Mumsnet users share who they'd invite for dinner after lockdown with Barilla

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Lockdown measures are still firmly in place and getting together with friends and family can feel like a distant memory, and it’s easy to daydream about what we’ll do once our daily lives begin to resemble our old version of normality again, including inviting friends or family over. With that in mind, Barilla would like to hear about how you’ve hosted and socialised during lockdown and who you’re most looking forward to welcoming into your home for a big bowl of pasta once this is over.

Have you missed hosting family and friends? Watch Barilla’s cookalong from last week and create a virtually () perfect Italian night with Gennaro Contaldo.

Here’s what Barilla has to say: “Italians love nothing more than getting friends and family around to share good food and good times. Barilla is the biggest family pasta-maker in Italy, so we’re proud to be right at the heart of those moments. Lots of people have been eating our authentic pasta on lockdown, all around the world. But we know the key ingredient is the other people around the table. So we’ve been looking for ways to help people play host – even if that means, for now, doing so at a distance.”

How are you hosting or taking part in social events during lockdown? Perhaps you’ve been hosting quizzes with friends, taking part in virtual cook alongs or group Zoom calls? Are you eager to host a dinner party with friends once this is over, or to simply have your sister over for drinks once the kids have gone to bed?

All who post below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 voucher towards a weekly food shop (from a supermarket of your choice) provided by Barilla.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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Definitely looking forward to having my parents over, they really miss my toddler and she misses them. Have been keeping in touch via FaceTime and calls. I'm afraid us stretching to home food calls is us all eating pizzas on FaceTime!

My mum, her husband and my partner who I haven't seen for so long
They all get on so well, will be a fab boozy meal!!

I can’t wait to have my best friend over for dinner, we normally have her over ever Friday for a homemade kebab and chips and my son is really missing her too. I also can’t wait to get to my mums for a Sunday dinner so I’m hoping we’re top of her list!

I'd love to have my mum over for dinner. We've not seen her for months as she lives a long way away. An Italian pasta feast with plenty of garlic bread, olives and wine followed by tiramisu would be on the menu!

My mum!!! She's missed out on so much of 5mo DD already.

Our best friends are married to each other and we regularly have them over for dinner under normal circumstances. They're first on the invite list!

I'm looking forward to having my mum and mil over for lunch and a catch up. We do keep in touch by phone but neither are great with technology so Zoom etc is out, so too is our weekly quiz with our adult children.

My nan and children's great band who has dementia we are missing her so very much and I am worried about how badly she is going to deteriorate during lockdown, she has during lockdown lost the ability to speak on the phone.

We miss her so much and want to give her a hug and a kiss and cook her a Sunday dinner.

Looking forward to seeing family again.

My daughter! She's staying up the road so I can see her from a distance. Can't wait to watch a rubbish film and make some terrible junk food together

I have been doing a weekly Sunday night pub quiz with some of my local friends. We are doing it in the format of the real one we used to go to and we all write ten point' worth of questions each.

I also talk to my old school friends on Zoom once a fortnight for a catch up.

My best friend. We are both teachers and have been working throughout. We deserve a good night of eating, drinking and conversation in the same room.

My sister, we're both shielding at the moment, and catch up via phone and WhatsApp, but it's not the same!

My work colleagues!! I’m shielding so I haven’t seen them in so long and I miss their lovely faces.

Idris Elba. 😁

Been talking more on phone to friends during lockdown, and done a couple of Skypes. Also see neighbours for drinks once a week with everyone on their respective driveways.
Have quite enjoyed not seeing my mother in law as she's a piece of work.
After lockdown is over I'm looking forward to seeing two different families we're friends with and have Skyped with during lockdown, and also perhaps inviting round another family we've got friendly with recently before and during lockdown (through our children).

My lovely grandad who's been an absolute trooper during covid following the loss of his wife and brother and having to manage alone. I wish I could see him but I just don't want to expose him so a lovely dinner after all of this is over is the next best thing

I don't want to host but looking forward to going to my parent's house again :)

All my family who live close by, my mum and my aunts. We all get on well and would normally have had them over many times. Also my dad who lives further away. My children miss him a lot and when he visits he always stays over. Will be lovely.

I wouldn't invite them over but would love to have my students back in the college kitchen! I teach cooking to young adults and I miss their chat so much!! We cook a meal together and chat about anything they want to, it's such a therapeutic way to talk to them and I know they are missing it so much, as am I.

For sure my Grandpa and Grandma who are 85 and 83, they are both shielding, and although I have been to their window and waved, and left food parcels for them and I have not felt their hugs and kisses, they have missed hugging my 3 children, so to have them over when lockdown is over and they are safe - I will give them the longest hug.

My sister who is a sister on a paediatric care ward, and has been seconded to a respiratory ward for the last 4 weeks, I speak to her on the phone, and facetime when she is at home, we were so close before this pandemic, I am so very proud of her, but my children miss their auntie and I miss seeing hugging and being close to her.

My 2 Dss and their girlfriends. My 3 dc have really missed their big brothers.

I'd invite Princess Meghan as I would like to explore her views on the royal family and her life in general.

My Mum and Dad. I miss them a lot. They are lovely parents - they have always been a bit odd compared with other parents but they have always been very loving. They were never grumpy or short with me and my brothers and sisters.

I have a massive list of who I won't invite to my dinner party. Whenever I see someone on TV who is pompous, boring or mean I say "He or She is not invited". My imaginary dinner party is a bit of a thing in our house. People who have made the list include Paul Lewis from MoneyBox and Ian Hislam. I'd like to invite Martin Lewis but he would never shut up.