do you have a recipe that you would like to share
why don't you start first and i'll think about it
okay uh we i find that the nicest party for dinner uh uh group for a dinner party is eight people uh they set at my dining room table easily
and it just seems like you can decorate a table and and you can serve easily with eight people uh particularly if you're wanting to do the soup to nuts thing which uh with my
dishes i have a really pretty soup tureen so i like to start out with you know some kind of soup that nobody's had lately like sauerkraut soup or minestrone depending upon what the menu theme is
um-hum
but one thing that i like to do um
of course i always want to make it easy on the cook and uh the lady who is the manager of the country club gave me a really good recipe for ham loaf that it's something you can make up ahead and then stick in the oven you know
yeah um-hum
after after your guests are here and you've started cocktails really
uh usually course you have to have some kind of entertainment too and and we do play bridge my husband plays when i make him and uh
well usually our friends the women are the bridge players and the men are there because it's an excuse to get together
um-hum
but i do find that in in order to have your party last beyond
the dinner table there have there does have to be something to go on to or you just kind of sit around and everybody goes to sleep and gets bored you know there's got to be a a silly game or a
something fun to do afterwards
yeah um-hum
i would say our dinners are probably more casual than that with um having kids and that kind of stuff it may be inviting you know neighbors over for dinner or something like that but not really we haven't really tried a dinner party i guess
um-hum
you have more summer than we do though
yeah or a barbecue or something like that yeah
yeah we can do that well starting the end of this well starting now we can do that through October
but that's about it for us and then we're basically inside you know even if it's really warm during the day at night it's going to cool off and by the time you would get ready to eat you're going to want to be in
um-hum
right yeah
so our climate is not as conducive to the outdoor entertaining as yours are although it's certainly a lot more casual and a lot more fun
yeah
yeah
keeps the kids busy too gives the grown-ups a chance to well like you said play a game or just talk or something like that
right i
yeah and i think outside you can just kind of kick back and and visit after dinner but is seems like when you're inside the first thing you know someone has turned on a TV and that kind of is the end of your party i think
yeah
that's true yeah
what do you do uh for a barbecue when you cook out what's your favorite thing
well i guess we i we lived in Kansas City for awhile and it was kind of fun to do Mexican food up there because a lot of people didn't really
yeah
hadn't had it before and i know um we were going to make um fajitas one time and the grocery stores i mean the people knew when i asked for the beef skirt that you use to make it they said are you from Texas so it's fun
oh i see you're you're even labeled by your food how do you do fajitas
yeah well it you can either use we've always used um beef skirt steak but you can also use flank steak and you marinate it
the recipe i've used is you marinate it in a can of beer and a bottle of Italian dressing and then you can either grill uh-huh
eight ounce
and then you can either grill it or you can um
broil it we usually grill it outside and then you cut it into real small real thin pieces and serve it on flour tortillas with like grated cheese and sour cream and guacamole and that type of thing
um-hum
i've i've i love Mexican and i'm always doing the hot things and i make my own salsa and all that and it's really spicy but i just haven't had the nerve to try fajitas how large a steak would you need to serve eight people
um-hum
i think i was reading looking at this recipe we're going to have some guests in in a couple of weeks and they said recommend a pound for four people i think three to four people yeah
so i'd need two pounds wouldn't i one pound four people
and then is that a fairly thick steak or
it it's kind of a thin steak
oh
and so it doesn't take very long to to grill
uh-huh so when you when you get it you don't have your meat man cut it to a certain width you just take whatever you find okay flank or skirt
yeah
okay okay i'm i've been wanting to try that and i just haven't got the nerve up i do tacos and enchiladas and all that stuff but
yeah um-hum
okay a can a sixteen ounce can of beer and then you mix eight ounces of Italian dressing with it do you let the beer get flat or
well you just um well i usually just put it like in a Pyrex pan you know i have an eight by or a nine by thirteen pan i put it in there and i pour it over the top and then you just you know turn it leave it in there for overnight or something and turn it every once in awhile
um
um-hum
maybe i usually cover it with Saran wrap or something and then or start it in the morning and it's ready in the evening to cook
um-hum
you know something i do when i marinate steak that you might think is interesting i have a tupperware uh sealed or any plastic sealed and then i just turn it over every once in awhile
um-hum
oh yeah
and it saves you know it's just easy just to turn the whole dish over the whole container over
the whole yeah
yeah
okay yeah so you do grated cheese and guacamole
that would make it nice and easy
and some people like sour cream and then you like warm your um flour tortillas up in the oven
okay
uh-huh okay
where did i write the part about the tortillas warm the tortillas
i usually just wrap them up in foil or something like that and stick them in the oven for awhile
yeah
okay
in fact as a wedding gift we got a tortilla warmer but i don't think very many people have those and it doesn't hold very many tortillas so we don't use that often
i see
uh-huh i'm sure you'd probably i mean the men would eat two and the women would eat one isn't that usually how that goes
probably yeah
because once you get the meat in there it gets pretty filling
uh-huh
yeah what about salsa you can or you can't or you just don't usually put salsa on it you know
oh you can yeah i i'm not into the hot hot food my my husband is but i'm not so
i see
well we have our children all three live here and our two married daughters have three children between them who range from eight to three and
every time they and they always come here for every holiday it seems and birthdays and and every time we always have to start up with something really hot and spicy as an hors d'oeuvres and it gets to be
um-hum
both our son sons-in-law are good cooks and enjoy cooking and it kind of gets to be a contest to see who can come up with the
the hottest yeah
right the hottest almost not eatable hors d'oeuvres to start us out so well it's fun take talking to you i'm going to try fajitas
oh well good well it's nice talking to you where do you live in Indiana i have some relatives that live up um near Terre Haute oh okay
well we're way up the other end of the state we're uh half way between Chicago and Indianapolis on i sixty five so and Terre Haute is you know it's like three hours south
yeah well i know when we flew up there we flew into Indianapolis and then had to drive down there so yeah
um-hum
yeah this is a little town of five thousand just a perfect little town for us retired people and for raising children and
yeah
you know you can go away for a week and you come home and say what happened and they say oh nothing so it's a pretty good spot well have a nice day bye bye
well thank you you too bye
