A Juicy Giveaway

Mags

I hosted a brunch and grabbed the wrong spice and ended up pouring garlic into my French toast mixture rather than cinnamon. Woops!

Allie Katie

Ooooh fun question! One time we had friends over to just hang out and make dinner. We decided to make quesadillas in the broiler. We’d made about three when my friend totally forgot about his, and next thing we knew, it was in flames. HUGE flames. There was lots of screaming and yelling and smoke, but eventually we got it under control!

Danielle

My friend was bringing over Coronas for my cookout and he dropped the entire case in the front room. Our house smelled like beer for an entire week. We joked that next time he could also just spill limes everywhere to make it complete.

leslie

i know exactly what you mean about decisions. it gets easier to accept with time, i promise.

i don’t do a lot of party hosting (i’m a good guest haha), but back in college my roommate and i had a fancy wine party for her birthday. someone spilled red wine all over our white walls, which was then followed by five drunken girls in dresses, heels, and panty hose kneeling on the floor and scrubbing the wall with bleach. all to avoid a fine from nyu. the pictures of us scrubbing away are…classy lol.

Little Black Dress

This is easy for me to decide what to write. When Mike (my fiance) first announced that he was going to move to DC, I hosted a huge party at my apartment with tons of people, booze, and food. My exboyfriend, who was a friend, was there. He got totally wasted and ended up throwing a fit in the bathroom with some seriuos beer tears because he was so upset about Mike and me. Mike ended up having to take care of him, and even got puked on!!!!! Hilarious.

Needless to say, we don’t really hang out with that guy anymore.

Katie

Ok, probably hosting a Twilight DVD release party with 2 other people…we felt a little old at 30 to be worshipping Edward:)

Leigh

Hi Jenna! While I was giving a toast at my best friend’s lingerie shower, I leaned up against a candle and caught my shirt on fire. Everyone sort of panicked, but my mom saved the day by dowsing me with her drink!

Meggilizz--Meggie's Munchies

Have a great time at yoga!! 😀

I’d say my funniest hosting moment happened AFTER the party. My friend brought her german shephard puppy to the party & while I was sleeping, he ATE a big chunk out of my hair!!!

Christin

I guess this isn’t that funny, but I had worked SO hard to get a baby shower together for my new sis-in-law. The theme was Luau, so I looked up all these Hawaiian themed foods to make. Well, I was so stressed out, I forgot to put out two of the dishes I had prepared in advance. I was thinking the table looked a little sparse, when I realized halfway through the party that there was still party food in the microwave and the freezer.

Ok, like I said not all that funny, but whatever… 🙂

Thanks for the giveaway, Jenna. I wish we had a Trader Joe’s nearby, but I guess i would have to use mine for Earth Fare.

sirenjess

I hope that you’re feeling better. I’m doing yoga today too. I think my body has recovered from my marathon a week ago so I’m ready to workout again. Okay, funniest thing that has ever happen….. well the weird thing is that the only time that something happens is when my mother in law comes over. Like every meal that we make always comes out wrong even though we make it all the time.

greenbean

i guess would have to be when my grandmother used powdered sugar instead of corn starch in the gravy! it tasted horrible, but its one of my favorite memories of her 🙂

Ashley

at a get together I had at my house, we decided to have movie and popcorn after the festivities. We threw in the popcorn and went to turn on the tv. we smell somethign burning and look and find the kitchen in a black smoke! The popcorn had stayed in a brick and had burnt to a crisp… almost burnt the house down! oops 🙂

Sarah

Oh my gosh, every time I host a party something funny happens! In the Fall we have people over every week for Monday Night Football, so there are plenty of shenanigans. Stuff gets spilled, I forget to buy ingredients for certain dishes, the dog pees on the floor, all not funny at the time but hilarious looking back on it 😉

Jenn

I would have to say the biggest/funnest party was one that “just happened”!! I was planning on having one couple over from next door, then it turned into a neighborhood party. I made too much food, so the neighbor kids ate with us. Then, others were out working in their backyard, so I waved them down. Then about 6 other neighbors ended up coming over, and the next thing you know there were chocolate martinis galore and fireworks! Impromptus can be so much fun:)

Glad you had a good night and were at peace with whatever you’re dealing with. God has that sense, doesn’t He?
Jenn

Neena

I set off the smoke alarm when I made chili for a super bowl party last year! Talk about a 5-alarm chili. I’m still hearing about it from my friends!

Tess

The funniest thing that ever happened actually happened to my mom. We had people over for dinner. It included salad, entree and desert. While eating the salad one of the guess asked what kind of lettuce was in the salad. Turns out my mom had torn up the paper towel the lettuce had been drying on with the lettuce and put it into the bowl….people were eating the paper towel!!!!
My thoughts are with you on your personal struggle—listen to your heart and be strong in that!

Tracey

I can completelty relate to your dilemma about decisions. I’ve stayed in relationships too long because they were comfortable or I was afraid of hurting the other person or I was scared that I would regret leaving. All you can do is trust your instincts 100% – they’re always right and as long as you follow them and follow your heart, you’re always making the right decision. Good luck!

My funniest hosting story is when I had to throw my own surprise birthday party because my best friend backed out – then act surprised when I arrived! Classic!

marie

I’m another member of the Smoke Alarm Club. DH & I had sat down to dinner with a few friends, and I put a cake in the over and forgot to turn on the timer. A few margaritas later, the smoke alarm went off, and there was no dessert that night! Fortunately, the margaritas helped people not care about the ruined cake. 😉

Recipes for Creativity

Yes, yes, yes! I completely know what you mean about decisions! Sometimes the one you know in your heart is right means doing something different, something scary, etc. It can mean changing something in your identity, like where you live or who you spend your time with, etc, and be so scary. I know you’ve got great intuition, so I’m sure whatever you’re struggling with, you’re doing the right thing!

