Dinner Party Planning – A Great Menu Equals A Great Party

Do you want to throw a dinner party, but planning one seems like more work than you can handle? Don’t sweat it. As long as you create a fantastic menu, the rest of your party planning will fall into place.

Most of your attention should be put toward the menu of your dinner party. Planning a formal dinner party, or is casual more your thing? Do you want to plan a sit-down dinner, or is buffet going to work better in your house?

To answer some of these questions, you first need to know how many people you want at your party. If you’re preparing the food yourself, it’s a good idea to keep your guest list under ten people. This will keep your preparations manageable; becoming overwhelmed before the party is not what this is all about.

Next, plan for the menu to have a little bit for every type. Even though this is your party, you should still make sure you know your guests’ preferences. Serve foods that will satisfy meat lovers, as well as vegetarians.

For your main dish, whether it’s steak, chicken, prime rib, or fish, make sure it’s fresh. For the freshest meat selections, visit your local meat market or fish market instead of a supermarket. They’ll have the freshest cuts available. Once you try this for your party (if you haven’t done so already), you’ll have a hard time going back to supermarket meats.

When buying produce for your menu, you should also stick with the freshest stuff available to you. If you have your own garden, then you should definitely use whatever you have there. If you don’t have your own garden, and it’s summertime, head out to a farmer’s market in your area. Depending on how big the market is, you can usually get a good selection from the various farmers.

Your other option for produce is going to someplace like Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or some other organic food store. In a lot of cases, your local supermarket will be just fine for produce. Just make sure that whatever you purchase is the freshest you can find.

Whether you get your food from Whole Foods, Trader Joes, a farmer’s market, or your own garden, it’s important to try to come up with something seasonal when planning your dinner party menu. For example, you don’t want to serve a summer fruit salad in the middle of January. You can’t always stick to this philosophy, and all of your guests may not notice, but the ones who do will appreciate it.

Dinner party planning doesn’t have to be some monumental feat. Just keep in mind how many people you have coming, your guests preferences (if you know them), and that you should always buy the freshest when it comes to meats and produce. Having these few planning points on your checklist will help you throw a successful dinner party that your guests will enjoy, and will have them looking forward to your next party.

About the Author

Hanna Johanson is a party planning enthusiast and author from Chicago. To learn more about dinner party planning, and to sign up for her free party planning secrets mini-course, visit http://www.partyplanningsuccesstips.com.

London underground dinner party

Libbey Polaris Drinking Glasses and Tumblers, Set of 16 $22.99 16-piece set of drinking glasses with heavy, 1-inch-thick rounded bases that impart substance and stabilityWith 16 glasses total, the set includes eight tumblers and eight glassesThe glasses measure 2-3/4 by 2-3/4 by 6-1/2 inches and hold 16-1/4 ounces; tumblers are 3 by 3 by 4 inches and hold 12-1/4 ouncesLayers beautifully with a variety of dinnerware and table settings; crystal-clear glass cons…

Libbey Sociable All Purpose Wine Goblet, Set of 12 (10.75oz) $18.95 Simple, sturdy and such a deal! Despite the bargain in terms of price you won’t see any seams on these glasses. They reflect a classic style that will work with virtually any decor for casual dining….

Libbey Vina Martini Glass, Set of 6 $18.95 Product Features12 ounce capacityMade in the USAPart of popular Vina seriesDishwasher Safe7 3/8 inches tall The Vina Martini is designed to be part of the popular Vina series of stemware that features a Round Wine, Tall Wine, Stemless Red and White Wine, Margarita and Trumpet Flute. The Martini has a capacity of 12 ounces….

Babette’s Feast $14.98 Some movies can only be described as delicious. In Babette’s Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides to create a real French dinner–which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining th…

A Day to Remember – Instrumental Music for Your Wedding Day $4.95 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed….

Eh Paisano: Italian-American Classics $8.11 No Description AvailableNo Track Information AvailableMedia Type: CDArtist: EH PAISANO!-ITALIAN-AMERICATitle: EH PAISANO!-ITALIAN-AMERICAN CStreet Release Date: 01/14/1997…

The Exterminating Angel [VHS] $24.99 …

Nick Stellino’s Dinner Party $6.50 Meet some of America’s best chefs as Nick Stellino of Cucina Amore hosts progressive dinner parties in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The parties move from restraurant to restaurant, where each chef creates one exquisite dish–appetizer, entree, dessert–in course-by-course decadence. Tour the restaurants, meet the chefs and go behind the scenes to see how each dish is prepared. It’s a night…

Last Supper [VHS] $3.92 Painted in mile-wide strokes of black satirical comedy, The Last Supper turns intolerance into a parlor trick, then repeats it ad nauseam in case we missed the joke. Still, redundancy can be fun when applied to the premeditated murder of right-wing extremists by self-righteous left-wing zealots; director Stacy Title is an equal-opportunity offender, never taking sides. The grisly high jinks c…

Outdoor Patio Beach Garden Poolside Sun Umbrella Camping Hiking Tent 24 LED UFO Lantern Light Silver $25.99 This listing is for a Brand new wireless 24 Bright Wireless Patio Umbrella LED LightIncluded: one 24-LED Siver-tone Umbrella LightSize: Diameter 7 7/8″ x Height 2 3/8″ (D 20cm x H 6cm )Weight: approx 0.86lb (390grams)Fits Umbrella Poles Diameter: 1 3/8″ – 2″ (3.5cm¨C5cm)LED color: WhiteThis item is designed to attach to sun umbrella for night dining evening BBQs & patio poolside parties that go l…