Throwing a dinner party is a great way to see friends and family, especially if you haven’t caught up with them for a while. Planning an event at home can be stressful, but only if you let it happen. If you feel it’s been too long since you’ve spent quality time with your nearest and dearest, consider these five tips for a stress-free dinner party.
Don’t Invite Too Many People
The most fundamental rule for ensuring you’re not stressed or overwhelmed for your dinner party is to make sure you don’t invite too many people. While the ideal number varies depending on how big your house is and the number of people you’re comfortable cooking for, you shouldn’t have more than five or six people over as well as the rest of your household. This should make it easier to keep track of portions and ensure you have enough space in your oven to guarantee a smooth and manageable process.
Stick To Food You Know
Dinner parties are not the time to prepare something you’ve never made before, but it could be your chance to show off some of your favorite dishes. You need something filling, but not too filling that it kills the mood because everyone is so stuffed. You should also think about dietary needs, so something like creamy pasta with Italian sausage could be an option, especially as it’s easy to replace ingredients with vegan or gluten-free alternatives if necessary.
Prepare Plenty Beforehand
As you improve your culinary skills, you will learn that it’s always better to prepare as much as possible beforehand. While you want to serve a fresh salad, you also need to cook the meat (if you’re going for a slow-cooked approach) early to ensure you have plenty of time to adjust the temperature if necessary. If you’re making fresh bread or even fresh pasta, you’ll need to be up early, too, as the extra time can save you from any disasters.
Clean As Much On the Night
As tempting as it is to worry about the pots and pans tomorrow, don’t leave dishes to soak overnight as this can damage the material and leave you with a gross, gunky mess in your kitchen sink. If you have a dishwasher, scrape all plates and cutlery and load them to clean overnight. Your guests might offer to help do the dishes but don’t feel like you have to let them. If anything, you want them to have fun, so focus on giving your dishes a quick rinse to prevent any food from crusting overnight.
Get People to Help Out
Hopefully, you have a supportive household who will happily help with everything. They don’t need to assist with the cooking, but picking up wine and other drinks can save you some time. Likewise, chopping vegetables or cleaning the house means you only need to focus on making the best food possible.
The Perfect Host
It can feel overwhelming trying to be the perfect host, but these tips should make the evening fly by and ensure everyone has fun. The only problem with that is your guests will tell others, the word will spread, and you’ll need to host again in the future. At least you’ll be prepared, though.