Funny thing that happened when I had people over: I had my friend, who is 26 years old and has never been intoxicated, over for dinner and she ended up drinking an entire bottle of wine. We actually both drank too much; I went to bed and forgot I even had a friend over, and my boyfriend ended up having to put out a trash can for her because she felt sick and he also had to tuck her in to the futon bed because she was so out of it! When I woke up the next morning and heard what had happened, it cracked me up!

maggie

we were having 50+ people to my house for my sisters grad party this past christmas. 1 hour before everyone was supposed to show up our power went out. my father was scurring around the house looking for his backup generator and we lit all the candles. however, I was not done baking so i had to rush to our friends across the highway to bake all our goodies. I carried 10 cookie sheets over there. it was complete chaos!
CHOOSE ME!!! i need the $$ for grocerys. i only spend money on grocerys and gas!

Sarah (now in FL)

We were having a family over for dinner and my mom was trying out her new bread machine. Somehow, a Jolly Rancher got in the bread machine (we have NO idea how) and though the bread smelled weird, we couldn’t figure out what was wrong so we served the bread. We figured out what was wrong when someone bit into something that was hard and pink in their bread. It was our family friend who is very exacting and perfectionistic, and he was naturally was extremely bothered by this. Interesting.

Love you! Hope your day is okay.

Jessica

I know what you mean about decisions too. I stayed in a bad bad relationship for 4 years because I was too afraid to get out..it was too comfortable and I was afraid I would regret it even though in my heart I knew it wasn’t right. I finally made the decision to get out of it only about 3 weeks ago. I knew it was the right thing to do in my heart but it was the hardest decision i’ve ever made and the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I’ve struggled with trying to understand why I had to go through pain like that, what was the point…but I know I made the right decision and accepting it and moving on gets easier and easier every day. Just follow your heart and do what you know is right and you will be ok in the end. I hope everything works out!

Beth

I made a delicious shrimp casserole… but forgot to remove the peel on all the shrimp!! gahhh disgusting! Thank goodness for pizza 🙂

Hang in there on your decision, whatever it may be! I know exactly what you mean – when you make any tough decisions in life, there’s always a mental back-and-forth that still makes you feel trapped. Someday you’ll look back and know that it all played out the way it did for a reason. It’s just hard to understand that in the moment.

Callina

A lot of times when I host parties I get frazzled and stressed. So my favorite party hosting moments are when we have people over on a chilly spring or fall night and simply RELAX in front of the fire pit with a few beers or a bottle of wine. My favorite thing about hosting these simple, relaxing evenings is the conversation–my friends often have parties that games (like the Wii) so it’s nice to have a break from that and just hang out and talk once in a while.

Marcia

My funniest hosting story was when I threw a surprise party for my boyfriend. We had been dating for 4 years at the time and his grandma kept making fun of him for not having proposed yet. So, she made him a fake time bomb with a poem about not having proposed, which she proceeded to read to everyone. The poem was hilarious yet very embarrassing to me and my boyfriend (fiance now!!) and we never heard the end of that joke from our friends!

Greta

Gah, I know exactly what you mean. Leaving one’s comfort zone is never a small fete, even if you know it’s for the better in the long run.

Instead of facing everything right here and now, maybe, kick back and do something you absolutely love and just focus on living moment by sweet and beautiful moment… Sending happy thoughts your way!

Shelly

I was having a Halloween party for all the grad students in my apartment the first year that I was a grad student. I lived in an old condo in New Orleans (on Saint Charles Ave.) that was gorgeous but something was always breaking (that is the nature of gorgeous old apartments in New Orleans- I refer to these mishaps as “charm”). Anyway, during the middle of the party, the doorknob fell off of the door and I couldn’t put it back on!

valerie

About a year ago I threw a Mexican themed party. We were making margaritas, and I didn’t have the top on the blender tight enough before I plugged it in and needless to say, margarita made it all over the walls, floor, ceiling and a few of my guests. It was embarrassing, but also, really funny!

Valerie

I had a dinner party with a 6 year old I babysat that particular day, my parents and an aunt and uncle. We all sat down at the table and began our meal. The 6 year old couldn’t keep her eyes off my uncle. She was staring so much she could barely eat. After a while it made my uncle uncomfortable, and he asked her why she was staring. Her response was “I want to see you drink like a fish!” I guess I overshared information when preparing her to meet my family!

Brigid

Sorry you are going through a hard time. May I suggest the book (if you haven’t already read it) The Road Less Traveled. It helped when I was going through a tough time in my life.

As far as a story, I was having my wedding shower at my parents’ house. At the time they had a very large Irish Wolfhound. Well, the dog found her way to my cake and helped herself to some before the guests even arrived. We had to smooth over the icing and just serve from the other side of the cake.

Mary Beth

Craziest party hosting was a couple of winters ago when we decided to light the fireplace for the first time in the season. Turns out that since we had the chimney cleaned only a couple of weeks ago, a squirrel had decided to build a home in there…I won’t go into details, but my frustration in not being able to light a fire was quickly replaced by sorrow for those little guys…

Jess

Our funniest party hosting moment was when someone reached for a glass of white wine and found out it was vinegar! I had run out of ingredient bowls so I poured the vinegar into a wine glass! It was a total tragedy! 🙂

Pam (Highway to Health)

Decisions can be really tough!

