entertaining / easy tablesetting for a crowd

though we love creating elaborate tablesettings (see here, here and here), often we don't eat at perfectly set tables like that. also, we usually have way more people than our dining room table can handle- we have lots of family and friends with big families. most of the time our tables look something like this when we have guests over. we use our big kitchen table that seats twelve, and keep our normal centerpiece on the table which is low enough to talk over, and small enough to fit the food on the table (we are all about family style).

for this table we used our ikea runners (we got our on sale for $1.99 each). we have 8 of them so we put two across four times. down the center we have a chevron table cloth that was made for my cousin's wedding. we used basic white square plates and my favorite little grey plates. instead of doing cloth napkins we used paper ones (also from ikea!). we brought in my world market dining room chairs and combined them with my mom's wood chairs.

since we are already sharing easy tablesetting, why not share one of the easiest and most delicious appetizers that we frequently serve.

cheater bruschetta:

this appetizer is super easy to throw together last second before your guests come over- plus it has almost all of my favorite foods. all you do is toast some bread (we usually use the rosemary bread from costco). spread some pesto on top, then placed sliced fresh mozzarella (which we also get from costco) and tomatoes. top with freshly shredded parmesean, salt and pepper. then let guests pour balsamic vinegar over their individual servings- if your pour it for everyone they get a little soggy. eat up!