Let's come to us

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

I don't know about you, but my husband often literally brings me under the monastery, unexpectedly bringing guests. Well, if he calls in half an hour, they say, "dear, I won't be alone today." And then, just walking in the park with a dog, he will meet old acquaintances and offer to come to us: “let's sit, chat, have a bite”. And there would be something to eat! After all, you will not treat your guests to a bag of soup or dumplings! So it turns out: "I am very glad to you, only now I run to the store for ready-made salads." The situation, to put it mildly, is not so hot, and I blush, and the guests are embarrassed. And to the husband - at least a stake on his head. He does not understand such situations, he says: “Come on, invent. Everything is fine. Relax! Well, we sat there”.

And no matter how much I asked not to arrange such "surprises" for me, no matter how much I nagged him on this topic - all the same, he does not seem to hear my words and does not see disgruntled faces. “What are you? Not happy to see our old friend Viktor (Nikolai's friend, Svetlana Evgenievna, her former classmate Marishka …)? Yes, I will never believe it! It's embarrassing for her, uncomfortable. It is inconvenient to put pants over your head! " - that's all I hear in response.

Yes, of course, it's nice to meet old acquaintances, to remember the past, but I'm used to preparing in advance for any meeting with people: I consider cleaning and culinary masterpieces to be an integral part of the "techniques". And with this too hospitable character trait of my husband, I have to keep the apartment clean every day - suddenly someone comes, and I have a mess. But what can I say - it's not just about the cleanliness of the house. At worst, you can sit in one of the rooms or in the kitchen. But how to get out of situations when people come to you, and roll in the refrigerator?

What do you have?

Listening to my endless complaints about the difficult "hospitable" lot, my friend advised me to wander around the forums and ask the people about guests. Do they love it or not? Do they often visit or not? Do you get into situations like you?

I followed wise advice, looked through the topics about guests. And here's the curious thing, I found polls. One of them - “do you like guests” - well suited my case: 44.5% answered “I love, but not in a crowd”; 15% are tired of visiting and complain that they have not a house, but a courtyard; 18.5% generally do not like to receive guests, but consider themselves good guests; 7% of the respondents would like to visit or receive people at their place, but there is no one; 15% believe that everything should be in moderation: both the number of guests and the time of reception.

I can agree with the last category. Indeed, on weekends I would have mastered one or three little people. But on weekdays … in the evening after work you want to fall into a state of relaxation, and not make marathon runs in the kitchen.

And here is another statistic reflecting the frequency of visiting guests: 4.5% answered that they did not visit at all; 6, 8% visit relatives once a month; 27.3% hang out three times a month with friends; 22.7% visit every week; 25% of respondents visit friends a couple of times a week; 13.6% generally cannot live without guest trips and annoy their friends every day.

I belong to the third category and dream of the same friends. As for the latter category of people, I consider it necessary to introduce restrictive legislative measures for them, so as not to interfere with the lives of others.

And smart heroes always go around

Having started analyzing my problem and rereading articles and stories about similar situations, I came to the conclusion that my husband cannot be re-educated. I will never forget about the guests! Well, then, you need to come to terms with forever red cheeks? Never! Finally! What kind of hostess am I, even if I cannot accept guests humanly, even if they were not invited by me? But how can this problem be solved? I began to collect advice from relatives (mothers, sisters, mother-in-law), rubbed this topic with friends. As a result, I created my own system for getting out of such emergency situations.

Appoint a duty officer

What is the meaning of this system?

First, I calculated the approximate number of surprise visits per month. It turned out that my husband makes my face paint on average twice a week, inviting one or two little people.

Secondly, I wrote a list of required snacks (he usually brings wine with him): salad, hot dish, dessert for tea, or all this can replace pizza and its like (depending on who comes to visit).

Thirdly, I collected a bunch of fast food recipes and began to choose the most acceptable for me. From the winners, I made a plate with four columns: dish, products, recipe, cooking time.

It turned out something like this: salad "Pyatiminutka" / 1 carrot, 1 cucumber, 1/4 head of cabbage, mayonnaise, herbs for decoration / Finely chop the cabbage, mash with your hands. Grate carrots, cucumber. Season with salt, season with mayonnaise, garnish with herbs. / 5 minutes.

Then, week by week, I wrote down which meals I would prepare in emergency situations and which foods would be on duty in the refrigerator.

It looked like this:

1. "Fast" salad, fried potatoes with mushrooms and onions, shortbread cakes (ready-made) / products: 1 can of canned corn, 1 can of canned beans, 1 can of canned champignons, 2 packets of rye croutons (Emelya or Three crusts)), mayonnaise, herbs, potatoes, cakes;

2. "Pyatiminutka" salad, boiled potatoes with dill, for tea - cookies and sweets / products:…;

3. hot sandwiches, "In a hurry" puffs (cook at the same time with sandwiches) / products:…;

4. fresh chilled pizza, preheated in the oven, and sweet rolls for dessert (ready-made).

So, after sitting for a while and thinking, I solved my problem. As the saying goes: "Better to lose a day, and then fly in five minutes."

When unexpected guests came again, I was already fully armed - the duty products did their job. Even my husband was surprised that after my friends left, I didn’t nag him and was even pleased with the meeting myself.

And at night he finally revealed his secret to me: “Do you know why I bring people to us so often? Because I have you the best: beautiful, smart, economic, caring, etc. I am very lucky with my wife, and I want to share my happiness with friends and acquaintances!"

Excellent dishes

I hasten to share with you my most favorite recipes. They are so good because they are simple to prepare and know how to delight guests with their originality.

Hot sandwiches

Products: 1/2 loaf, 1 tbsp. mayonnaise, 1 tbsp. ketchup or tomato paste

100 g of doctor's sausage, 100 g of hard cheese, herbs for decoration.

Mix mayonnaise with ketchup or tomato paste in a 1: 1 ratio. Spread the resulting sauce on slices of bread with a teaspoon. Put them on a baking sheet. Then spread the grated or finely chopped sausage on the crispbread and sprinkle with grated cheese on top. Decorate with green onions or other herbs as desired. Put in an oven preheated to 220 ° for 5-7 minutes.

Whipped up puffs

Products: 2 squares of ready-made puff pastry, 1 tbsp. flour, 100 g of doctor's sausage, 100 g of hard cheese, 1 egg.

Sprinkle the dough with flour on both sides and roll it out a little. Cut into equal squares or rectangles. Grate sausage and cheese. Put grated sausage and cheese on one half of the square. Close with the other half and with your fingers crush the resulting rectangle on the sides, as if gluing the halves together. (You can also make puffs in the form of triangles.) Place on a greased baking sheet. Beat the egg and spread it with a brush or cotton swab on top of the puffs. Bake in an oven preheated to 220 ° for 15 minutes.

As a filling, you can also use marmalade, jam, finely chopped boiled chicken with cheese, sausages, fried cabbage with onions, mashed potatoes with green onions, finely chopped boiled eggs with boiled rice.

If desired, the puffs with a sweet filling can be decorated with powdered sugar, coconut.

"Fast" salad

Products: 1 can of canned corn, 1 can of canned beans, 2 bags of rye croutons ("Emelya" or "Three crusts"), mayonnaise, herbs for decoration.

Pour corn, beans, croutons into a large bowl, add mayonnaise.

To mix everything. Decorate with herbs. It will be ready to eat when the croutons are slightly softened.