I haven’t had anything too crazy happen while I was hosting but Garrett was born on Leap Year so I threw him a 6th birhtday party last year and made everyone wear birthday hats, play games, and listen to music from when we were 6. It was awesome! I almost blew the surprise though because I left a bag of ice on the front porch where he came in.. Oooops!

Krissy - Single Serving

I didn’t host the party – but I once tagged along with a friend to a Super Bowl party and she literally walked into the wrong house. So I’m standing there with a tray of hors d’oeuvres looking at the guy who owns the house and trying to apologize as my friend is doubled over laughing. It was pretty funny – and more than a little embarassing. I mean – we were standing in this guy’s foyer and he’s looking at us like we’re nuts!

We invited him to the real party though (he didn’t come but the thought was there!)

You’ve had a really rough year Jenna (to put it EXTREMELY mildly!) I really hope you have an easier time soon. You deserve it. Hugs to you!

Heather

Hi Jenna – I completely understand how you feel – I just made a similar decision.

My husband I were having friends over for dinner – we made a whole chicken (which we have done before). The themometer must have been in the wrong spot because it said it was done – then we cut into a pretty raw chicken. MMMM….nothing like serving raw chicken to guests – needless to say that chicken went back in the oven.

Emily

I don’t know if it was funny or not, but I had a bunch of people over for “burrito night” – and thought I would use the opportunity to show them how healthy food can still taste good! I bought these low-carb tortillas that were DISGUSTING, and clearly my intentions were completely ruined. Whoops!

Menden (SkinnyMenny)

My mother got married a few years ago, and we had a small wedding at a local church and decided to hold the reception at my grandmother’s house. We had set up everything for the reception, including the food and the wedding cake, so it would all be ready for us after the wedding ceremony. For some reason my aunt left her dog, a yellow lab, in the house while we were at the church, and he ATE half of my mother’s wedding cake!!!! We didn’t want my mom to get upset, so we cut off the “eaten” part and didn’t even tell her what happened, lol! Needless to say, I didn’t have any cake that night 😉

maren

mine’s pretty common i think… i was baking for a party i was hosting and instead of the cinnamon, i accidentally put chile powder! we didnt even realize until someone actually tasted it! EW!

Kelly

Hey Jenna,

Hang in there! Living with the tough choices for a little while gives you the time to make them “your own” … it takes time, but I’m sure things will be looking rosier soon. Sending you a big hug in the meantime!!

The funniest/most embarrassing thing that happened when I was hosting people was at my backyard graduation party (from high school… this was several years ago). I was goofing around with my cousins and wanted to demonstrate the difference between a cartwheel and a round-off. I launched into an energetic cartwheel, completely forgetting that I was wearing a knee-length khaki skirt, which promptly ripped in half at the apex of my cartwheel. I was mortified!

Sara

I had my boyfriend over for a fancy breakfast one morning. I just HAD to “healthify” the belgium waffle recipe slightly with some whole wheat flour. They came out of the waffle iron a bit heartier than I would have liked. Bricks I tell you BRICKS! All that sifting and beating and folding of fluffy egg whites for naught!

Taylor

My funniest party hosting moment happened when I first starting to learn to bake. I had all of my friends over and I just put the cookies in the oven (it was the slice and bake kind). So when the timer went off, we were all excited to eat them! I went over to the oven and opened it. The cookie dough melted all down the oven! Little did I know, you had to put the cookies on a baking sheet! I guess you live and you learn- I know how to make my cookies now!

Christy

Funniest thing that has ever happened… Well, it is funny in retrospect, but I invited my parents and in-laws over for dinner and FORGOT!!! My husband and I returned home from our own dinner and found them on the front step! We were so embarrassed and made up a story about a work emergency. We ordered take-out and they never knew 🙂

Andee (Runtolive)

Fun question! I was having guests over for dinner and I wanted to make chicken lettuce wraps. For the sauce, I accidentally put in baking soda instead of cornstarch to thicken up the sauce and the entire thing just foamed up! Yeah, I had to toss that and re-do the entire recipe again!

J

I made a drop dead gorgeous chocolate raspberry tart, removed it from the oven, set it on the stove and walked away to get some coffee ready…A second later there was a huge crash and shards of glass flew all over the kitchen. One of the burners on the stove had been left on and the direct heat caused the glass tart pan to shatter. Oh well, I can laugh about it now…

Krystina

The funniest/most embarrassing party hosting moment I’ve ever had was def. putting the wrong date on the invitations and preparing for my own party on the wrong night!! I ended up telling everyone about my big mistake, which is why it was so silly.

Hope you’re feeling better today!

Heather @ Health, Happiness, and Hope

My family was having Easter at our house and the older cousins were hiding Easter Eggs for the younger cousins. Well, one of my cousins hid an Easter egg in the tube that goes to the septic tank (don’t ask me why), and it got stuck! My grandpa had to get a vacuum to suck it out, and no one could use the bathroom for like 2 hours while he was trying to get it out. It was a little bit crazy! 😉

LeeAnn

You will love this one Jenna! We had people coming over to our house one evening, and our first guest showed up. Our dalmatian decided she would greet them also with a pair of my panties around her head! LOL It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. See, she likes to lay in our closet on our laundry basket. Oh the horror!!!!! My face was red all evening. I couldn’t get those panties off fast enough!!!!!!!!
By the way, I love your blog!

