Easy Dinner Party Ideas

easy dinner ideas

The formal dinner party has been around for goodness knows how long, centuries probably. Let's have a glance at a contemporary take on the dinner party idea, make it less formal and more enjoyable.

Hosting a dinner party for the first time can be so stressful for the host or hostess, that actually enjoying the event could be thought about a alien idea. It can though, be different, if they use a small bit of guile and imagination. Even if the method I'll explain is not suitable for your idea of a dinner party, it works as well for more casual gatherings. Either way, what follows is a way to entertain without having frazzled nerves.

easy dinner ideas

A typical dinner party involves the host or hostess disappearing at various times to take care of cooking a meal. This in itself seems to me to be anti social - it being a social event. Of coursework, in years past, in the event you were rich you would have servants to cook and serve. A small bit of a rarity these days. However, there is a way to enjoy and participate in my kind of dinner party, have a lovely time and your guests will leave admiring your laid back efforts.

A buffet is all right for some occasions, but not for a dinner party. We are expected to cook, and they will. not in the conventional sense.

Have you heard of Teppanyaki? This is a Japanese method of grilling on a hotplate, 'Teppan' meaning iron plate and 'Yaki' intending to grill. We'd normally call it griddling but 'Teppanyaki' sounds much more upmarket and will fool or guests. These are the ones who will be impressed when you tell them what the translation is. OK, it is kind of pretentious but why worry?

easy dinner ideas

My take on this whole thing is to prepare your side dishes well in advance. This might be a green salad to accompany meat, or even vegetables kept warm in a bain marie. The meat part of the meal is going to be sizzling away on a Teppanyaki style griddle. In the United Kingdom, Andrew James does an excellent range and in the USA, Presto do a respectable range of slightly smaller versions.

The whole point of the Teppanyaki grill is that the meat is going to cook in public. This is common in Japanese steakhouses and straightforward to replicate at home. The bonus for us is that they are having a contemporary casual dinner party. This means that they can invite people to eat without even mentioning 'dinner party'. Your guests can select their meat the way that they like it, taking that responsibility away from you. There is no reason at all why a quantity of your friends who enjoy rare meat cannot eat while others have a glass of wine. After all, they accept this at a relatives barbecue so why not at other times?

Even in the event you are not keen on holding a 'dinner' party in this way, keep in mind that this idea still works in any casual gathering where food is involved. Teppanyaki works.



easy dinner ideas