Hosting a Happy Hour When You're Out of Town

As you probably know by now, Rob and I have moved several times. What you might not know is that by this point, it sometimes feels as though we have friends or family in almost every city in the country. Between the friends we've made in our many homes and the friends from home who have moved to other cities, we really can travel to a wide variety of places and meet up with people we grew up with, or people we've come to know and love more recently.

All of this is to say that over the years I've become a big fan of traveling and then staying in with friends for a cozy dinner now and then.

And of course, blogging makes the world a lot smaller. I feel really lucky to have been introduced to not just great friends, but creative colleagues in Annie and Kristan. Getting together last month to host our autumn lunch in Sonoma was so fun that it barely felt like work, and it also felt like no time had passed since we all met up to do the same thing in Seattle.

The night before we headed to Sonoma, we stayed in San Francisco--at a seriously gorgeous apartment in the Mission. There were five of us (Ozzie and John, our photographer and videographer/Kristan's husband), so it made more sense to rent a place than to get a couple hotel rooms.

We stopped at a nearby market for some flowers and snacks--we joke that The Cheese Board is really our thing, and for a good reason! We always manage to put together the most delicious cheese and charcuterie platters whenever we're together--maybe because we don't want to cook when we're hanging out, but also probably because we're usually drinking wine (as usual, we opened a couple bottles of La Crema's Sonoma Coast Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) and what goes better with wine than cheese? Grapes, olives, prosciutto, nuts, and just a little bit of chocolate--it's one of my favorite meals.

We spent an hour puttering around the kitchen, plating food, taking photos, sipping on wine, and as we brought everything outside to enjoy our happy hour party on the patio, suddenly it dawned on me that none of us actually lived in the city we were entertaining in! It's easy to make yourself at home when there's food, wine, and good company.

Annie and Kristan and I put together a list of tips for hosting a happy hour on the fly (especially if you're traveling), and you can check it out today on the La Crema blog! 

Many thanks to La Crema for sponsoring this post (and my amazing travels to and from Sonoma)!

Photos by Oguz Uygur.