THIS is how real people entertain

One thing that always gets my goat is the image food magazines and television shows give of people entertaining. If you've ever seen one of the "real people" spreads in Sunset magazine or Bon Appetit, you know what I mean. All those glossy, beautiful people making all of those impossibly intricate and wonderful meals.

To be fair, I actually know some people who were the subjects of one of those shoots for Sunset magazine, and they are for the most part, pretty normal people, although they're all innovative cooks. Their thing was for Thanksgiving and I go whole hog for Thanksgiving, so to speak, so they never seemed, to me to be out of reach.

Martha always used to have these elaborate setups for even the simplest gathering, and I always felt real people don't do that. This was especially true the other night when Colin and Tracy said they were coming over. Then we asked Lindsay and Ryan if they wanted to come too, and Chris was already here.

So I bopped out to red barn Market because Mexican groceries have much better deals on chicken legs, which is what I was making. I grabbed some broccoli, a head of iceberg lettuce, a green pepper, a couple of grilling onions and I was good to go.

I zipped home. Started up the grill. Got the chicken legs marinating in some Trader Joe's Teriyaki sauce, which is just like Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce, but costs $1.99 as opposed to $5.99. Then I put them on the grill on the lowest setting along with the green onions -- they really add flavor -- for 15 minutes a side.

I poured a half cup of heavy cream into a small saucepan and melted about a cup and a half of shredded colby/Monterey Jack cheese into it over medium low heat. I sprinkled just a hint of nutmeg, because as annoying as Rachael Ray is, it does takes good, as long as you're really careful not to add too much.

(She always says on her show, "It's that little thing in the background that makes you go hmmmm what is that?" Every single time she puts nutmeg in something. So now Rob says, "It's that little thing the the background that makes you go why does this taste like eggnog?" So make sure your cheese sauce doesn't taste like eggnog and add just a touch of nutmeg.)

I steamed the broccoli. I made a salad with the iceberg lettuce, which I abhor, but everyone else loves. I added chopped farmers market celery and chopped green pepper. Rob says its one of the best salads he's had. Chacun a son gout.

When the chicken was done, we had dinner: teriyaki chicken legs, broccoli with cheese sauce (I didn't make the traditional flour based cheese sauce because I'm doing Atkins), but I really liked the heavy cream cheese combo because it's easy to get the constancy right, just add cream or cheese until you find a nice balance and it reheated nicely.

We served it on paper plates and everyone had a great time; simple, inexpensive, unpretentious fun. It was the night before the inauguration and we were all pretty excited. The dogs even had a great time. Why don't magazines show that?