The trick to planning a dinner party

Ahh cooking. One of my passions.
Although when cooking for a large group of people I find myself rather stressed out...the joy of trying the food and seeing everyone enjoying it makes me very happy.
Every year my family does the same thing for New Years Eve. We all gather at my father's house and watch the fireworks. This usually means about 20 people. All with different tastes when it comes to food. On top of that, every year we also have a wine tasting event on New Years.
For those of you who aren't savvy on the world of wine, this means you have to have a menu that will not counteract all of the flavours in the wine.
It can be a difficult task, but I now consider myself a dinner party planning expert.

So here are a couple of my tips, depending on what kind of event you are hosting.

A large dinner party or event 



Now I love food, but the trick to these events is picking meals that are easy to mass distribute. So sometimes it means that you will have to throw away ideas of complicated foods and stick to the simple and delicious. I am now starting to look at this years menu for New Year, and I shall let you in on my ideas.

Bloomin' onion bread

Mini Jacket potatoes

Brownie, marshmallow and strawberry skewers

This year I am aiming to make all the food as finger food. That way there is something for everyone and lots of delicious things to be had! Always chuck in a salad, because it is around this time that people are thinking of their new years resolutions and how they should be thinking about their health lol. 
I usually have some sort of theme. But this year I'm just planning around yumminess.
Do all you can the day before and to make it easy on yourself, don't do the shopping on the day, especially for something as big as New Years Eve because it will be ridiculously crowded!
I always tend to over cater...so just remember not everyone will have some of everything...Otherwise you end up with all this food that you yourself might not eat and that is just wasteful.
I can't stress this enough, please make sure there is vegetarian and gluten free food available. THEY ARE PEOPLE TOO :P
My last tip for events like this is to have as much disposable plates and cutlery as you can. No one wants to clean up when they are hung over lol. So make it easy on yourself. You can find reasonable plastic plates. No one will care :)


A small dinner party

As I mentioned in a previous post, I just had my 21st birthday. This included having my girlfriends come over for an italian style feast and cocktails.

The trick with these events is preparing as much as possible as you can before hand, so that you don't find yourself away from all of your guests. Especially since it is a small event. Also, try and pick dishes that take about the same time to cook so you are only in the kitchen for a smaller amount of time and dinner can all be served at once

Antipasto

I served an antipasto platter because then people can pick and choose what they want. I think it is important to keep each element separate as people can be a bit funny about the mixing of foods.
I also included cheeses and a Cob loaf dip, my favourite!

Cob Loaf dip

BBQ chicken pizza

So I was very happy with how these starters went down and I decided to do more of a banquet style sit down dinner.

And what else could I choose for an Italian style dinner than pizza and pasta!?? I made the pasta vegetarian and the pizza had chicken. And what would italian be without garlic bread...haha.

Lemon, garlic and white wine pasta

So what was for dessert? My absolute favourite, Lemon Meringue Pie :)

Lemon Meringue pie

I hope you enjoyed looking at pictures of yummy food and you got some ideas for your next event! Just relax with it...have a glass (or 5) of wine and just remember that they are all your friends and family and will love you even if you dish them bad food haha.

I have really enjoyed writing a food post for something different. Maybe I shall start including more and talking about recipes I have tried and loved. Have a lovely day xx