Rebeca

Oh man, once I was having a dinner part and burned every one of the steaks I was making- even the extra “just in case ones”- burned on the outside, raw on the inside… then proceeded to burn the rice… then my dinner party became a “classy affair” where we ate McDs cheeseburgers and fries on China and my friends thought it was on purpose (thank God for Air Freshner to take away the burned smell haha)

P.S. I’m “Blogging It Forward” Today and need comments so General Mills and ShopRite will donate to an area Food Bank! Please click over if any of you guys have a chance 🙂
http://allveggedout.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/blog-it-forward/

Amisha

Once I invited some girlfriends over for lasagna and drinks. At the time I lived in a really old studio apartment with crappy tiny kitchen and useless appliances. I had never used the oven to actually bake anything, but rather reserved it for broiling, etc. Anyways, long story short, the knob broke off into my hand while I was adjusting the temperature and I had to guess. The lasagna looked great from the top, but the bottom layer was burnt to a crisp. I had to scoop out the two two layers only leaving the bottom intact. TERRIBLE. At least we were all too drunk to care that much by that time!

Nicole

Well, my family was hosting a pool party in our backyard and my mom spent so much time baking this wonderful oreo chocolate cake. We had it all set up in the backyard and were about to start cutting it, and two little kids who were at the party came up to and one of them smashed the other’s face into the chocolate cake! It was such a mess and my mom had spent so much time cooking it! Haha but it was so cute, funny, and definitely priceless! (:

Teri

So embarrassing…. (and a little gross – sorry!) I can’t even put it in full sentences. New town + new friends + new puppy + white underwear that had to be trashed (that time of month accident) + puppy’s obsession with trashcan and subsequent running in circles around my house. And she’s hard to catch. I wanted to DIE.

Ellen

it was a homemade-pizza-making party, i was trying to juggle several different people’s pizzas with an oven that was cranked up as high as it would go (read: hotter than you think!) i hurried to take out one pizza that was about to burn so i just used the kitchen towel to grab it. bad idea! the towel BURST into flames!! had no idea that was even possible and scared the crap out of me! towel was a goner, but i salvaged the most important part: the pizza 🙂

Rebecca

Hmm the funniest thing that has ever happened to me while hosting a party? Probably dropping and breaking my camera because it was my birthday and I was drunk! Even though my camera is broken now, it was an amazing party so it brings back good memories! lol

Katherine

After a party at my apartment, my friend was rinsing out a shot glass in the sink and I guess it fell down into the disposal because when my roommate turned it on later that week, tiny pieces of glass came flying out! It was scary.

Amy

I totally understand about living with the decision being harder than just making the decision. It’s tough. I had to do this after an almost 5 year relationship- it’s tough facing that it just may not work. It’s extremely hard breaking the “habit” of just having that person around.

I can say though, if you go back and forth and are in turmoil about it- it’s probably a “no”. What i mean, is, if there is any concern or doubt about the situation- it probably, ultimately won’t work. I reasoned my way through 5 years, and looked back wondering why i didnt have the strength to let go sooner- if for no reason but to get back that time!

you’re a doll and you’ll do the right thing! you KNOW what should happen- you know what you need. make the tough decisions and start the transition now- you’ll thank yourself later!

😉

Kristen

We were getting a Halloween party together freshman year in the dorm…we thought it would be cool to have a fog machine with the strobe light, so we had it running it for about half an hour. Then the fire alarm went off. The entire building was evacuated at midnight, and we had to explain to the fire department what had happened =P

Meredith (Pursuing Balance)

I haven’t done much hosting (I live in a tiny studio), but years ago I remember my best friend and I deciding to make cookies for her family. It was pretty late at night, but we got our bake on anyway! We didn’t have any parchment paper to line the cookie sheets, and her older sister told us to just use wax paper. We put them in the oven and sat down to watch some TV. A little while later, she asked “do you smell smoke?” The whole kitchen had smoked up from the wax paper in the oven! And then the whole house! We turned on the fans and opened the doors, trying frantically to wave it outside, but it was so much that it woke her dad up. He came running out in his pajamas, thinking there was a fire! Unfortunately, the cookies burnt so we didn’t even get to indulge in them. Since then, we have honed our cookie-baking abilities and now are quite the experts 🙂

Stacy

Jenna – I’m new to your blog (a friend recommended it) and I absolutely love it! Your recipes are terrific and very practical. By the way, what type of protein powder do you use? Thanks!

Lindsey

What a fun question! My funniest party hosting moment occurred the 4th of July in 2007. My brother-in-law had a few too many beers at our party. The entire night he kept daring people to throw him in the pool, and he would get tossed each and every time. He would then proceed to change into a new pair of my husband’s shorts because the old pairs would be soaked. The last time he went to change into a new pair, he lost his balance and fell into our toliet completely breaking the tank off. I was not laughing at the time, but now when we remember the event it always cracks us up. Don’t worry, he did buy us a new toliet the next day!

Raya

Jenna,
Totally understand what you’re talking about, I just recently ended a relationship due to circumstances that just weren’t making ME happy. I know it was the right thing but it’s still hard!

Raya @ RayaRuns.Com

Sara

I wanted to dye a yellow tablecloth pink to match my landlord’s lovely (sarcasm!) pink theme in the kitchen but ended up somehow dying it bright blue with yellow streaks still showing through in a swirly pattern! It was a fun mistake though – it looked like Hawaii in February 😀

Becky

Each October we host a pumpkin carving party at our house. Two years ago we had invited people who had invited people and soon we had like 18 people in our townhouse. It lead to people carving pumpkins on the kitchen table, the coffee table, and a spare table. Needless to say there were seeds everywhere. A fun party though!

