Beer pong to beer bread and beer-glazed steak

With the family l’chaim over (we all had a great time celebrating), and the engagement party not planned till the end of the summer, I intended to concentrate on upcoming catering responsibilities and meeting with clients. Some family celebrations continue, however, as so, last Thursday, before meeting a client, I asked my daughter if she was all set for the “kids only” party. Jordana assured me all was set and that she and Dan had it all under control. It was to take place at Dan’s house and was going to be laid-back and no fuss.

Hmm, maybe she was starting to take after me, after all. Was she actually taking care of all the details for their party? Jordana does not share my love of creativity when it comes to cooking, baking or setting up and entertaining; she loves to make salads and will try out some new recipes, but she’d much rather be kickboxing, at a Springsteen concert, or on the basketball court.

Friday morning I asked if she had bought the snacks, drinks, paper goods etc. She said she would take care it that day. The keg of beer was on order, and that seemed most important. Of course it was Friday and the party was on Saturday night, so I told her I would pick up the snacks. I bought multiple bags of chips, pretzels, tortia chips, and some other snacks.

Not sure that was enough, I bought some chocolates and cookies too.

Wondering when she would have time to get dressed and set out the food, I offered to run over after Shabbos and help set up. After all, Dan’s mom was courageous enough to host a party with over 100 fun-loving kids; it was the least I could do!

My daughter saw me taking out my serving pieces and asked what I was doing. I told her I was just getting together some nice serving pieces to set her snacks out on. “You’re kidding right?” She asked. “What were you planning to do with your chips?” I asked in return. “Just serve them out of the bags, we don’t care, it’s not a fancy party,” she replied.