Italian Dinner Party Theme

I love Italy and just about everything Italian that I come across.

As a English person, Italy has given so much. Where do I start?

How about the architectural style for our classical buildings, the best national food (pizza), those lovely red cars with their accompanying Formula 1 racing team.

Then there is even much of the English language, our road system and ancient history, all courtesy of the Roman invasion.

So what could be better than throwing an Italian dinner party for your friends?

I’m sure you already have a vision for the excellent, full-on Italian experience – the steaming pasta, the fragrant tomato sauce, the wonderful vegetables, the light fruity red wine, the energetic conversation, the loud opera music (OK, maybe not that last one!)

It’s all pretty excellent! Just provide it for your guests and they should have a lovely time.

So how should you plan an Italian dinner party?

First of all, look at your guest list. Does anyone on it detest Italy? Unlikely I know, but if there are one or two, cross them off the list now.

Then send out the invitations. Can you do this in a colourful, Italian way?

How about printing in green, white and red, to pick up on the Italian national colours? An image of the Trevi fountain, or a fancy red car would probably enhance the look as well.

You could also ask your guest to dress “Italian” or bring along something they love about Italy. That should get the conversation going!

Choosing the menu should be quite easy. Will it be pizza or pasta?

No, hold on a minute. There is much more to Italian food than that!

If you have been to Italy, or even to just a good Italian restaurant, you will know that wonderful fish, meats and vegetables appear throughout Italian cooking.

Just check out a cookbook or a cookery website, and you will get lots of ideas to impress your guests.

Pasta with seafoood in various forms, is one of my favourites.

Also, I like chicken with mozzarella cheese – quite a few recipes have this as a core ingredient.

The cheese course is good in Italy. Creamy , blue cheeses that go so well with a glass of red wine.

Then there are the deserts, or “Dolce” I should say. It’s all pretty good!

I think an Italian dinner party is an excellent themed evening. Do one soon and impress your friends!

Some Great Fall Dinner Party Recipes

Autumn is here and you can just feel it in the air!

After a summer of the usual lunches, dinners and entertaining, the Dinner Party season really begins with the arrival of fall and winter.

No matter if your guests are old or young, or whether you have a special theme for your dinner party, always attend to these simple basics…

Put plenty of advance thought and planning into your dinner party recipes, clean your home to make it look tidy and fresh and set the table nicely – these little things will greatly improve your dinner party and make sure it’s a success.

Are you stuck for a recipe? Chicken Parmesan is a fall dinner party recipe favorite, because you can prepare it quickly on a busy night.

Here’s a quick outline of how to prepare it…

Half an hour before dinner time, put the ingredients of the Chicken Parmesan together and put it in the oven, setting the timer for twenty or so minutes (this will depend on the size – make sure chicken is fully cooked before serving). It is a good idea to serve Chicken Parmesan with baked sweet potatoes.

After putting the Chicken Parmesan in the oven, you can turn your attention to the vegetables.

Take sweet potatoes which are fat and short. It is easy to bake them in the microwave oven. Put in one small sweet potato for each person at dinnerand set the timer for eight minutes.

With the main course well underway, you can assemble an accompanying salad, preferably made with spinach or mixed greens.

When the Chicken Parmesan, the orange sweet potatoes and the green spinach or mixed green salad are put on the plate, it will look great. And the combination will taste very nice too!

Take loose leaf spinach, wash and dry it, and then toss with spinach salad dressing. Slices of boiled egg can be used for garnishing, but this is optional.

For dessert, fresh baked apples will be great! But if you have a little more preparation time, why not try one of these apple recipes?

Here are some easy-to-make, fall apple recipes.

Apple Crisp

4 cups sliced apples, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/3 cup softened butter or margarine, 2/3 cup brown sugar, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

Put sliced apples in a greased pan and mix the other ingredients till the mixture is crumbly. Then spread over the apples. Put this dish into the oven (preheated at 375 degrees) and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Apple Mallow Bake

6 cups peeled, thinly sliced apples, 3 cups mini marshmallows, 1/4 cup cinnamon candies.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine apples, cinnamon candies and 2 cups marshmallows in an ungreased 9×5 inch loaf pan. Put the remaining 1 cup of marshmallows on top. Bake this uncovered, for 45-50 min.