Meghan

I am sure that whatever decision you made is best for YOU..and everything will work out!

Okay..so this is my most recent hosting disaster! I was hosting a dinner party at my friends apartment because the dining area was larger and he has a nice outdoor patio! Well…I turned one of the gas burners on..the one that I thought was underneath the big pot of marinara sauce. Well I go to stir the sauce and it’s not heating up or anything. All of a sudden there’s a super loud POP! Turns out I turned the back burner on where I left the GLASS pot lid and the top metal little knob on the top went flying off and the entired glass top shattered EVERYWHERE. The glass was so hot and stuck over the burner..disasterrrr! hahah luckily we cleaned it all up and had a superb meal!

Amanda

I was having a study dinner date with my friends in college when one of the girls left a pyrex dish on top of the stove and accidently turned on the burner. It didn’t take long for the glass to heat and the dish to explode everywhere! Once we realized what had happened we couldn’t control ourselves laughing. Def a good study break to calm the nerves and help us refocus. Finding glass in the kitchen for next week wasn’t as great though!
And I know what you mean about the decision thing. Even if you know something is right it doesn’t mean it’s easy to accept. It will just take time so hang in there!

MMiller

Oh, Jenna. Sorry you are having difficulties! You will realize after a while, your decisions were what was right for you! Hard as they may have been! Living through them only makes you a stronger person! They only help you to grow and thrive! You just don’t always see that for a while!

Lets see now a party story….When my husband and I were first married I attempted to have a small party for his 21st birthday! I had just moved and didn’t really know anyone! So I called one guy he worked with and told him to spread the word! I had no idea who would be coming! I tried to prepare some snacks without my husband realizing! And nobody came! Not one person showed up! So we had a nice quiet evening at home ALONE!

Meg

I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time last year and made a pumpkin pie from scratch. Only I didn’t read the recipe close enough and added an extra egg white to the pie filling (it was supposed to be used to brush on the crust prior to baking). So it was more like pumpkin moose pie 🙂

p.s. I am a first time commenter and love your blog!

Kelly

I accidentally put 1/2 c. of salt in my chocolate chip cookies rather than 1/2 c. of sugar. Oh the faces on my guests as they bit into the cookies were priceless. I will never live that one down and am still trying to convince friends I really do make good cookies that are edible. 🙂

Tay

I’ve personally never hosted a party, but would love to and this would be the perfect opportunity!

Kristen R.

Let’s just say my worst party hosting moment involved a VERY botched attempt at a red velvet cake for a friend’s birthday. I still have nightmares. 😉

Dave Fannin

my wife does all the hosting 🙁

heather heyn

Decisions can be hard. I totally know. Sometimes doing what right feels so wrong! It hurts sometimes but it will all work out in the end…This should make you laugh though. I once made my boyfriend a birthday cake with salt instead of sugar. I we had no idea until the candles were blown out and everyone dug into their slice. I kid you not. 8 people all at once spit out the cake and I was mortified. Yep, that’s my life!

Michelle

I was hosting a birthday party and it was my responsibility to pick up the cake. It was a big cake and I was so proud of myself for being so careful with it in the store (while doing other shopping). Everything was great until I got home… and took it out of the car. I picked it up at an a little bit of an angle and it started sliding out of the container. The cake almost broke completely in half. Such a mess! You couldn’t even read the happy birthday message on the front after that. I was so upset I did something so careless! Good thing everyone laughed it off (after giving me a hard time, of course!). I’m not allowed to pick up the Bday cake at anymore parties!

By the way, I’m new to your blog and absolutely love it! You’ve inspired me to cook more (at all, really!) and I really like the focus on health and fitness too. Good luck with the decision you had to make!

Pru

I helped host a murder mystery party, and I got to die! But as I fell, a button popped off my shoe and hit someone in the face at the same time my “husband” popped a champagne cork which broke a glass. It was a very dramatic death.

Nicole

My funniest hosting experience was when I had some friends over and decided that after a few whiskey drinks I should attempt my hand at some raw brownies. Since I was a little drunk and my vitamix was new… I kept thinking that my vitamix was broken and while trying to turn it off and really just changing its speed. Regardless, I soon realized it wasn’t broken and that I just didn’t know how to use my vitamix. After about 90 minutes of hard blending work in the vitamix I had made raw brownies out of little more than pecans and walnuts. Everyone agreed that they were the best brownies ever! I didn’t feel so stupid then. Haha.

Emily

Great giveaway!!

This is funny now but my mom didn’t think so at the time. I had just turned 17 and she was going out of town for a week. I decided to be rebellious and have a “few” people over for some drinks and fun. There ended up being about 15 people in a 800 sqft house (!!). Needless to say we were PACKED in like a bunch of sardines. Anyway, someone dropped a bottle of whiskey on the carpet and it broke. I didn’t want my mom to know I had been drinking but of course for about a month the whole house smelled like whiskey. It was awful.

Heather S.

Let’s see. One time when I was young and awkward and just learning to cook on my own…I had some friends over for a “double date” night on New Year’s Eve…and I went all out, trying to impress them. I chose a really hard main dish (Beef Wellington), and suprisingly it turned out edible (but not pretty)…but the thing I still get razzed about is the fancy-pants tomato sherry soup that I served as a starter – COLD. Well, turns out when you don’t cook off the alcohol in a cold soup, and you probably put in too much to begin with, it’s a bit too strong. Hahaha. Everyone was liquored up before their main course 😉 Who complains about too much alcohol in their food, anyways??

