by Maria Rogers

Created on: January 20, 2010   Last Updated: January 24, 2010

Nothing says stress like a dinner party.  When I first got married, my husband and I threw dinner parties once a month.  We had a lot of friends and weekends at our house always turned into a party.  So, we decided to make it a night of fun, as well as a good meal.  At first, the parties were kind of sloppy because I always had people come over before anything was ready and the house was still a mess.  Though many of our friends came over to help, it never turned out quite that way.

My mom was a great help because she gave me really good advice and recipes to feed an army, in a short amount of time.  I had a very big family (I was once of five children) and my mom had to learn to get creative with meals sometimes.  She began by developing shortcuts to almost every meal that my grandmother had taught her to make.  This alone, saved her hours of being in the kitchen.  It also freed her to do other things with us, as a family.

So now, I'll share a little bit of wisdom and a few secrets that kept my mother sane during our growing years.  First off, whenever preparing a dinner party for such a large group, you need to plan ahead exactly what you're going to make.  Then give yourself enough time to be able to get everything that you need before the night of the party.  Next, you need to sit down and prepare an itinerary of the day itself.  I found this to be extremely helpful.  I gave myself enough time to take care of an emergency, should it arise. 

After you've done this, go and prepare what you're going to wear.  Believe me, you'll need this.  If you leave it to the last minute, you'll end up wearing shorts and tank top (I hope not!).  Also, give yourself enough time during your day to take a nice relaxing bath (if you like those).  I find them very relaxing and they allow me to focus when everything gets crazy.  Another thing that is very important is to get enough sleep the night before.  This will give you the energy that you need the following day.

The day before the party, start to prepare things that can be done in advance; like the dessert.  I always like to make the desserts the day before to give them a chance to get properly chilled.  Then I move on to the main meal and begin preparing it by seasoning the meat and wrapping it up tightly, then placing it in the refrigerator overnight. 

Once I have that done, I'll pick out the fruit that will accompany the dessert, wash it and put it away until I'm ready to use it.  Next, I'll pick out everything for the table and set it aside for the next morning.  After I've done this, I'll go to the florist and pick out some colorful flowers for the table.  I love fresh flowers and they always make the table look fantastic. 

Now that everything is ready for the next day, I can begin to put the house in order without having to stress over not having enough time to make the place look perfect.  I always put out a few games for the children to play while the adults are enjoying an evening together.  The kids love the parties as well because they get to spend time with friends that they don't see that often.

The day of the party everything is put in place and the meal is cooking.  At the appointed time, people begin to show up and the party is off and running...without a hitch I might add. 

So, go ahead and try it.  You might find that you have much more time on your hands than you thought you ever would.  Enjoy !

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