Saturday night we had some friends over for a fondue party.
Now, first I should tell you this: One of the differences Mike and I have is that he is quite good at the entertaining thing. He loves finding new recipes and planning the menu and cooking for people. I am one of those people who worries if the house is clean enough to have people over. (It wasn’t as clean as I wanted on Saturday, but my bum foot meant I just couldn’t do everything I wanted.) So I stress when we’re having people over, even when it’s just friends. I get this from my mother. Mike keeps telling me that he would love to have weekly dinners and have people over, just like his family did growing up. To me, that seems unbearably stressful.
However, I am the one who came up with the idea for Saturday’s get-together. So if I was stressed, I brought it upon myself. Honestly, though, Mike shouldered more than his fair share of the preparations, and he did so quite uncomplainingly. I kept offering to help with the food, but he had a plan, and he executed it perfectly.
I loved watching him in action – perfecting the cheese fondue (which we ate entirely too much of), adjusting the flame, explaining the “rules” to those who hadn’t fondued before. He made all these sauces and looked up tons of recipes, and I could see the pleasure on his face as each course got better and better. His face shone when he saw that everyone was enjoying the food he made. I worry too much about perfection – is everybody happy, are they starving and wishing he would shut up so they can just eat already, is the fondue what they expected? I worried that he had done too much and that I wasn’t doing enough. That our friends would think I had made him do everything, even though he kept telling me he didn’t need any help. He, on the other hand, doesn’t worry so much about what people think. I can hear his voice telling me over and over, every time we host a get-together, “They are our friends. They care about us and they aren’t as critical as you think. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect.”
The amazing thing is, in spite of my worries, it kind of was perfect. We ate for hours and had good, real conversation for hours after that. We took a bunch of hysterical pictures and acted silly. And when our friends finally left just after 1:00 am, Mike turned to me on the porch and said, “That was one of the best get-togethers we’ve ever hosted. Thank you for inviting them.” He did all the work, and he’s thanking me.
I am blessed indeed.
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18 Comments
Sounds wonderful.
[I have never had cheese fondue. I didn't know that you could fondue cheese. Beef fondue is a Morris family Christmas/New Year's tradition.]
You melt the cheese with some cornstarch to help it not be too clumpy and beer for flavor and then you dip things like apples and bread in it. We did cheddar cheese on Saturday, but when we go to the Melting Pot, we like the fiesta cheese with a little kick to it.
I always miss the best parties.
we fondue every year on our anniversary.. because we got engaged at The Melting Pot..
Fondue is fun..
Our first date was at the Melting Pot. Yay, Melting Pot!
I hope that Mike relayed the VERY important rule of fondue: if you drop the bread in the pot, you have to kiss the person on your left!!!
I used to have a Swiss roommate. We liked our fondue parties.
Awww, that made me a little teary!! And don’t worry, Mic, Mike definitely relayed the rule… and KARI – THE HOUSE LOOKED FINE. IMPECCABLY CLEAN. So stop stressing
Your house wasnt clean enough? Okay, your never coming to my house then!
It was a wonderful evening. Jace and I both think it was a huge highlight of the weekend. Thank you again for such a fun time! If I ever move to NC, Im so gonna wanna come over once a week, so be prepared. 
Yes, but we didn’t enforce that rule, since Jason was to Mike’s left (until Susan got there).
I am glad you guys had fun. We had SO MUCH FUN.
Yeah, Kari…you can never come to my house. You would be appalled at how dirty it is.
Mike is great!!!
alis… that would be me… and what was funny about the whole “rule” when we were suppost to abide by it was that we both thught the other wouldnt appericate it if the other did that to the other in front of friends. We both would have if we had made it clear it was an okay thing to do. Oh well, I’ll make sure to drop meat to make up for it next time.
alisa.. was that last comment in code language or something.. because Ive read it 4 times and I still cant figure out what you’re saying..
She and Jason didn’t kiss when they dropped stuff in the pot. She’s saying they didn’t do it because they both weren’t sure how the other would feel about PDA.
from now on.. kari will act as my personal “alisa to english dictionkari”
hehehe..
DictionKari? That is a TERRIBLE pun.
I specialize is terrible puns..
you might say that they are “punthetic”
Oh, no. The torture!
TORTURE?.. no way!.
this is Pun
I mean Fun..