Lauren

Hmm, my funniest hostest moment?!?! Well, this would probably be at my bachelorette party. All the girls came back to my house and we stayed up late drinking and playing games. I actually ended up passing out on the couch early and they carried me up to bed. (Don’t remember a thing) but the pics are hilarious!

Hope you have a great day!

Chutney

Hang in there, Jenna — and have a great yoga class!

Like others, I’ve set my smoke alarm off (more than once) during a dinner party. Not a hilarious event, but funny nonetheless. 😉

Beth @ CrossBorderCravings

I was soooo sick for my 18th bday party and had to go to bed about 30 minutes after it began :O(. Come Monday I had to have my appendix out!! Talk about bad timing…

Chocolate Shoestrings

Awesome giveaway!
um… its not really funny, but for my graduation, my boyf and I decided to combine forces and throw a party together for both our families at my house. Well, right as we are eating and getting into the swing of things and having a blast, my housemate and her family walk in, and declare they are moving out right now and need to take all the kitchen furniture. So there we are, moving all the food we JUST cooked from the tables onto the floor and any other surface we can find, and trying to have a party while my housemate is moving out. AWKWARD. (also, the housemate and I WERE NOT friends, so it was really awkward)

ModelBehavior

i don’t have any stories because I’ve never hosted before!! Give me the oppertunity with this great gift card!!! 😀

Jenna

We we hosting a dessert party for my sister’s graduation, and had a number of tables set up in our back yard. It was a windy evening and we had candles placed int he middle of each table, along with a vase of flowers to keep the table cloth down. In the midst of dancing, drinking, and eating, the table cloth must have blown up and over the table and caught on fire! Luckily no friends (or sweets!) were harmed!!

megan

An ice breaker/team building event of trying to “shave” shaving cream off a balloon without popping it turned into who could cover the most of their body head to toe in shaving cream- clothes and all!

LeeAnn

Mine is a bit more embarrassing than funny-I had two friends over for a sleep over in high school. We were chattering away upstairs and were interrupted by my dad’s ahem loud gas emissions from his bedroom below. Very embarrassing for a teenager!

Amy (www.weliveneon.com)

I would say when we had a Mexican fiesta and everyone- including a poor two year old doned mustaches!

Elise

In high school I invited some friends over the eat the churros I was test-making for a Spanish presentation. An unsuspecting teenager, I didn’t think to monitor the temperature of the oil, and when I squeezed in my first piece of dough, huge billows of smoke came up from the pan. All the fire alarms in our house went off immediately, and none of us were tall enough to turn any of them off (even while standing on a chair!). We had to call in some help from another friend, and I was absolutely embarrassed.

Gloria

I haven’t had any funny/interesting “grownup” party stories, yet. But in high school when I threw a party, I woke up to some guy I didn’t even know peeing in my kitchen… right on the stove! I was furious at the time, but now my friends and I crack up everytime we tell the story… and Mom never found out 😉

Danielle

Like a lot of other people here, my funniest party hosting stories all involve trying out new recipes. I once made this cucumber salad recipe that called for dill, vinegar and sugar and I must have seriously fudged one of the ingredients because it came out like sweet cucumber soup. Blech.

Andrea

When I was 20, I hosted a “candle” party at my dad’s house where I was living at the time. The “candle” party was actually a passion party for girls only. As one of the favors I made male part cookies. Later on, when we were cleaning up, I didn’t notice but one of my friends but the cookies in a tupperware and stuck them in the fridge probably not remembering what the cookies were actually shaped like. The next day, my dad discovered the cookies in the fridge! So much for hosting a big girls party at your parents house!

Chelsea

Definatly pouring chili powder instead of cinnamon into my guests french toast. UGH! Don’t even wanna talk about it lol

Meg

Great giveaway! The funniest thing that’s ever happened to me was during a Memorial Day cookout – I was over my Aunt’s place, and I had brought a homemade mince meat pie (gross, I know – but it’s my Grandfathers FAVORITE thing ever) and I completely forgot about it in my car – needless to say the ride home was VERY unfortunate smelling…woops!

I made it up to him for Thanksgiving though, except I brought cherry pie this time 🙂

Meg

Shauna

When I was having friends over to celebrate my friend’s birthday, I was in charge of baking the cake. My friend always goes the box mix route but I was like, “NO. From scratch is way better. You’ll see.” I used my favorite cupcake recipe but baked it in cake pans. The cake was done on top but not in the middle and I didn’t know what to do! It turned out to be slightly burnt around the edges because I hadn’t yet learned the trick of putting foil on top. And then I used my favorite frosting recipe–it makes amazing frosting but I somehow messed it up. All my life I’ve been influenced by my mother to add more vanilla than the recipe suggests, and this time I accidentally did that x4! There IS such a thing as too much vanilla, apparently! So the cake was pretty gross and I was sad to have put two amazing recipes to shame. At least the cake and frosting were a pretty shade of pink.

alexa

I don’t host many parties, but the funniest thing that has happened to me at a party is seeing my friend get taped to a tree. Hilarious!

