessert at a lot of functions because everyone loves chocolate.  The next week and the next dinner came around and Martha had vanilla ice cream sandwiches in the freezer. 

That made me feel so good!  It felt like she wanted me to be there, and like what I liked was important to her.  I know ice cream sandwiches aren’t a huge thing, but the thoughtfulness meant so much. 

Here are some little touches I’ve found that seem to make a big difference to guests:

-          If you’re making or buying someone’s birthday cake try to get the writing in their favorite color(s).

-          If someone has a soda or juice that you know they absolutely love try to have that on hand when they come to your home.

-          Make someone’s favorite meal, or side dish, or dessert when they’re coming to dinner.

So what about you?  What are some of the little things that you think make a big difference when it comes to hospitality? 

Hospitality & Entertaining – Don’t Do It If Your Heart Isn’t In It

You may be sitting there thinking “Isn’t this supposed to be part of a series about hospitality and entertaining?  Then why is she saying ‘don’t do it’? That could have just been one post, not a two week series.” 

I’m definitely not saying “don’t do it”.  I’m saying don’t do it with the wrong attitude.  Let me explain.

When I was a child, my parents (and by extension my sister and I) belonged to a religion that didn’t have regular preachers/priests/reverends.  Once the men achieved a certain rank they were part of a rotation that delivered the Sunday sermon. Sometimes there was trading out among local congregations.  My dad got added to the rotation when I was about ten years old.  There was also a tradition of all of the families in the congregation being on a list to rotate extending hospitality to whoever delivered the Sunday sermon and their family.  It sounds kind of nice in theory, but the reality was anything but.

You see, the hospitality list was more obligatory than voluntary, and there was no choosing who you’d end up with.  Very often “hospitality” was extended grudgingly.  Sometimes the host family just didn’t care much for the person who’d delivered the sermon.  Sometimes the host family just didn’t want to entertain that weekend.  Sometimes the tension was very nearly unbearable.  I can’t even count the times I sat at someone’s dining room table silently promising myself that when I grew up and had my own house, no one who came over would feel that way. 

That’s not what hospitality is supposed to be.  Guests shouldn’t feel resented and wonder what in the world they’re even doing there.  No one wants to suffer through that sort of “hospitality”. 

It’s okay to take a break from extending hospitality.  You don’t want to be miserable, and you don’t want to make your guests miserable.  Maybe you’ve thrown a Christmas party every year for the past ten years, but you just don’t feel like doing it this year.  Don’t.  If your heart isn’t in it, you’re probably not going to enjoy it, and that’s something that your guests will very likely pick up on. 

Take a break.  Regroup.  Maybe revamp how you choose to entertain at home, or re-work your guest list.  Do whatever it is you need to do to go back to wanting to extend hospitality and entertain in your home.  You’ll enjoy it more, and your guests will feel welcome and glad to have been invited.  

Hospitality & Entertaining – Starting Small

If you’ve never entertained in your home, or if it has been a long time since you’ve entertained in your home, the idea of preparing a meal for a large number of people can be terrifying daunting.  However, extending hospitality doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  You really don’t have to start off with a multi-course formal dinner. 

Here are a few ways to start small:

Invite a co-worker home with you for lunch.  Is it your usual lunchtime routine to go home and make a sandwich?  Why not invite a co-worker along?  It’s a simple thing, and there’s a time limit, but you’re still extending hospitality.

Invite a neighbor in for coffee/muffins/iced tea.  Do you have a neighbor that you’re kind of friendly with?  Consider inviting them into your home for a hot cup of coffee on a cold day, or maybe a glass of iced tea on a warm day when they’ve been out doing yard work. 

Invite friends back to your home after another event.  There are lots of events going on during this time of year: tree lightings, shopping trips with friends, going to look at Christmas lights, etc.  Extend an invitation to go to your home afterward for something simple, maybe hot cocoa or hot apple cider.

What you offer isn’t as important as the gesture.  Maybe you make the world’s best chocolate chip cookies, and you can share them with guests in your home.  That’s wonderful.  Or maybe you can’t bake to save your life, and you invite guests into your home to share Chips Ahoy cookies. That’s wonderful too. 

Hospitality & Entertaining – Why I Love Entertaining At Home

I’ve been asked more than once why I choose to entertain at home so often.  Many people make the argument that it can involve a lot of time, work, energy, and money. They question whether or not the return is worth the investment.  For me, it absolutely is.

I love feeding people, I love the look on someone’s face when they realize someone remembered and made their favorite dessert.  I love the feeling that friends/family are comfortable in our home and that we can sit around and chat for hours if we choose. 

If I took the time to sit down and write them out, there are probably hundreds of reasons why I love entertaining at home, but I’m not going to do that, so here are my top five:

1.        Entertaining at home is a great way to get to know someone better.  People seem to naturally be more relaxed in a home environment, so you get to know the “real” person.

2.       It’s much more budget friendly to invite someone into your home for a simple meal than it is to go out for a similar meal. Budgets don’t always allow going out to eat, but that’s no reason to miss out on the companionship of a shared meal.

3.       It makes people feel really good when you choose to invite them into your home.  Don’t you feel special when someone likes/values/cares enough about you to invite you into their home?  Chances are you can make someone feel really good by extending an invitation.

4.       You’re in control of a lot of things.  I know, this probably makes me sound really Type A, but fear of certain social situations is a really big deal for a lot of people.  At home you’re more able to work with what you’re able to do.  If big crowds/loud music/strange or new foods cause you too much stress then you can keep it small/quiet/familiar in your own home. 

5.       You get to be part of something timeless.  Hospitality and entertaining seem to go back as far as recorded history.  People seemed to want to socialize and open their homes.  My grandmother’s generation could pull a dinner party together without blinking; it was second nature for them.  There’s just something wonderful about continuing that.

So what about you?  What are your favorite reasons for entertaining at home?