Apple Cake

4 cups diced fresh apples, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup chopped nuts, 2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 cup sugar, 2 well-beaten eggs, 2 teaspoon baking soda.

Combine apples, sugar, vegetable oil, nuts, eggs and vanilla thoroughly. After adding flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix. Bake in greased 9×13 pan for an hour. Serve the dessert warm with ice cream, cool whip or cream.

I do hope these delicious fall dinner party recipes help make your party a hit.

The Art of Organizing and Sending Dinner Party Invitations: Make Your Guests Want to Attend Your Function

Dinner parties can be so much fun.

They are a great way for adults to get together and enjoy each other’s company, and perhaps play a few games and get to know each other a bit better in the meantime.

On the quest for dinner party fun, dinner party invitations are the first stop.

The dinner party invitations can really make or break anybody’s dinner party, and so it is important to make sure that your dinner party invitations make the right first impression.

If your dinner party has a theme, you might want to consider using the theme on your dinner party invites, to let your guests know just what type of a good time they are in for at your affair.

Organizing Your List

The first step in sending out dinner party invitations is to properly organize your list.

When it comes to making dinner, you have to be sure that you are making the right amount of food, and so organizing your list of people to send invitations to is of utter importance.

It sounds crass to say, but don’t invite people to your dinner party, you either would not like to spend time with, or you think may not come.

It is a waste of time and a waste of paper, and if a person that you don’t want to show up to your dinner party actually does, it could ruin your fun and potentially ruin the fun of everybody else at the party as well.

It sounds good to invite people just so they feel invited, but if they take you up on your offer this time, you might be sorry!

Make Your Own Invitations

If you really want to get creative, you can make your own dinner party invitations.

A die cutter, some construction paper, and a nice calligraphy pen are really all a person would need to make some great dinner party invitations.

This is a great way to bring across your theme as well, so if you are having a themed party you can put some hint to your theme on your dinner party invites.

This will make people really want to come, so that they can see what you have got up under your sleeve!

Buy Pre-Made Invitations

Buying pre-made dinner party invitations is another way to go about sending them out. This is great for people who barely had the time to host a dinner party in the first place, let alone make their own dinner party invitations.

If that sounds like you, you might want to consider buying a set of pre-packaged dinner party invitations to send out to your guests. If you use good taste in selecting them, you can still get just as good of a response as if you made them yourself.

Having a dinner party can be a lot of fun, if you know what you are doing.

If possible, include the menu with your dinner party invitations so that people can opt out of a dish they don’t eat or are allergic to. These things do happen, and you want to be as prepared as possible.

Outside of that, have fun with your dinner party and your dinner party invitations. Your affair is bound to be a blast!

Hosting a Murder Mystery Dinner Party is Fun and Easy

If you have ever played Clue as a child, you have probably thought about having a murder mystery dinner party sometime or other as an adult. They are so much fun and all over television and the movies.

The fact that there is a mystery involved tends to draw lots of people to these parties and since everybody has a common goal – to solve the mystery – everyone has a fabulous time at the party.

What is a Murder Mystery Dinner Party?

During a murder mystery dinner party, a person invites several guests to a real dinner party. There is real food involved, but sometimes people wear costumes to these parties. Depending on what you want, obviously costumes are optional, but great fun.

Once arriving at the dinner party, everyone eventually finds out (that is if they didn’t already know) that they are suspects in the murder. The only thing is, somebody is guilty and everybody wants to find out who it is.

At the same time, the guilty person knows they are guilty and have to play along. Hopefully, you will have a reasonable actor to play the “guilty one”!

There are different clues that guests have to follow in order to find the truth.