Anne P

hmmmm one of my favorite party stories is during college when i had some friends in my dorm room drinking before we went out and about. we had the hilarious idea to do apple pie shooters (take a shot of vodka with a little apple juice on top, hold it in your mouth, open your mouth and tilt your head back and your friends shake cinnamon and spray whipped cream in your mouth. close, shake, and swallow!). we made it through a bunch successfully, but then one of my friends went to do one and started laughing during it, causing whipped cream to explode EVERYWHERE from here mouth all over my room! it was pretty hilarious. hm, now i want to have one of those shots again sometime…

sherri

so there’s the time i made a spaghetti dinner for about 25 family members. since it was a large crowd, i emptied two costco-size packages of spaghetti into an 8 qt pot of water. big mistake! there were a few al a dente strands of spaghetti but mostly clumps. quite chewy and never to be forgotten by the family. thank goodness for the grappa!!

kristi (sweet cheeks)

The funniest thing at our house parties are always my mom’s desserts. We give her a hard time because somehow she always manages to mess them up! The most recent one would be when the thick creamy cheesecake we were all looking forward to, turned out to be cheesecake soup! LOL!

Karla

The funniest dinner party memory I can think of at the moment occurred on New Year’s Eve. We were grilling for some friends, and since we were going in and out so we just had the sliding screen door closed and not the glass door. Well, my husband was so stressed out with the grilling and entertaining that he walked smack into the screen door in front of everyone while he was holding a plate of burgers! I felt so bad for him because I knew he was embarrassed, but I couldn’t help laughing – an neither could anyone else! I’m cracking up just thinking about it!

marge

I love being a hostess and making drinks for my friends. At my birthday party this year I was making pina coladas and turned around to give my friend her drink. She looked at me in horror, and then my friends behind her looked at me in horror, I turned around to see if there was something alarming behind me and just saw more friends turn away from me in horror. Everyone was pointing at me and shrieking, except my boyfriend and my sister’s boyfriend who leeped at my head quickly. My hair was on fire! Be very careful when hosting parties with candles, especially when you get your haircut and the stylist puts all sorts of products in it that day….

Emily (The Experimentarian)

Oh my gosh, I’ve never really hada party for anythign to go wrong at! I guess this is a sign I should start entertaning more 🙂

Kristen

Hope you feel better soon, Jenna!
I was hosting a celebration for my dad and my stepmom who had just gotten married in a really small ceremony, so this was basically like their wedding reception. I bought the most beautiful two tiered cake and a beautiful floral wedding cake topper from my local florist. Well, the florist must have made the wedding topper way too heavy, because as soon as I put in on the cake, the whole top tier crumbled. There was cake and icing everywhere and the cake was ruined! I was devastated! Luckily, we had some whipping cream on hand to reassemble the cake, but it didn’t look anything like the original!

Crystal

So many funny stories! My worst moment was when I set my crockpot to cook potroast while I was at work. I got home with an hour before company was to arrive only to discover that the outlet I had plugged the crockpot into wasn’t working. Needless to say we ordered takeout that night!

Megan

Forgetting peoples names. How embarrising!

mama

one time i accidentially left my bra and panties on the bathroom counter when my husband had friends over! Total embaressment, but funny too!

Woman&Warrior

I’ve thrown a few parties in my day, and I’m relieved to say they’ve gotten better over time–I think my biggest mistake was making it all about the food and would end up cooking the whole time and not visit with my friends. I’ve really changed that up. Now, everything is made in advance or just heat and serve. It’s a little lame, but I have all these to-do lists with the times marked for when to start preparing a dish, a garnsih, setting stuff out, etc. Anyways, the work is worth it because I get to be a guest at my own party too!

My most humiliating party moment…while completely sober, I caught my heel on the footrest of a bar stool, panicked, and fell right out of the bar stool…in front of everyone! The guy who scooped me up yelled, “one more shot!” I was blushing so hard!

PS: Buck up gal, this decision you made–take heart in the fact that you made the right decision and that is good character and ethics. You weren’t taking the easy way out.

Tammy

Maybe not funny…but we had guests over for a bbq and we were so ready to grill up our beautiful steaks from costco…put them on walked away came back still not fully cooking!!!! The grill ran out of gas…we forgot to get more gas for the grill!!! Then it started to rain… so hard we could not even see the grill… just was not meant to bbq!!!

Raya

I wasn’t hosting anything, but one time my freshmen year of college, after a late night of, um, partying, we all went back to our dorm room. We had a communal kitchen on our floor and I was heating something up on the stove because I was hungry. I completely forgot about it and suddenly the fire alarm went off. The ENTIRE building (ten floors) had to evacuate at 3am. My roommates were so mad but luckily they didn’t tell everyone I did it!!!!

N.D.

Haha, this is cool! Just yesterday I had two friends over for lunch. My six month old rarely poops and yesterday he did it once before they came and then again really loud when I had company!! He got it everywhere and I had to change him!

Naners

Funniest/most awkward time hosting a party was when an ex-boyfriend randomly showed up as a +1…you can’t exactly ask them to go home 🙂

Amy

Back when I was in college, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ house. I am always the baker and assistant hostess to my mom — after baking all day and then running around to get everything in place at the table, my mom and I finally got to sit down. My eyes instantly fixed on the scrumptious sweet potato casserole, so I jumped up to take my share of it. As I did, my brother started smacking me, to which I responded by shouting, what are you doing? Right then, as he pointed at my head fearfully, I saw that my hair was on fire!!!! My long mane had swiped a burning candlestick! Luckily, my brother’s quick-thinking saved me, and my hair –just a thin top layer frizzled away. But then, the entire dinner atmosphere was tainted by the everlasting scent of singed hair! I get beef about that Thanksgiving dinner every year!

theskinnyplate

I hosted a dinner party and one of the guest started complementing my dishes profusely. I didn’t want to disappoint her and tell her that I wasn’t the one who made all the stuff. I just nodded and thanked her for her complements. One of the other guests seems to have been a regular at the take-out place and he recognized one of the dishes. Lesson learned, never take credit for something you did not do.

