Be sure to try new dishes too!

Great idea!

This is a win-win situation. As a kid, I always found it motivating to pick up my room if I knew people were coming over. And we'd have great leftovers too. And my parents always seemed to have fun when people came over. And we could gossip afterwards!

And as a guest, getting out of my house, having company, and not dealing with my daily chores for one block of time is fantastic. I had a friend in graduate school who said she would invite people over for peanut butter sandwiches - anything to have the company. It doesn't have to be fancy food. Just being a new environment is a treat, and even if the food is terrible and the place is messy, it will make me feel better about my own surroundings at home....

I love this idea. Definitely stealing it.

it's a great idea! as a bonus, it will also help motivate me in cleaning up the house for the guests

Wow great idea. I want to try it.

I love this idea, too! An added benefit for me is that it would make me much better about keeping my place "company-ready" :/

Love this idea!!! Borrowing this as my resolution!!

That meal looks delicious! Will she invite me?

I love that this incorporates more than just one resolution. Inviting someone over for dinner once a month forces you to keep up on the housework (glad to see it's a struggle for lots of people, not just me...),

Allows you to save money by entertaining at home instead of paying to go to a restaurant, and might encourage you to socialize with people you may not have otherwise thought to invite to your home.

Also encourages you to accept your house for what it is, and know that your home doesn't have to be perfect or completely finished (mine is in the process of DIY) to have someone over.

i like this one too, we like to do this from time to time. Often we invite a cluster of new acquaintances and old friends we haven't see in awhile at once (8-12 people) for an informal dinner. it can be a lot of fun - usually we tell people to feel free to bring a guest too so they have someone they are comfortable with. For some reason it seems to help people mingle and open up a little better when they have at least one person they know well.

Great Idea... and a perfect way try out new recipes. Done and done

I started doing this last year too. The way I went about it was to figure out what I wanted to make - then post a picture of it on Facebook with the caption that whoever posted a response first got to come over for dinner and help me try out the new recipe! The suspense of waiting for someone to respond to the invite is part of the fun!

@Oobleck - that's such a fun twist on this idea! I'll have to give that a try!

love this idea!! bringing new and old friends together is always a fun time too :)

Great idea, Brandi. Encourage your guests to join in with the cooking, too. It will be fun, and you will all learn from each other without all of the work falling on one person!

I really disagree that entertaining at home always saves money over going to a restaurant - it depends on the size of the group, the size of the meal, and the price of the restaurant you're comparing to. Sometimes I wind up spending more feeding guests than I would if we'd split costs for a meal and drink somewhere else. (It's cheaper for the guests, of course, worth it if I actually want to plan and prepare the meal, and probably evens out if your friends are the type to invite you sometimes...but mine mostly aren't, so if I don't have plenty of money AND time, it's better to have a potluck, go somewhere cheap, or just invite people for dessert or a drink.)

That said, I like this idea.

I love this idea! It would be fun to sometimes just invite one or two people and prepare a complete meal for them, but it also might be fun to coordinate with your friends so that you are all in charge of your own portion of the meal. OR we like doing interactive dinner parties sometimes too (e.g. a grilled pizza party in the summer where everyone "decorates" their own individual grilled pizza).

Totally stealing it. Thanks for the inspiration!

What a great resolution!