As a host, you do not in fact need to know who the guilty one is. If you plan on playing yourself, there is a often a way of not knowing in advance who the guilty one is, so you can be fully involved in the game yourself.

How to Plan a Murder Mystery Dinner Party

Many people start out on the murder mystery party by picking up a kit. These kits are widely available and contain basically everything a person would need to know for the story. The kit usually contains items for everyone, including a story about what happens and then a packet or kit for everyone containing the individual clues and things they would need to play the game.

As many people as can play, are as many people as should be in attendance at the party. Needless to say, it is important to get a firm RSVP for these things. Imagine what would happen to the party if the murderer never showed!

Prize or No Prize, These Parties are Fun

Many party kits contain a prize or a suggestion of one for the winner, but the more interesting parties usually have other prizes, like movie passes or a free dinner somewhere. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but everyone likes to win something and that could only increase the fun at your murder mystery dinner party.

Having or going to a murder mystery dinner party can be a lot of fun, but it certainly isn’t your average party. If you are planning one for you and some friends, try and only invite people of whom you are fairly certain will come and add something to the game.

Poor sports sometimes slip through the cracks, as do flakes and neither of those adds to the fun of the party.

Thai Dinner Party Ideas

Anybody can throw a dinner party, and it shows; many dinner parties end up being boring, lame or awkward, despite the best (if misguided) intentions of the hosts.

Sometimes, to throw a great dinner party you have to think outside of the box and do something that everybody else hasn’t done yet.

Leave people talking about it the next day and inviting themselves over again, and you’ll know that you’ve done a great job.

A Thai dinner party is a unique way to achieve great results.

What is a Thai dinner party?

A Thai themed dinner party is exactly what it sounds like. Creative, exotic Thai dishes are served.

You can decorate your house accordingly and create an atmosphere that is reminiscent of Thailand or Thai restaurants.

You can take a Thai style dinner party in any direction you want. It could take on a luau style of theme, or it could become a more formal affair.

What are the key elements of a Thai dinner party?

Most importantly is, no surprise here, the Thai food that you will serve! Get creative and get authentic, never cop out and serve something you can pick up in a box in your grocery store’s international foods section.

Thai food offers a lot of pleasing elements and can combine spicy, sweet and sour flavors.

A great idea for a first course is a soup

Lemongrass based soups or coconut and curry soups or just a few of the many different, great Thai soups.

From there you can serve more appetizers, along the lines of wontons or even skewers.

Main courses can include fish and seafood, as well as chicken, beef or other meats, often served with noodles a la pad Thai.

Spicy peanut sauces and curries are typical sauces and rice can be served in separate bowls so that people can take as much or as little as they want, while choosing whether or not to combine the rice into the main entrée itself.

If you’re up for it, you can try to create your own spiced or creative ice cream flavor for a desert.

Or make Thai iced tea, serve traditional Thai beer or spice up a classic drink recipe, such as a mojito.

Really, the Thai food is the most important aspect of this kind of dinner party. The food is easy to prepare and the sky is limit, get as creative as you can possibly be!

Atmosphere is also important for a Thai style dinner party.

Candles and incense can used for ambience as can silk clothes or wall hangings. You could hang a colored cloth on the wall – make it bright and visually appealing.

Use exotic, brightly colored flowers such as orchids as centerpieces or spread them throughout the house as decorations.

Think about Buddhist themes, statues and overall simplicity and elegance. Bamboo and woods are other popular Thai accessories.

As mentioned, a Thai dinner party can go in any direction you want it to. If you have a great backyard and great weather, you can play some tribal music, serve tropical drinks and party.

To go more formal you can carefully pick excellent wines to match the spiciness of Thai food and relax with slow paced, stringed Asian music.

Either way, this is a great way to change up the routine and show your friends how the dinner party is really done!

Dinner Party Games To Keep Your Guests Entertained

Games can either make or break your dinner party.

The right games can make your party come alive as your guests compete and laugh with each other.

The wrong game can bore everyone to tears and even offend a few people.