Jk

love this giveaway!
when ppl are drunk and cant remember the next day! XD

june

once i left my phone in the refrigerator ><

hyang

i accidentally cussed during my presentation

lindsey

a while back was my friend’s college graduation and we all had a big party for him at his house- Well, his parents were ALSO inviting their older friends over. Those folks like to drink!! At one point during the night, one of the older “toasted” ladies came up to me with her cell phone and said “Can I take a picture of you? My son doesn’t believe me that there are young people here!” It was incredibly awkward, and when I pretended I didn’t know how to use her phone, she went alone to some other girl! Weeiiirdd…..

Mary (Food & Fun)

I don’t really have a funny entertaining story!! The only thing that comes to mind is when I was planning an nice birthday dinner for my mom. I was cooking Filet Mignon and EVERYTHING was all set…went to start the grill, and we were out of gas ! Thankfully, the store was still open and my sisters were kind enough to get a refill as I prepared the rest of dinner.

girlmeetsyoga

my husband started a grill cheese fire and put it out with my friends quilted handbag thinking it was a dish rag. the charbroiled handbag cheese blaze smell made the party a smash.

Kate

I had people over for a dinner party and I had been raving about this cheesecake recipe for a few months so I was really excited to finally serve the decadent dessert that I had so carefully prepared. I got it out of the fridge to serve after dinner and as I was walking toward my guests I proceeded to flip it onto the floor. Tragedy! I contemplated licking it up off the floor but decided against it. My guests thought it was pretty hilarious…

Colleen

Ooh, I’d better hurry, the West Coast puts me at a slight disadvantage for time here!

Haha, the funniest party moment I’ve had while hosting was a few years ago. I was having a holiday party with some friends in Baltimore, and we lurrrrvvvve us some Celebrities. (Fyi, Celebrities is a game that combines Taboo with Charades – everyone picks a few celebrities, puts them in a hat, and has to get their team to guess them through actions and/or words, depending on the round.) However, we get pretty intense during Celebrities and other competitive games. One of my girls was giving a clue, and she was standing right next to our cute little Christmas tree set up, full of ornaments and other decorations. She was on her charades round, where she could only say one word, so she was flailing her arms about madly when…BAM! She knocked an ornament off the tree and it smashed on the ground. She started to turn to me with a look of dismay, but the first thing I thought to say to her was, ‘DON’T TALK!’….because we couldn’t lose that point! She regained her composure quickly and we went on to win the game…and clean up the ornament fragments later, laughing uncontrollably at our reactions.

Amanda @ Cakes and Ale

Definitely when a game of Catch Phrase got out of control and the “loser” (aka whomever ended up with the catch phrase circle when the time ran out) had to drink from the “punishment cup”… The punishment cup consisted of random splashes from everyones drinks, beer, wine, liquor, and, eventually, as the night wore on, a smashed up cupcake and some cooking sherry!

Dear lord, that was not fun to look at during cleanup the next morning!

Nath

Ooohh! I have so many stories! We invite friends over all the time so some stuff is bound to happen.

The most crazy thing that happened was last time I invited people over for a Chinese fondue (hot pot). My boyfriend provided wine and strong beer in abundance without my previous knowledge, so I didn’t take this into account when planning the meal. Later, when he added fuel to the dying flame, half the tablecloth took fire! I was the only one sober enough to actually do something about it – a good dusting of baking soda did the trick just fine to cut the flames. A couple friends panicked, one tried to help, but most just kept staring and laughing. Needless to say I’m not mixing alcohol and flames in my partys anymore, even if that type of fuel burns hot without burning the surrounding material and therefore not as dangerous as other fuels. No harm done and a good laugh!

Another story worth mentioning was when we got our new stove. The day it was installed and working we decided to invite a few close friends over and make homemade pizza. We make our pizzas always very loaded with toppings! When the stove was hot and the pizzas ready to bake, I brought the first one over to the over, put it on the top to open the door… only to have the pizza slide down and crash into the open door. The guys who installed the stove apparently forgot to level it. We managed to salvage the pizza, level the stove and have a good time! But I was left with melted cheese in my stove for a long time, until it all burned off.

Bev

I hope all goes well for you .

Vaala

I know exactly what you’re talking about…breaking up with my boyfriend was like that. It was definitely the right decision and I knew that but accepting that it was what had to happen for me to be okay was pretty hard. I think I’m still dealing with it especially since he took it so hard.

Hope your day is okay though…yoga always helps me!

Molly

What a great giveaway! I love hosting and have plans in the works for a clean-your-closets-clothing swap party with my girlfriends before graduate school starts back up for us in the fall.

My funniest moment hosting is when I first moved to my new town for grad school and I had an impromptu dinner party for the other new students. It’s a small program so when one of the guys asked if he could bring someone, I said the more the merrier. It turns out it was his beloved stuffed animal whom he talked for and who even got a special place at the table! Strange, but true. We all love the student for his idiosyncracies and and never forget to extend an invitation for two, him and his stuffed pig!

Mindy in TX

I was making a ginormous batch of mashed potatoes and when I went to put the pepper in, the lid fell off and pepper doused the taters. I scooped as much off as possible but they were still verrry peppery. Everybody has a good laugh about it and they’re now known as “cajun potatoes”.

Dara

the funniest thing that happened was i was hosting a cocktail party and my antique bar bROKE and ALL of my liqour and WINE smashed the ground! lets just say my cocktail party turned into cheap wine and beer from the gas station!!