For quite some people hosting a sit-down dinner looks like keeping all the government laws. There seem to be so many rules that are driving them crazy. Well on this website I will do my very best to make things less complicated, to be honest, there are not that much “laws” to be obeyed as it seems like. I will cover those laws for you even before the party. Now, let us talk about what food you are planning to serve on your party. The entire atmosphere you intend to create on the party is of significant importance in this matter of course.
What do you serve? How many guests have you invited?
Believe it or not, the number of guest you have invited has an influence on the type of food you serve. In case of an expanded group of guests, it is better to keep the menu simple. Simple does not mean that it is tasteless. No, on the contrary, the simplest meals can taste wonderful.
So keep it simple when you have an expanded guest list. Not like some friend of mine, who hosted a dinner party and thought it would be a great idea to offer her guests some self-made noodles. She forgot that she had quite some guests invited and spent rolling and filing almost day and night. Her great idea turned out to be a nightmare.
Pizza Planning for a Teen Party
When you first started thinking of planning a party you stated: “I can’t go wrong with pizza”.
Now the fact is that your son is turning 16 (time flies), you want to celebrate this by hosting a birthday party. Now that the time is coming nearer, you have second thoughts about that pizza spree.
You have doubts about the amount of pizzas you have to order.
As you know teenage boys have a more than average appetite, even girls have, when it comes to eating pizzas. Therefore, you have to count with four slices per person. Pizza is one of the very special foods that are eaten all evening. Just put it on the table and as long as a piece of it is available, it will find its way to one mouth or another. Not every guest will eat its own four pieces of pizza, but you will see as long as the party continues that the pizza will slowly, or not so slowly, disappear.
Here are two major rules you have to keep in mind when hosting a party for teens:
1) Ordering pizza as the main meal is never ever a mistake
2) Ordering too much pizza is simply impossible.
If it is, a party where the teenage guests stay the night over, the leftover pizza will be, without any doubt, the breakfast of the morning after.
So, what is your lesson in this? Right, better keep it simple, no exclusivity!
What? Food talks?
Food talks, yes in a certain way it does. The tone for the party is often set by the food you serve. What do you have in mind with the party? Is it meant to impress colleagues from work or future clients? Alternatively, are you planning an informal get together with some close friends?
For both kinds of parties, you will choose, without any doubt, two different menus. When it comes to a gathering with some of your closest friends, you can more easily give a tryout of one of your latest cooking experiments. In case it fails, it gives you something to remember and laugh about in the future.
If you do the same in order to impress some potential clients and it fails, it may cost you a contract!
Do your menu ideas fit your space?
What do you mean by that, I hear you asking? Well, if you are living in a small apartment with only a small dining room, you have to be careful; do not try to provide your guests with a 9 course 5 star exclusive menu. Always ask yourself where you put such great amounts of food. Having a simpler themed party in your apartment would be better. A simpler party does not need so much room for the food!
How much are you willing to, or can you, spend?
Always keep the costs in mind. If your wallet cannot follow you through, when you plan to put an exclusive meal on the table, then do not plan it! Better, keep it simple and good and not too expensive. It sounds obvious but believe me it is very easy to get overambitious when you are in the middle of the party planning.
Okay, let us get the sit-down dinner going. First, you have to make sure that the guest of honor is properly seated. You, as the host sit to the right of the guest of honor. The most important is that the guest of honor is served first, always, remember always!
That is quite easy to remember, right? After you have served the guest of honor, you serve the person on his left and go on serving until you end with you, the host, who is always served last.
Serving the food always happens from the left side of the guest, clearing from the right side.
If there are eight guests or less, all guests should wait eating, until the host is served.
At a party with more than eight guests, the guests are allowed to start eating after four or five of them have been served. Take care that dinner-, salad- and butter plates, as well as salt and peppershakers and spicy sauces are removed, before you serve your desert. Include a fork while you serve the desert plate. This fork you should position on the left side of the plate. If a spoon is required to, put that on the right side of the plate. As you very well know, food is only one part of the elements needed on a party. On most of the parties, alcoholic drinks are served as well. Before you are going nuts because of the fact that you do not know how much and what to serve, calm down. Just keep on reading, and you will get control over the situation, I guarantee you that!
What alcoholic beverages you have to serve at a sit-down dinner?
Here you get your chance to serve some wines and liqueurs. Liqueur is not a fancy word for liquor. Do not make that mistake! A liqueur is a distilled alcoholic beverage with a sweetener and one or more aromatic flavorings added to it. Peach, coffee, cocoa, almond and orange are the most popular added flavorings.