My husband and I bought a new couch from IKEA today. Since our Volkswagen lifestyle does not support these kinds of large purchases, we needed to enlist the help of a friend with a larger vehicle. This friend would need to do the 45 minute drive with us – both ways – as well as assist my husband with the heavy, awkward lifting of getting the new couch in and the old couch out of the apartment.

We felt that a simple “thanks, here’s some gas money,” wouldn’t cut it, so we decided to host a small dinner party to thank our helpful friend and show the new couch to the others. For dessert I made one of my specialties, Mystery Cake – the mystery ingredient is tomato soup, trust me, it’s delicious and guessing what the mystery ingredient could be is great fun for guests.