It can be tricky to entertain at home, and after the Christmas season, the last thing you might be thinking about is hosting another dinner party or another dinner where you have to host for everybody else. The thing is, starting your year in the right way means making sure that you have the right dinner party to kick the whole thing off. And whether you are doing this for family or friends or you want it to go well.let’s take a look at some of the tips that you need for the perfect dinner party to go off without a hitch and bring your 2024 together.
- What was the theme? It doesn’t have to necessarily be a strict theme nor do you have to go all out there with a masquerade party, but the theme is a nice idea to get started with when it comes to planning a dinner party. It will keep you from feeling overwhelmed by all the options so even though it may be January you could make your dinner party spring themed and try this waldorf salad recipe To bring some freshness to the year. Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t necessarily mean you have to serve stodgy meals.
- Plan the menu ahead of time. Going off of your theme, you should look to plan your menu based on that. Read through the recipes for every dish and make note of the cooking times, prep times, and ingredients. It can often help to choose things that you can prepare well ahead of time so that you don’t have to spend too much time standing around in the kitchen and cooking before you have to serve your guests.
- Don’t forget to ask about dietary requirements. If you are extending your dinner party to a friendship group who are bringing partners that you may not have met before, then you should think about making sure that you ask about directory requirements before you do. Get on with planning the menu and buying ingredients. The last thing you want to do is plan a seafood menu and find out that somebody’s allergic to shellfish.
- It’s all in the preparation. From the table that you can prepare in advance to the meals that you can get ready, think about what you can prepare ahead and work on that. Tossing things together such as the salad that we mentioned earlier or deviled eggs can save you a lot of time and salads can always be something that you make up and then just serve the dressing on the table so that people can dress their salad themselves.
- Be strategic about dessert. Ideally, you don’t want to choose a dessert that has to come fresh from the oven, because otherwise you’ll spend the whole dinner party mentally calculating when you need to remove the dessert. Cakes, pies and tarts can be cooked ahead of time, and cheesecakes that are not baked are great to set in the fridge the night before, and then you can serve them up very easily on the evening of the party. Either way, you do need to make sure you have a cracking dessert.
- About drinks ahead of time. Whether you want guests to bring their own bottle or you want to be able to serve on a specific menu of drinks, make sure that you let guests know ahead of time. You should also ensure that you’re not just offering an alcoholic option, but that you have soft drinks available as well.
- Think about going family style. You do not have to plate for individuals if you don’t want to. As long as you have the right table warmers, you can make sure that you serve everything to the center of the table and allow people to help themselves. Everyone can serve themselves and pass a dish to the next guest before it gets settled to the middle of the table for any seconds or leftovers.
- Keep it simple. You don’t have to have tons of clutter all over the table during your dinner party. If you have a trolley that you can park at the side or a sideboard that you can have laid in with dishes, you can make sure that people serve themselves in one area and sit to eat in another.
- You enjoy it yourself. While you’re prepping meals for everybody else, don’t forget that you need to make sure that your plate is laden as well.