Hosting on a Weeknight: What I Made for Dinner
I’m trying to get better at not saving all the fun things for the weekend.
Work can be consuming during the week, and while I love getting creative with dinner, actually having people over is something I tend to save for Friday or Saturday, or for a week when I magically have “more time.”
So this week I invited a few friends over on a Thursday instead.
I wanted to make a dinner that felt special without spending the entire evening in the kitchen. Everything was pretty simple, most of it could cook or sit while I worked on something else, and it all looked very cute together on the table.
Here’s what I made.
The Menu
Whole roasted chicken with potatoes
Maple roasted carrots with pesto + pomegranate
Tomato, white bean + basil salad
Orange + garlic marinated olives
Wine, obviously
Whole Roasted Chicken + Potatoes
This was the anchor of dinner and probably the easiest part because once it went into the oven, I mostly left it alone.
You’ll need:
1 whole chicken
About 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, thinly sliced
Butter
Olive oil
1 lemon
Garlic
Fresh thyme or oregano
Salt + pepper
Heat your oven to 425°F.
I sliced the potatoes pretty thinly so they would cook in all of the chicken juices and get nice and soft underneath.
For the chicken, I mixed softened butter with a little olive oil, lemon, garlic, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Rub that all over the chicken.
Heat a cast iron pan, add the chicken and arrange the sliced potatoes all around it. Roast for about an hour, or until the chicken reaches a safe internal temperature of 165°F in the thickest part.
The potatoes underneath might be my favorite part.
Maple Roasted Carrots with Pesto + Pomegranate
This sounds much fancier than it is.
You’ll need:
Carrots
Olive oil
Maple syrup
Sea salt + pepper
Pesto
Pomegranate seeds
Toss the carrots with olive oil, a little maple syrup, salt and pepper. Roast at 425°F until browned and tender.
To serve, spoon pesto over the carrots and scatter pomegranate seeds on top.
I used the premade Costco pesto because Thursday night dinner does not require making pesto from scratch.
Tomato, White Bean + Basil Salad
I made a version of this for my birthday and it disappeared so quickly that I brought it back for dinner.
You’ll need:
4 large tomatoes
About 12 cherry tomatoes
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
A generous handful of fresh basil
Garlic
Red wine vinegar
Fresh lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt + pepper
Cut up the tomatoes and add them to a big serving bowl with the white beans and jalapeño.
I like to tear the basil leaves with my hands instead of chopping them. Add plenty of basil, then dress everything with red wine vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
Toss and let it sit while you finish everything else.
Orange + Garlic Marinated Olives
Ideally, you make marinated olives a few days ahead.
I remembered a few hours ahead. They were still delicious.
You’ll need:
Your favorite olives
Orange peel
Fresh orange juice
Olive oil
Garlic, very thinly sliced
Salt
Combine everything in a bowl and let the olives sit for as long as you have. If you are more organized than I am, make them a day or two ahead so all of those flavors have more time together.
A few things on my table
And because setting the table is half the fun, a few things I use and love for having people over.
Linen napkins
I love linen napkins because they make a table feel a little more special without making it feel formal.
My wine glasses
These are the wine glasses we use constantly at home. They’re simple, beautiful and work for pretty much everything.
A few other hosting favorites
Serving pieces, candles and a few other things you’ll probably recognize from dinners at my apartment. I picked up a gorgeous silver platter for $18 at Goodwill last week and it’s become a favorite of mine. Definitely check out your thrift stores for serving pieces and mix and match.
How I Pulled It Together After Work
The trick was really just choosing things that didn’t all need my attention at the same time.
I got the chicken and potatoes into the oven first. While those roasted, I prepped the carrots and got them into the oven, made the tomato salad and mixed up the olives.
Then I poured a glass of wine, set the table, and finished the carrots with pesto and pomegranate right before everyone arrived.
Nothing was particularly difficult or overly planned. But there is a little bit of magic in making an otherwise ordinary Thursday feel special.
And I think I’d like to do more of that.