Planning a Party? Go from Drab to Fab with These Handy Tips

By: Michelle Norris ~ The Brown Eyed Baker

One holiday season has passed, but there’s always another holiday right around the corner.  While we all enjoy the extra indulgences, planning for a holiday event – whether a big bash or small family dinner – can induce algebra test-like anxieties. The truth is … armed with a plan and a schedule, you’ll be sailing through hostess duties and your guests will be singing your domestic-goddess praises by the time everyone sits down to carve the turkey. Below is an overview for planning a successful meal and getting organized, including some helpful checklists. The year is full of reasons to throw parties – birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, holidays like Valentine’s Day, 4th of July and countless other occasions. Let’s get started!
So, you’re ready to throw a party and need to get organized? Here is a timeline with tips and guidelines below on how to tackle all of the details concerning your dinner party:

1 Month Before: The Big Picture
- Finalize the type of party you are throwing and if there will be any sort of theme
- Create your guest list
- Send invitations, e-vites, Facebook event requests, or go old school and call your guests to let them know about the party.

3 Weeks Before: Start Organizing
- Select your menu (see below for tips on creating a menu)
- Put together a timeline for preparing your recipes (I share an example of mine below)
- Make sure you have enough serving pieces and place settings. If not, buy or borrow what you need.
- Prepare any menu items that can be frozen (i.e., pie dough, appetizers, etc.)
- Review recipes and create a list of ingredients you need to buy
- Test out any new recipes you’ve never tried before. You don’t want any unwelcome surprises with guests waiting to be fed!

1 Week Before: Prepare for Takeoff
- Get a final RSVP count from guests so you know how many people you will be feeding
- Clean out your refrigerator so you have room for groceries and prepared dishes
- Purchase any non-perishable items that are needed

The Week Of: It’s Go-Time!
- Do final grocery shopping for perishable items
- Clean the house a couple of days in advance and just do touch ups the morning of your party
- Start prepping dishes that can be made in advance
- Set the table the day before

One of the most stressful parts of planning is the food. Will I have too much? Not enough? Will everyone like the food? How do I make sure not to serve cold food? All of these are legitimate worries that can be resolved with just a little planning. First the overarching question:

How do I create a menu?
The first thing to ask yourself is if you have any sort of theme going on – Italian, Mexican, tapas, fondue, etc. That will generally narrow down your menu selection. Next, find out if any of your guests have any eating restrictions (e.g., allergies, dairy or gluten intolerances) so you know if you need to steer clear of certain types of foods.
Below are tips and guidelines for meal planning (in brackets are sample menu items):
- First choose your main course and work the rest of your menu around that [Roasted Pork Loin Stuffed with Figs and Chestnuts]
- Include a salad with dinner [Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette]
- Then add a vegetable [Broccoli Salad]
- Depending on how many people you have, you may want another vegetable side dish [Stuffed Mushroom Casserole]
- Starchy side [Classic Mashed Potatoes]
- Bread or rolls with butter [Cloverleaf Rolls]
- Now choose appetizers. The rule of thumb is five servings per person per hour prior to serving a meal. You want a balance between light and heavy and stay away from duplicating any of the same flavors that you will be serving with the meal. For example, you wouldn’t want to serve shrimp cocktail as an appetizer if you are serving pasta and shrimp as a main course. [Pan-Fried Onion Dip with Carrots and Celery, Breadsticks Wrapped in Prosciutto, Brie with Crackers and Apple Butter]
- And now the dessert. Always be mindful of quantities. If you need to feed 15 people, one nine-inch apple pie isn’t going to be enough. You can choose to make one rich dessert that serves more people, or make more than one dessert to feed a moderate amount of people.
- You can also include a little favor for everyone to take home with them. For a holiday party, sugar cookies decorated as snowflakes individually wrapped and tied with a red ribbon is a great idea. Place them  in a festive basket near the door so guests can take one on their way out.
Now that your menu is finalized, you’ll need to put together a plan of action for pulling it all off in a timely manner.

Creating a Menu Timeline
This takes a little bit of work. How you handle timeline logistics will largely depend on how many dishes will be made on the stove, how many in the oven, what the capacity of each is, and what you can do ahead of time. Below are some tips for creating a food timeline for your party:
- Review each recipe and write down how long it will take to cook, at what temperature, how long the prep time will take (estimate, if needed); and, what, if anything, can be done in advance. For example, based on the menu above, you can make the dip and cut vegetables for the side dishes, trim and stuff the pork loin, make the broccoli salad, prepare the mushroom casserole short of baking it and make dough for the dinner rolls … all ahead of time.

Peel and quarter potatoes and cover in cold water to have them ready for boiling. The cold water will keep them from browning. This can be done a couple of hours ahead so once the meal is almost ready you can make sure your mashed potatoes are going to be hot and you aren’t making a mess peeling potatoes at the sink!
Now that you have all of your time estimates written down, start working backwards from the time you want to sit down to eat. I would suggest padding each time segment by 5-10 minutes in case things take a little longer than anticipated. You will be able to figure out when you need to start working the day of the party and what your next task will be. Your cheat sheet will be your best friend!
Ensure that the appetizers are out prior to your guests arriving. If you plan on eating the meal at 1:30 pm, invite guests to come over at 1:00 pm. Then, put out the appetizers around 12:45 pm, so as people come in they have something to munch on while they mingle before dinner.
Most importantly, remember to enjoy the food you worked so hard to make as well as the guests you worked so hard to please!

Michelle Norris is a passionate foodie, baker, writer and eater. Visit her website at www.browneyedbaker.com for hundreds of delectable recipes and planning tips.