To pick the right dinner party games for your guests, you should know how many guests will attend, their general age, likes and dislikes and anything that may potentially offend any of them.

There are thousands of games to choose from, so it’s easy to find a few that everyone will love.

This article will give you a few ideas to pick some games that will put a few sparks in your dinner party.

Idea #1: Murder Mysteries
Murder mystery games are always a hit and can be the perfect game for a few reasons.

First, they’re easy to plan. You can buy a prepackaged murder mystery for your party. Because these type of games have become so popular over the years, gamemakers have begun creating several varieties.

Second, murder mysteries are interactive. You can even have your guests dress up to play certain parts in the mystery. Third, murder mysteries encourage your guests to interact with each other. That takes the responsibility of entertaining them off your shoulders.

Idea #2: Singles Games
If most of your guests are single, there are tons of great games to get them to break the ice and interact with each other.

These types of dinner party games are also designed to get your guests interested in each other.

For example, try a fun game like “Baby If You Love Me.” Your guests sit in a circle. A player approaches another player, sits on their lap and says, “Baby if you love me, won’t you please smile?” and tries through touching, whispers, and other coy strategies to get the person to laugh. If the other person can say, “Baby I love ya but I just can’t smile” without cracking a smile, the player must approach someone else. Singles games like this are great fun for your guests.

Idea #3: Ice Breaker Games
Ice breaker games are perfect when some of your guests don’t know each other well. Often people are intimidated to talk to those they don’t know at parties.

Ice breaker games gets everyone involved.

For example, try a game like “Name That Name!” Have each guest write down the name of a famous person or character (anything from Jesse Jackson to Homer Simpson) and place the name in a bowl. Mix the names up and hand one to each of your guests.

Then, have your guests mingle using the voices and mannerisms of the name they were given.

The person who can correctly name the highest number of names wins!

You can choose to rely on games like Cranium for your party. Or, you can get creative and come up with tons of fun dinner party games that will get your guests to interact with each other and enjoy themselves.

Whether you’re throwing a dinner party for a group of old friends, singles, or people who are meeting each other for the first time, there are several games perfect for your party.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE SEATING AT A DINNER PARTY?

There are many things that need to be taken into consideration when throwing a dinner party.

As well as the menu, the wine, the entertainment etc., one very important factor is how do you decide seating at a dinner party.

The seating positions could make the difference between your guests enjoying your dinner party, or not.

Listed below are some certain factors that need to be taken into consideration when organizing your seating plan.

The Formality of the Occasion Needs to be Decided Upon

The relationship that you have with your guests will determine the formality of your dinner party. Are you inviting business associates or friends? Do your guests include your family or friends from out of state?

Seat people together who have common interests

This is one of the simplest ways to seat your guests together. Take the following into consideration: – Is business one of the things that your guests have in common? – Are interests or hobbies something that they have in common? – Do they have the same professions? – Is there marital/single status the same, especially if you are planning a little matchmaking? – Do they like each other? Be careful not to sit people together if there is animosity between the two of them.

Pair people together

It is sometimes customary to pair males and females together. However this can sometimes be a conversation killer and make some people feel uncomfortable. If you have a guest arriving that is of a shy nature, then try and sit them with someone that is a caring extrovert.

Seat your guests in the order of honor

If you have a guest of honor, such as, a boss, an elderly relative, or a visiting superstar, if you were to be so lucky, then there are rules of etiquette as to their seating. A female guest of honor would normally sit to the right of the host, whereby a male guest of honor would normally sit to the left of the hostess.

Sit guests of honor or hosts at the opposite end of the table

When your dinner party has two hosts, then sit them at opposite ends of the table in order to share yourselves around a little bit more to your guests. Alternatively, your guests of honor can be placed at the opposite end of the table to the hosts.

For a female guest of honor, place her opposite the hostess and for a male guest of honor, place him opposite the host. The remaining host can be placed next to the guests of honor. It is important to remember that the duty of the hosts are to ensure that the guests are happy, therefore should be kept as apart as possible to ensure that your guests have a equal share of them.

