Scentsy Party--A Disaster In The Making?!

On Friday, I'm hosting a Scentsy party. I don't know what possessed me to agree, but now I'm committed to having any number of ladies show up on my doorstep just three nights from now. I'm going to be the youngest person there. The party starts at six, as we begin with supper. Did I mention I'm going to be the youngest there. Amongst all those old ladies.

Just kidding! Just kidding! They are all in the prime of their lives and are just exceedingly older and wiser than me :)

When I was first coerced asked to have this party two weeks ago, I immediately started having all sorts of elaborate ideas. For instance, the first dish I thought of for supper was lasagna. It is easy to make, and I would just have to throw it in the oven and forget about it until supper. I also planned on serving Cesar salad, garlic bread, and an ice cream cake for dessert.

Except, that night, I had a nightmare about the lasagna. Apparently, I was afraid the meat sauce would be too dry {a very real concern from previous experiences} and went overboard on adding liquids. Thus making it too watery. The poor noodles were just swimming even after an extended period of cooking time. But, get this. The lasagna turned from being soupy and goopy to being on fire. And the fire alarms all went off, but because the nearest alarm was rooms away, Marsh and I didn't know until the whole downstairs was engulfed in flames. We tried to break open the windows and climb on the roof, but all the windows had storm windows that we couldn't get to from the inside!

And then...I woke up and decided lasagna was out. I could just make them rice and mashed potatoes with gravy. This dish I perfected when I still lived at home. Even though we're Canadian, my family normally didn't eat what your typical Canadian eats. The main traditional food in Eritrean cuisine is tsebhi (stew) served with injera (flatbread made from teff, wheat, or sorghum), and hilbet (paste made from legumes, mainly lentil, faba beans). Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine (especially in the northern half) are very similar, given the shared history of the two countries. Here's a sampling of what some dishes look like:

I got this picture off the Internet. Just to let you know, all the stuff in the foreground I don't eat. Because I'm not a fan of vegetables. Otherwise, it is all delish. I'll have to take my own pictures once I start eating it again.

Most of it is pretty good stuff. And it's spicy. I love spice--that's why I add Cayenne pepper and crushed red pepper flakes to everything I eat.
 
Yes, there is a point to all that information about my ancestral cuisine. I can't make any of it. I've tried several times, and it never comes out right. My Mum tried to teach me, but since it is a "pinch of this, pinch of that" type of cooking, I basically had to be right with her every time she cooked. And, most often than not, I was off reading. Besides, everyone knows that no one compares to Mum's cooking. So, the one complete meal that I would make on the Saturday's it was my turn to cook, was rice and mashed potatoes with gravy {that I made using excess water from the potatoes}. Trouble is, sometimes the rice would burn on the bottom and be crunchy on top. Or, it would be too soft and end up being mushed together like a huge lump of...cold oatmeal. Pretty soon, my siblings and even my dad, would groan and ask Mum to rescue their stomachs from eating *that* again. The only thing I could make way back then--that the whole family would just beg me to make--was Spiced Roasted Potatoes. And, they were delicious if I do say so myself.
 
I think the party will be lots of fun--barring all culinary disasters!