Guest Blogger – Jessica Ryan

My friend Marie told me that she had friends that stopped by suddenly last night. While she was thrilled to see them, she felt badly that she had nothing to offer them to munch on (she did have wine on hand!).

So that got me to thinking… what would I do if someone stopped by now? I think I would be okay. I have some Stacy’s Naked Pita chips, hummus, Carr’s crackers and a couple of different kinds of cheese. I could always dig into the freezer and pull out this awesome popcorn shrimp and I have a bunch of unbaked but freshly made cookie dough. I then made a mental note that I needed to make a list of things to keep on hand in the pantry for such last minute events… and here is what I came up with:

Food

• Crackers and cheese – do not get the kinds that you will eat readily and therefore will be gone the minute they come in the house!
• Specialty chips such as Terra or blue tortilla chips, salsa
• Popcorn
• Nuts such as roasted almonds or pistachios
• Cookies or something sweet that is in a box or freshly baked and frozen (will thaw very quickly)

Beverages

• Seltzer water
• Ginger ale
• Regular and diet colas
• Beer
• Wine, red and white
• Coffee – regular and decaf

The next time I go grocery shopping I will be sure to pick up a few additional items!

Jessica Ryan is a List Loving Mom who is admittedly better at writing them than following them. A former freelance writer, she decided to put the professional world on hold to raise her three entertaining kids. (Jessica often wonders why the job of parenting isn’t a freelance one. Her hours are never-ending and she can’t collect overtime, or any pay at all for that matter!) Jessica was dubbed by some of her friends as the Fairy Godmother, as she seemed to have all their (child-rearing) questions answered for them – She thinks she has them all fooled! Jessica has been blogging for about a year now, about her family and her life, documenting the good, the bad, and the funny! This is her 3rd contribution to List Mama Blog.

Visit her blog, The Entertaining House, at http://doodlebuglounge.blogspot.com/