B (31:57)
Notes okay, we've had some slight technical difficulties, so I hate to interrupt this mid episode, but I actually lost Wi Fi, so Elizabeth and I had to stop recording. I've since now come to a friend's house who has Wi Fi. Elizabeth now cannot join, so I got to finish this up solo. But that's okay because I was almost done with all my hosting notes. The last thing I wanted to dive into, though, was, like, my must haves, like, things to keep on hand that aren't food related. Because I told you my must have foods. Now I want to tell you, like, my. My paper products, because one thing is, it's like I'm going to be a paper product girl when I'm hosting for a couple reasons. One, I find it so much easier, too. I also really value a quick cleanup when I'm hosting because I don't like the vibes of sitting with dirty dishes, like, at a table. Like, to me, if we're like, having good conversation, like, we want to keep the party going. Like, I want people to relax at my house or feel like they can go to the living room, go to the sunroom, like, leave the kitchen, relax. I'm able to throw everything away. So that's where I just really feel like paper products are the goat. Of course, you don't have to. And we don't. We don't use paper products outside of hosting. Like, we don't use them in our daily life. But for hosting, yeah, I like to use them. I feel so strongly that the chinat plates are so good, especially for adults I have sometimes, which maybe this is weird, maybe it's not, but, like, I'll give the kids a Dixie. Like, sure. But an adult, especially if they're, like, cutting or, you know, put, like, filling a plate, like, they need the sturdiness of a Chinatown. And I just think they're a nice thing to have on hand. They look really good. They. And they just. They honestly just hold up, like, sorry. Like, they work okay. I also like to have plastic forks, knives, and spoons. Not a total deal breaker. Like, I. I find that it's very easy to wash silverware. So if I don't have those, like, we just use the regular silverware. And then for kids who need sippy cups, we do bring out the sippy cups that we have. But I also like to like, if we're having a lot of people, and I don't want to, like, dirty every sippy cup I have. I love to get. You can buy these on Amazon. And I'm Going to link everything, any hosting related thing that I'm talking about, but you can link, you can buy clear cups with clear lids off Amazon. And I love to serve those with like bendy straws by whatever drinks we're doing. Because I think a kid with a straw cup and a lid, like, that's, that's basically the same thing as a sippy cup. So I'm never scared to pull those out. I also just think a clear plastic cup, like for an adult to drink an iced tea out of is like kind of a nice vibe, but it's still plastic. And speaking of drinks, I don't think I mentioned this earlier. I always like to keep like in the fridge, like, you know, some sodas. Tyler will always have some beer. I'll have a couple seltzers on hand. I always bring up a bottle of white wine, like if that's the vibe. And I always offer the white wine. Tyler will always offer a beer. Sometimes I'll do like a signature cocktail. Like again, if I want to be fun or if like we're having a super simple dinner, I think it's fun to be like, hey, I'm making margaritas or hey, I'm making mascot mules. Do you want one? Like, if that's the vibe, I do think that's a fun way to take maybe your more simple meal and make it something exciting. Kind of same thing earlier. You know, you could say, hey, you know, we're grilling burgers if you want to come over. But I'm making margaritas. Like, no, I'm there. Like that's, that's the activity then. So, but anyway, back to drinks though. So but if we're not doing a cocktail, I like to buy a gallon of unsweetened iced tea and a gallon of lemonade. And this is I guess more for a party. Like I'm just having people over. I'd probably just offer water. Maybe I'd make like, I probably would just offer water, maybe iced tea and then have drink boxes for the kids. But for Libby's birthday this past weekend, we did have iced tea, lemonade. And it was awesome because then it's what it is. It's three drinks in one. Like then the kids can have lemonade or adults can have lemonade. You can have an unsweet tea or you can mix them for an Arnold Palmer. Like there's just like it's three drinks in one of just having those two things there. So I really enjoyed that vibe. When you do the clear plastic lids, cups and straws Though I highly suggest leaving a sharpie out so everyone can write their names on the cups because they do start to look alike. And then I also am a big fan of an ice bucket. I just don't like the vibes of like and maybe unfortunately for me, my fridge doesn't have an ice dispenser. It's only in the freezer. And some people are like opening the drawer and like trying to find the ice and it's just not fun. So I do always, even if it's just like a couple of people, I always get my ice bucket out and put it out there with the lids and straws for them to make their own drinks. Okay, next couple of things. These are specific. I always keep them on hand though. I love the parchment papers. Like I'm telling you, if you buy these 12 sheets, if you buy these pre cut parchment paper sleeves, you will be amazed how often you use them in everything in baking cookies. And you know what, it makes for easy cleanup. Because like you bake cookies, you pull them out, you take off the parchment paper and then you can put the pan back in the drawer. Like it makes things so much easier to clean. It's so helpful for grilling because I'll just get one pan dirty. I'll get the pan and then I'll do the parchment paper, put like my meat on it and then I'll go and grill it and then I'll pull the parchment paper off because I don't want like raw meat to touch what, you know, the pan obviously. And then I'm just getting one thing dirty. So I cannot recommend those enough. Those parchment paper sheets are so helpful. I also earlier this summer bought from Costco a giant or several like 9x13 foil pans, like things you would make like casseroles in for your freezer. And I love using those for, for, for prepping the food, for grilling with the food because it's such a nice thing to put them in one of those pans and then you can put those in the oven to keep them warm. So I'm a really big fan of having the food ready before people come. I just find that it allows me to be more present with the, with the guests. And you know, I don't always love the vibe unless the vibe is like we're grilling, we're hanging outside. I don't love looking busy. I love just being there to visit with people. So I love having these 9 by 13s. I will grill, put all the meat in there. I will make A salad. Put it in there. I'll do garlic bread. Put it in there. Like, I just have these 9x13s. They're so easy. And then of course, you can just dispose of them also, which is nice. I won't do that all the time, but they're good to