In this time of the pandemic, we all crave human interaction with others, especially those who are considered our closest friends. Although everyone is encouraged to stay away from each other, it is not a realistic endeavor for long periods of time. Of course, everyone should be mindful of illness when accepting invitations, but this should be something we always do no matter if there is a global issue of disease or not. If you know you are free and clear of illness and your potential guests know they are free and clear, it is a good time to plan a spur-of-the-moment night of fun!
Gatherings with your close friends or family can be thrown together at the last minute with whatever you have on hand. I can guarantee that those who are close to you will not care if you only have chips and dip to serve them or if you have clutter laying around (see the drawers under my kitchen desk in the image below). In fact, your guests will more than likely offer to share their bounty as well. The time together right now is more precious than the food you lay out, but I bet you have more on hand to serve than you think you do.
The first thing to do is to look in your pantry and refrigerator. On a recent get-together, I was able to scrounge around my cupboards and ended up with what you see below.
I had to take into account that our friends who would visit were GFDF, so I was looking for a variety of items that would appeal to everyone and keep to special dietary needs. Veggies are always a good bet; I had an opened bag of broccoli florets and celery sticks from Costco, half a large cucumber and green bell pepper, 4 large carrots and some yellow squash in my refrigerator. I also found a new container of Medjool dates (SCORE!) to fill in an opening on my compartmentalized crudites tray.
Fortunately, I had gone to the grocery store recently and bought some non-Keto contraband for a trip we were taking the next week. I had a bag of potato chips and blue corn tortillas from Aldi that I was willing to sacrifice for our gathering and also some almond flour crackers from Costco and several boxes of pecan Nut Thins I bought from a recent sale at Kroger.
No one likes veggies and chips without something to dip them in, so I looked around for something to use for that. Come to find out, I had dip aplenty on this night. I found a brand new Aldi hummus, which is lovely with a generous drizzle of olive oil and sprinkled with smoked paprika. As you can see, I placed the container in the center of the crudites tray. I also found a package of guacamole single servings. Two more dips that were not dairy free that I found were some cajun crab dip and an artichoke jalapeno dip, both from Aldi. These were not dairy free, but the variety offered a little more leeway for my guest to enjoy the other dips that were dairy free.
Like I said before, your guests will most likely offer to bring something to share for your impromptu gathering. We did not request our guests to bring anything, but they arrived with a container of strawberries, some nuts and a bottle of white wine. Speaking of which, we had a bottle of red wine to share. Everything worked out perfectly.
If you are having guests over, whether they are frequent visitors or not, why not make it a little special? Get out some nice serving pieces to serve your snacks or food. Pretty dishes and glassware add a little sparkle and color to the table.
I forgot to mention that it was a beautiful spring day in southeast Texas, so we were definitely headed out to the deck to enjoy the nice evening with a glass of wine and good friends. I placed some of my snacks on a large cookie sheet to make it easier to carry the items to the table outside. When the sky looks like this:
… you have to take advantage of the day that God gave you and have a wonderful time together.
