Running Thru Life- Managing a Progressive Dinner

Sorry for my absence yesterday but our household has had a very busy Saturday.  It started out with my long run (9 miles) which was awesome.  I am currently running inside because the high yesterday was 20+ degree which is crazy.  I am fortunate to have a treadmill (future post) which I have been slowly increasing my speed on.  So I ran on the treadmill and got caught up all on my Top Chef episode... thank god for re-run marathons on Saturday mornings.  

The rest of the day we cleaned house, ran some errands, etc.  When it hit 5 pm... it was time to get ready!!!  For what you might ask-  Our Neighborhood Progressive Dinner.

We are fortunate to have three other couples in the neighborhood (4 included my husband/me) who all get along!!  Yeah for neighbors!!!!  So I decided back in December we should have a progressive dinner with all 4 couples.  So you might ask.... what is a progressive dinner.  It is a dinner where each couple is in charge of one course and the couples move from house to house for the next course.  So since we had four couples... we decided to break the houses up accordingly.

First House-  Appetizers and Cocktails

Second House-  Entree #1  (Tasting menu style)

Third House- Entree #2  (Tasting menu style)

Fourth House- Dessert

We ended up pulling out of a hat to determine who did what. 

So the wonderful thing about the progressive dinner is you are not in-charge of a whole meal and you get to change atmospheres every hour or so.  We decided to spend about an hour at each house- which worked really well.

So the first stop -  Appetizers and Drinks

Joe and I 

So for appetizers,  Joe and I decided to go with Bacon Wrapped Scallops (so easy to make) and Mini Slides with Onion/Mushroom topping.  Both extremely easy to make and prepare quickly, which is important. For Cocktails, we opted for the mojitos because you can make a big pitcher ahead of time. 

 

 Here is a picture of the bacon wrapped scallops- we made 2 per person.  They all were gone by the time we moved to the next house.

 

Here the mojitos!!! Cheers to Neighbors.  

 

Mini Sliders with Mushrooms and Onions.... yummy.  

So the next stop was the A's house for our first Entree.  The A's served Salmon, Brusselsprouts with a wonderfully delicious sauce, and sparking wine.  

 

Here is Mrs. A opening our Sparking wine.... Yeah!!!

 

While Mr. A prepared the Salmon...yummy

 

Brusselsprouts cooking away... oven style.

Finished Product!

Now off to the B's House... for Entree #2.
The B's served White Bean Chicken Chill with wine.
It was the perfect thing to warm us up on a cold night.

 

 Finally, we headed our way over to the K's to finish off our night.  

The K's finished with Chocolate Fondue with lots of fun dippins and a varity of warm drinks.  

YUM!!!!

The night was a complete sucess and alot of fun!!! It is definiety something we will do again.  Keep in mind that if you decided to do this with people who do not live near you, you have to factor in driving time and also watch what people are drinking.  We were fortuante to have to just walk one or two houses down... =0)

Stay turn for this weeks posts... Running the Life-  Equipment Needed