have on hand and I will always do it for the meat. And then I think the last favorite product that I highly suggest is to go containers, like the clamshell. To go containers. Again, you can buy these on Amazon. And these are awesome because it's. It makes it so easy for your guests to say yes to taking food home. You know, you always have extra. And I want to send it home with people. Like, I don't want to keep all the leftovers, but instead of being like, oh, do you want to take some home? And then like, it's that so awkward of like, what do I put it in? I won't have to bring your container back. I just get out the clamshells and I'm like, hey, I'm going to. I'm going to put some of this pork in here for you guys to take home. And they're like, okay, great. And it's just like, very easily gets. I am able to share the food, get it out of my house. They get to take home a nice to go container. And I just think that's a nice touch. I'll also always like to do that if I just have like a mom and her kids over and we're eating dinner or maybe her husband's working late or whatever. I would like to send food home for her husband or for her the next day for lunch, the next day, for her husband, the next day. I always try to send some of the leftovers home because I think that's just a nice thing to do. I think that's kind of what I wanted to say about hosting. I've just really enjoyed getting into the spirit, kind of perfecting the art. And it's such. I mean, you know, you can do nothing and it's. You can do the most, you can do the least. I just think, like, the effort's there. I just feel like it was something that I was more intimidated to do. And now the more I've done it, the more I've really enjoyed opening up our home. And, you know, now it's at the point, like, when it's like, my kids are always like, so who's coming over tonight? And I'm like, no one's coming tonight. It's just us tonight. And when you have as many kids as I, it does feel like I'm always hosting something or someone or I'm just hosting my family, and that's work enough. So I feel like a lot of these tips are kind of, you know, good for hosting, good for just bigger families. Sorry. It was kind of all over the place. And now I'm super thrown off because Elizabeth wasn't even here to finish. Oh, I'll say one more thing. When I am thinking about planning the meals, and again, I told you, I keep it very simple. Like, I keep it so simple. Unless the activity is the meal, then maybe I'll sass it up. Like, for example, like, if the activity is, I'm gonna do hibachi. Like, that's the activity. But if the activity is, hey, do you guys want to come over and swim? Like, it's so simple. But I do try to prioritize, like, only using one section of my kitchen at a time. So, like, for example, if I'm doing. If I'm grilling or if I'm doing. If, yeah, if I'm crock potting the meat, then I'm doing the vegetables on the stove and, like, maybe the potatoes in the oven. So, like, I try to just only use one appliance for one thing, because I think that helps me get things ready all at the same time. I find that's, like, one of the hardest parts about hosting is, like, having everything ready to go hot, like, while we can eat it. So I do think that's very helpful. And then also using the 9x13s, turning my oven on the warming mode and just having the food there that you can so easily pull out, I think it's been super helpful. And if you don't know what to start, like, if you were like, okay. If you're like, okay, I like this. But, like, what should be, like, the first thing I make? I think one, like, one of the best, like, most fun, delicious, easy things you can do is do pulled pork nachos. You can buy the pulled pork from your barbecue restaurant, and then you can just get all the fixings. And this is, like, where you can go as big or as small as you want. Like, if you want to make homemade guacamole go off. If you just want to have barbecue sauce, sour cream, and salsa, that's fine. If you want to do a fire roasted corn and chopped onion and cilantro, great. If you want to buy pico de gallo from Walmart, also great. Like, you can really do the most. And I Love. I think people have a lot of fun, like, making their own. Like, I always love doing meals, especially when we're hosting, that people can just make their own because, like, that's. I just think that's so fun. And if they have kids, like, you can make it way more kid friendly. You can make it way sassier, and. And it definitely gives. It's a fun meal. It's a fun, and it's a good meal. Another example of this is I love doing just, like, appetizers. This would be great if you're, like, doing a football game. Like, hey, you want to go and watch the football game? Like, I'm doing just apps. And all you do is, like, buy all the stuff that's, like, cooked and you just air fry it or do it in your oven. So you could buy, like, mozzarella sticks, mini tacos, maybe order some wings and maybe do a veggie tray. And that's, like, such a fun, easy meal to do. So those are my tips. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I would love to hear, like, any of your super tangible hosting takeaways, and I'd love to encourage you to invite someone into your home as soon as you can. Doesn't matter how big your house is. Like, in a way, the smaller the better, because it keeps people close. And I just think in person, bonding, communication, and relationships are something that we should all be prioritizing right now. I think it's a good example for us to set for our kids, especially as our kids, you know, grow up with screens in social media even more than we did. I don't want it to feel like, oh, I'm talking to my friend, and it's, like, replaced with them on the screen. Like, I want to show to my kids that we really value having people over to our house in person. And, yeah, so that's the episode. I don't know how to wrap this up, but I hope you enjoyed this very special edition of the carpool podcast, Kelly's hosting Edition. Maybe I'll do an update, like, in a couple of months, because I do feel like we're going to kind of slide into fall hosting, which I think is going to feel a lot different than summer hosting because we've spent a lot of time up at the pool or outside or grilling, and I'm excited to see, like, I might try to do, you know, because every Sunday I make a soup when it's colder outside, because I love soups. Like, love soups. So I may try to do, like, Sunday soup hostings and I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do bowl wise. Cause I told you earlier, I don't like those bowls. So I might. I honestly could probably invest in like some better bowls because I think that could be fun. Just like every Sunday we have different people over to have different kind of soup. Okay, I'll think about that. Maybe I'll give you guys an update after soup soup season is over. But anyway, guys, thanks so much for listening to the Carpool podcast and we'll talk to you on Thursday. Thank you for listening to the Carpool.