Use place cards

Use place cards with the full name of each guest in an elegant print. It is not necessary, however, to use place cards if you have less than six guests.

Be a good host

It is essential that you ensure that you guests are having fun. However, it is imperative that you as a host also enjoy the occasion. Inform people upon arrival of where the bathrooms are located. If a guest looks extremely uncomfortable as to where you have seated them, then quickly re-seat them, making an excuse such as “oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to seat you there”. Only do this if you can make it look as though it is not too obvious.

In conclusion, a dinner party does involve quite a large amount of organization. And even with the best preparation, things can go wrong. For example, you could be entertaining to so much that you forget something is cooking and it turns out a little well done. These factors are not usually crucial.

However, one of the most essential factors is, how do you decide seating at a dinner party? It is of great importance as you wish all of your guests to get along together and enjoy pleasant, compatible company.

Keep It Simple With An Easy Dinner Party Recipe

Planning a successful dinner party involves managing several things at once.

You want your guests to feel comfortable in your home.

So you should try to pick just the right music to play in the background.

You also need to make sure your home is clean by the time your guests arrive, you have some conversation starters just in case you need to give people a nudge and any games that you think your guests will enjoy.

With everything that you need to get done in preparation for your dinner party, it’s easy to feel stressed when planning what foods you want to serve during the party. But, with a little planning and a couple of deep breaths, you can relax and plan an easy menu that your guests will love.

The first thing to remember is that your guests are not coming for your food!

Unless you are a world-famous chef, your guests are likely coming to your party to enjoy the company of friends in a relaxed, fun atmosphere.

So, try not to feel stressed. You do not need to prepare anything fancy for your party.

In fact, many people who regularly throw dinner parties suggest finding an inexpensive, easy dinner party recipe to serve as the main dish.

They say that preparing something fancy that takes a lot of time, is often wasted on your guests, even though it’s appreciated.

Instead, try to find a dish that is easy to prepare, does not take a lot of time and requires very little attention.

That way, you can focus your attention on other things such as greeting people when they arrive, making sure your guests feel at ease, serving drinks, sparking conversation, and introducing any guests that may not have met each other in the past.

If you are too focused on preparing the food, you will neglect doing the things that make your dinner party fun. Remember, if you’re stressed out, others will likely notice and find it difficult to relax.

While preparing your easy dinner party recipe, try to serve a few appetizers. But, keep it simple.

Like your main course, the appetizers should be easy to prepare, easy to serve and easy to eat.

Consider serving Italian bread or bruschetta topped with tomatoes, mozzarella, or even grill shrimp. These types of appetizers are always popular and incredibly easy to prepare.

You can also serve other favorites such as chips and salsa and a platter of cut vegetables with a dressing in which to dip them.

Your menu should include something for any vegetarians who may join your dinner party. Or better, you can prepare a dish that anyone can enjoy regardless of whether they eat meat.

For example, a casserole, lasagna, or chili would be perfect for a casual party.

The key is to find an easy dinner party recipe that allows you to keep the food simple and frees up your time to focus on having a great time with your friends.

A successful dinner party does not need to be complicated. And it certainly does not require you to slave away in the kitchen preparing a menu to impress your friends.

Instead, plan the things that you need to do in preparation for the party (cleaning your home, choosing the music, etc.).

And most importantly, pick an easy dinner party recipe that is fun and easy to prepare. That way, you can relax and enjoy the party.

Exciting Dinner Party Themes

Dinner parties are great occasions for everyone to get together with their family and friends and celebrate just being together, because that rarely happens in the busy lives we lead today.

A good idea would be to decide on a dinner party night with your friends, where they could come to your home one week, and you could go to your friends’ home on other weeks.

This way, you know that you’ll definitely get to meet your friends one day of the week.

There are many dinner party themes to choose from, so it won’t be difficult to make yours a hit.

