Garden supper this evening. Would it be reasonable to suggest that guests might leave the table for the football?

[LemonRoses]

We have a ten people arriving for supper this evening. We plan to eat on the terrace, with a 7pm start to catch the last of any sunshine. Clearly if they arrive at 7.15, have drinks and warm spiced nuts/olives then sit down to a starter of crab, we’re not going to be serving the entree until well past 8pm.

I don’t know two of the couples. My guess would be that three, maybe four, of the men would want to see the match. I don’t think most of the women would be particularly interested.

My problem is I wasn’t aware there was a football match this evening and I rather suspect some guests will want to see it.

Do we;

• open the doors so people can pop in and out?
• suggest those that wish cut their food at table and then eat of their knees with a fork whilst watching the television?
• suggest we watch together later?
• not mention to football and hope nobody else does?
• arrange regular update messages from someone who is watching?

If a match is at 8pm, what time will it finish? Should we defer eating until after the match but add in more substantial canapés?

Thanks for making me laugh 😂

@EastWestWhosBest

It’s not a supper though is it? Not if it had several courses.

Supper is a simple evening meal. Usually the last meal before bed. It can be your main meal or something small like cheese and crackers. However something with course like this would be dinner.

Posh people call it supper unless it's very formal and in the dining room, from what I can work out. In the garden or kitchen table it's supper.

I loved in America for a while and I still don’t understand why they call the main course an “entree”. They’re using a French word in the wrong way… it means starter. Odd.

I also wish I could come to your party OP. You sound like you can take a joke.

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/230159/sweet-salty-spicy-party-nuts/

This is happening at my house today.

I was asked by a judge to rearrange an administrative hearing to first thing next morning for wednesdays March. I just thought thank god ! We all did. Just lawyers no clients/witnesses messed about. I totally accept there are many who don’t care a fig about it. (Food thème continuation).
Vive la différence.
Come on England !

I loved in America for a while

What you did in America, stays in America!

This thread is hilarious.

In the event it is actually true and advice is wanted, I'd have brought the meal time forward to 6pm.

@BackforGood

This thread is hilarious.

In the event it is actually true and advice is wanted, I'd have brought the meal time forward to 6pm.

If it's true, she'll have friends in high places and have the match postponed to facilitate the party!

@SecretSpAD

Do people who have "supper" watch football?

My dog has supper. He's a bit meh about football but does like a good game of cricket.

No idea. Supper always used to mean a digestive biscuit and a glass of milk in front of the telly. Now I'm a busy adult, there is no supper, because dinner is late enough in the evenings (7 or 8pm) that eating after that would mean eating very late at night, and the extra poundage that comes with late-night snacking.

Mind, I had to google "a country supper" a while ago when DH and I were watching a cooking programme and they mentioned "a country supper". me to DH: "WTF is a country supper??" He didn't know, either, so we asked our mate Google...

Hope your evening goes well, OP, and that you have better weather conditions that we do today.

@BackforGood

This thread is hilarious.

In the event it is actually true and advice is wanted, I'd have brought the meal time forward to 6pm.

Yikes. 6pm would be a bit early for an evening meal. If the football is so important to people, they wouldn't be accepting an invitation to a hosted evening, surely?

@massiveportion

Gosh OP, why didn't you think ahead and hire a projector or cinema screen that your guests can watch outside if they so desire? You must be losing your touch.

Omg what about a hot tub & outdoor tv set up on the terrace doorstep.

OP can serve supper crab and lager to poolside and if everyone is wet anyway that it doesn't matter if it rains or if they are male or female / don't like footy. No need for a gazebo.

By gosh you have it all there.

No need to cancel afterall.

Plus also no need for people to go indoors (when more than two households). They can just wee in the hottub!

You should stick with the crab as they are football shaped. Cover the shells with shaved white truffle, and caviar shaped into pentagons. Fashion little goalposts from asparagus spears.

Plus also no need for people to go indoors (when more than two households). They can just wee in the hottub!

Maybe yellow would have been more appropriate!

@ApplyWithin

I loved in America for a while and I still don’t understand why they call the main course an “entree”. They’re using a French word in the wrong way… it means starter. Odd.

I also wish I could come to your party OP. You sound like you can take a joke.

The french were in the America’s a very long time ago. Seems possible the use of the word in use and Canada was based on the way it was used when they arrived and never evolved beyond that. Especially in French speaking parts of Canada.

“In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, entrées, on meat days,[f] included most butchers’ meats (but not ham), suckling pig, fowl, furred and feathered game, and offal.”

They wouldn’t have accepted the invitation unless they were happy to skip the match. I really wouldn’t worry about this.

@WeatherSystems

They wouldn’t have accepted the invitation unless they were happy to skip the match. I really wouldn’t worry about this.

That's the problem. Nobody knew the match would be happening until late Tuesday evening.

I’m in the
‘Don’t accept an invite if you plan to watch the footie’ camp.

Honestly I enjoy a get together but ffs you can watch the match later, or decline the invite.

Ah I see! You can tell I don’t keep up with football.

Still though, the onus would be on the guest to cancel their attendance. If a gig I was desperate to go to popped up last minute and I wanted to watch it I would either miss it or cancel the dinner invitation (I’d never do that personally, but it’s an option open to people). I wouldn’t go and then assume I can sit there and stick the tv on and watch it.

I’ve never understood the use of entrée to mean main course. It means starter. Even if you don’t speak French, it’s very clearly a cognate of entry i.e. logically the first dish.

Warm nuts!

@WeatherSystems

They wouldn’t have accepted the invitation unless they were happy to skip the match. I really wouldn’t worry about this.

But they would have accepted the invitation before anyone knew about the football match.

*In US and Canada

[quote Fiddliestofsticks]@Planesmistakenforstars

The entree is the main course. Not the starter.
The main dish of a meal is called the entree. So she is serving the starter and then the main meal (the entree).[/quote]
Not in the UK or France it isn't.
It literally means starter

@LemonRoses why are you using americanisms if you're based in the UK? It's confusing

When I read your OP I assumed you meant American football

I'm presuming this is all a front for a 'car keys in a bowl' party?