Happy & Healthy

7 X to hosting a dinner party without any stress

I’ve become quite the pro at hosting dinner parties. I haven’t seen the inside of a club in forever – nowadays I see the sun come up from my own living room. You see, these dinners tend to get out of hand and before the guests even arrive, people tend to panic: “Do we have enough wine? We don’t, do we? I’ll go out and get another box.” A BOX. Which means we’ll definitely have bottles left over at the end of the night. Great nights. The next day, not so much. Oh well.

Do you ever host any dinner parties at home for you and your friends? Here are a couple tips on how to stay calm cause it’ll be such a waste if you start freaking out.

– Don’t overcomplicate things. Don’t try out new recipes when you’re expecting a lot of guests because it’ll cause stress. Don’t aim too high.

– Make sure you have plenty to drink.  It would be such a shame if you run out of drinks and you haven’t even started the main course yet. Always get a bit more than you’ll need and you’ll be fine. Whatever is left you can use on another night.

– Start cooking early. The sooner, the better. You’ll be less nervous and stressed out once you’ve planned out the preparations and you’ll be ready when the first guests start to arrive.

– Make sure you’ve prepared a nice appetizer and starter. It’ll keep everyone busy so you can focus on topping off the dishes in the kitchen.

– Call one of your guests and ask them to help you out a little beforehand so you don’t have to do everything on your own. Someone is bound to be up for it, so feel free to ask.

– Prepare some dishes that you can serve cold. It’s really hard to serve hot meals all at the same time. Keep it simple where you can.

– You don’t have to go all out on the dessert. Coffee and chocolate can go a long way. One less course to stress about.