Birthdays, new babies, anniversaries, job promotions, etc. could also be celebrated through dinner parties. With several kinds of dinner party themes to select from, each dinner party your host could be different. A murder mystery dinner theme is very popular if you could have enough participants.

You could do something exotic like a Thai dinner party, or in winter, you could have soup parties. Whichever theme you decide to go with, ensure that the food you serve is very good and you also have some fine wine to accompany it.

The table should also be set nicely with a nice centerpiece. It is the effortless to plan a simple dinner party with your friends. You will have a good idea about what your friends like to eat and it would be quite easy for you to decide the menu. Italian is always a favorite, so you could decide to have an Italian food dinner party.

The dessert should also match the type of food on the menu. You could also ask your friends to bring a wine of their choice. Keep the party casual and you could also have a few games planned for after dinner. Such an informal party is a great way to chill out and reconnect with your friends.

You could also host a formal dinner party. You could print the menu and invitation on small cards and make sure you send them early enough so that your guests have time to RSVP. Don’t invite people who don’t get along with each other, but ensure that you invite those who’ll be hurt if you don’t. For there to be a good flow of conversation, you should invite people with the same kinds of interests.

After you decide to have a dinner party, decide on one of the many dinner party themes.

Then, plan the menu. You need to figure out the amount of time it will take you to prepare the meal. You should keep enough time to converse with your friends and also to enjoy the food yourself without having to run to the kitchen every five minutes.

Ask if your friends have any allergies and avoid making such food. If a friend is allergic to shellfish, Shrimp Scampi will be a bad idea, as will New York Strip steaks if someone is vegetarian.

Be careful of the details when you’re hosting a dinner party

DINNER PARTY WHERE GUESTS WORK

Dinner parties can be great fun.

However, they can be relatively expensive, tiring for the hosts, and even a great rush to make all of the preparations in a timely manner.

One theme which can be a help, is a dinner party where guests work. This will not only relieve the hosts of carrying out all of the necessary arrangements and work, but also make it more enjoyable as a team.

There are many ways in which you can hold a dinner party where the guests work.

All it requires is a little imagination to make the dinner party a memorable occasion.

You could hold a dinner party whereby your guests all bring a dish with them. This will also ensure that each guest has a type of food that they like at your dinner party, as guests are unlikely to bring something that they do not like themselves.

Of course, it is not necessary that all of your guests bring food.

There are certain guests that can bring the refreshments. By doing this you will not only alleviate a little work for yourself as the host, but it will be a total surprise for all of your guests, as they will not know until arrival as to what food to expect.

It is important of course, to inform guests as to whether you have an invitee with a food allergy of some sort, so that every person is catered for.

You could also have a dinner party whereby one guest hosts the appetizers in their homes, the next guest hosts the first course, next guests hosts the second course, and another guests hosts the dessert.

It could be a very long dinner party! But should be great fun and a include a variation of foods. It is a perfect way to socialize.

If, your guests live quite a long distance apart, then you can carry this theme to one home only. Your guests can still prepare the different courses and bring them along to your home, and serve them as they would if they were in their own homes.

Another way in which you can hold a dinner party where guests work, is to give every guest a certain amount of money, for example $10 or $20. Your guests then go to the market and purchase whatever kind of food they desire for that amount of cash.

Then they all meet back at you house, and make a dish with the use of cookery books, or simply by using their own known recipes.

If you have more than six guests, then it is recommended to split them into groups.

Another way is to purchase the ingredients that you think you will require, and when the guests arrive you can all decide together what can be prepared with those ingredients.

You can then get the guests involved with the preparations of food, drinks and the setting of the table.

By involving guests with the cooking you will also enhance the period of eating. Guests will always make comments about how well they peeled the potatoes, or how creative their garnish looks.

Sharing tips and insight with each other will help you and your guests to learn a great deal about what works with certain foods and what doesn’t.

Whichever type of dinner party where guests work you decide to hold, you are sure to have a very enjoyable evening with lots of fun.