We all know the scoop on New Year's resolutions: They rarely stick. Especially those ones about eating better or less.So this year, instead of making a vow I'm unlikely to keep beyond February, I'm going for a modest goal. I'd like to host more dinner parties.
Okay, let's get real here. I'd settle for serving up a meal for six to eight adults at least once in 2010. The kind where courses are served and grown-up banter can be had. Sounds like fun and seems doable, right?
Somehow these days I find all sorts of reasons why I don't dish up dinner to a group of friends -- too busy, tired, immersed in familyland or intimidated by others culinary skills or dietary restrictions. Just excuses, really.
So let's see if I can follow through on this intention. If you have any advice about a plan for operation dinner party, bring it on.
And if you have your own food-focused New Year's resolution -- I mean goal -- let me know below and perhaps readers will chime in with tips that might help you meet your target in 2010. Happy New Year!
Dinner party guests can bring a basket full of locally gleaned fruits/vegetables. It's a fun and easy challenge.
BalasHapusI can only fit about a thousand pounds of lemons in my truck. If you need more, we'll have to make other arrangements. :)
It is citrus season in the Bay Area. You're sure to have a cheery bounty of delectable healthy treats.
Happy New Year!
Hi Sarah - I don't do this often enough myself, but what seems a whole lot easier is to make things that are made ahead, and do them the night before. It is nice if you don't have to leave the cheese and olives table to go "cook" the main dish.
BalasHapusSo, if you make say a lasagne, it is just warming up in the low degree oven until it's time to eat. I also make the desert ahead. (Mark Bittman's Mexican chocolate tofu pudding is super easy and a real crowd pleaser.)
Too often, I plan something on the bbq, and then I'm outside minding the grill and not inside socializing. So that tends NOT to work.
Of course having guests bring one thing is always easier, though most hosts tend to resist the offer (?)
Great idea, Anna...Just as long as no one brings me loquats!
BalasHapusHi Vicki - I'm all for making dishes ahead so there's more mingling at the actual event. Thanks for the reminder.
BalasHapusAnd thanks for the tip on the Mark Bittman chocolate pudding recipe. That does sound good!
Try a potluck but don't give out assignments. My book group does a monthly potluck. While it's true there are the occasional dessert-only meals (like that's a bad thing), usually we have a mix of different dishes, some of it homemade, some of it not. Hosting is not a huge burden and a lot of good conversation (literary and otherwise) flows throughout the meal.
BalasHapusI hear what you're saying, Margaret. And I do host potluck affairs but I have this notion that it would be so nice to throw an actual dinner party where no one else had to think about what to make...make sense? Stay tuned!
BalasHapusI think my New Year's resolution would be: to eat more seafood :)
BalasHapus