A casual dinner
My husband’s eldest brother who has been living in Chicago for over two decades is in town with his family for their three-week once-every-three-years vacation and we hosted a small dinner party for them last Saturday. It was also the first party ever in our new house.
When we entertain at home, I don’t stray away from the most important rule: I am entitled to enjoy the party as much as the guests and the rest of my family. Ergo, I make sure that the food does not require slave labor that will leave me catatonic by the time the first guests enter the front door.
My choices for last Saturday’s dinner:
Above (foreground), chicken and cabbage spring rolls with home made herbed wrappers. The original plan was to serve lumpiang ubod (heart of palm spring rolls) but we were unable to find ubod on Friday evening and I didn’t want to spend Saturday morning hopping from one wet market to another to find ubod.
Then, chicken and mangoes in yogurt — baked this time rather than braised.
For the irrepressible pasta lovers, there was baked spaghetti with my secret pasta sauce and creamy cheese topping.
The seafood dish was bangus (milkfish) belly steaks served a la pobre. And for dessert — not in the photo because I took it out of the fridge after everyone had their second and third helpings — we had buko pandan.
I’ll post the recipe for the chicken and cabbage spring rolls in a while. I just have to meet my deadlines first. 
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You featured your chicken and mangoes in yogurt dish again! I’m so eager to try it one of these days. I can’t find good mangoes in the markets here in LB at this time.
Re: “Ergo, I make sure that the food does not require slave labor that will leave me catatonic by the time the first guests enter the front door.”
Naku, Ms. Connie, that’s what I hate about inviting guests for a meal in our home. By the time the guests arrive, I would be so tired that I would just want to sleep.
But you know, I learned from you and I do the cooking in batches, like marinate the chicken a day before, and prepare the dessert in advance. That way, I am still smiling when the guests arrive. Doing the dishes though–that’s an entirely different matter.
Gay, kami din, we had problems finding mangoes. And they’re so expensive at this time of the year.
Soloops, re: washing and cleaning afterward. Naku, that’s why my motto is no guests unless we have house helpers. hehehe
Ms. Connie,
Comment on mangoes–sobra, I did a double take when I saw them priced at 120 a kilo.
Re: washing and cleaning-the hubby hates seeing the kitchen after I have done a lot of cooking, hehe.
Helpers … I’m so glad we have a helper. I don’t have to wash dishes after my various experiments in our kitchen. I get to do all the fun things in the kitchen and avoid the clean-up.
Regarding this post, looks yummy! Great photos.
Everything looks so yummy! *drool*
Hi Ms. Connie,
The chicken and mangoes in yogurt looks awesome! Will probably wait till summer when the mangoes are sweet and cheap to try this out. May i ask what kind/brand of yogurt do you use?
Thanks!
Nestle, Cindy.
Ms Connie, I am planning to mango and chicken in yogurt this for my late birthday bash. Actually, I already cooked the braised version and it was great. I just want to know the temp and length of cooking time when it is baked. Thanks..
Sheng, at 350F, about an hour.
hi connie! this is my first to comment on your site but i’ve been checking this out every workday( hehe ) for a long time na..
anyway, just wanna ask if i could use microwave instead of an oven : )
tnx!
ooops..i was referring to baked spaghetti : )
Ishian, no, the topping won’t brown well.