Last-Minute Dinner Party…My Favorite Way to Entertain

I love to play the part of hostess and I love to cook for friends. But when I’m busy and stressed, I can’t bring myself to add a dinner party to our already hectic schedules.

That’s why it’s so great that we have friends who, on a moment’s notice, will take us up on a dinner invite.

These impromptu parties are just delightful. There’s no stress of having my house in order. I’m lucky if I can do a quick pick up, wipe the toothpaste off the sink and make sure there aren’t any bras hanging on doors.

And I don’t have time to fret about getting the menu just right. Whatever we have on hand that we can set out will do.

This weekend, we threw out an invite after laboring several hours on a new (to us) Rick Bayless recipe for beef stuffed gorditas.

The more time we put into the recipe, and the better our house smelled, the more we wanted to share.

Just as we were extending the invite, we realized we were missing a key piece of equipment: a tortilla press. Rather than improvise and roll out the corn masa with my grandmother’s pin, I jumped in the car and headed to our local market.

I called home to find out our invite was accepted, so I picked up a couple dozen limes for Sim’s famous margaritas.

Thirty minutes later, as I was washing our brand new tortilla press, our friends arrived.

My homemade guacamole, two salsas & chips and margaritas seemed to tide everyone over as we all gathered around the stove and recipe book to figure out the final sequence: fry the gorditas until they puffed up like a pita, then slide them onto a plate, drain, slit, stuff and serve.

Not exactly elegant, but a lot of fun. I think Bayless would approve.

Oh, and it was delicious.

We figured we could stuff those suckers with any savory combo we could think of. I could even see those being good with a cinnamon apple or summer fruit filling.

The best part was sharing the evening with friends, who aren’t offended by a last-minute invite and are adventurous enough to let us use them to test new recipes.

Menu:

Guacamole (with mashed avocados; grated tomato, white onion, and serrano; fresh-squeezed lime juice; chopped cilantro; and salt to taste.)

Chipotle salsa

Chunky salsa

Chips

Margaritas served in honey- and salt-rimmed glasses

Tossed salad (mixed greens, tomato, avocado)

Gorditas with Classic Shredded Beef (recipe from Mexico One Plate at a Time)