How to plan a dinner

saigonhoanmy

Over the holidays, I helped my mom host a Christmas celebration with  my dad’s side of the family the weekend before Christmas. I eagerly  offered to do all of the menu planning, which included the grocery  shopping, food prep and planning out the oven schedule for the day of  the party. It was my first time handling the logistics of a holiday and  while it took some work, it was unbelievably fun and I loved putting  together a large meal.
While the holiday season has already passed, I thought the start of  the new year would be a great time to do a walk-through of how I planned  the meal and got myself organized, as well to share some guidelines and  checklists that you can use when planning a large-ish food event at  your home. After all, the year is full of reasons to throw parties –  birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, holidays like Valentine’s Day,  4th of July, and countless other occasions!
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 may be unsure of. 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 prepped dishes
- Purchase any nonperishable 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

Now, the biggest cause for stress is obviously 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 but can be  resolved by 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. The next thing I would suggest is to  find out if any of your guests have any eating restrictions (allergies,  dairy or gluten intolerances, etc.) so you know if you need to steer  clear from certain types of foods.
Below are some tips and guidelines that I have used when planning a meal [in brackets are the dishes I served for the Christmas dinner, which fed 15 people]:
- First choose your main course and work the rest of your menu around that [Roasted Pork Loin Stuffed with Figs and Chestnuts]
- I always like to include a salad with a 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 your appetizers. For appetizers, the general rule of  thumb is 5 servings per person per hour prior to serving a meal. You  want a balance between light and heavy. You also want to make sure you  are not 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. As far as I’m concerned, there are no rules  regarding dessert (of course, this is coming from the baker). However,  you need to be mindful of quantities. If you need to feed 15 people, one  9-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 that feeds a  moderate amount of people. [Chocolate Bundt Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream, Peppermint Bark, and Assorted Biscotti]
- I also decided to include a little favor for everyone to take home  with them. I made sugar cookies in the shape of snowflakes and decorated  them with royal icing. Each cookie was packaged in its own cellophane  treat bag, tied with red ribbon, and placed in a festive basket near the  door so guests could 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 and how you work yours 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, for  the menu I created above, I was able to do all of the following things  the day before and refrigerate: Make the onion dip and cut the  vegetables, trim and stuff the pork loin, make the broccoli salad,  prepare the stuffed mushroom casserole short of baking it, and make the  dough for the dinner rolls.
*Another tip my mom taught me is that you can peel and quarter the  potatoes and cover in cold water to have them ready for boiling for  mashed potatoes. 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!
- From that point, start working backwards from the time you want to sit down to eat. Here is what my plan looked like:
What time do we want to eat? 1:30pm
How long does the pork need to rest after it comes out of the oven? 15 minutes [Make the gravy while the meat rests]
<Based on the information I gathered above, I know the pork needs  to roast for 45 minutes. Put the pork in the oven at 12:15pm. Gives some  leeway in case it needs to roast longer. If done cooking, cover with  foil and wait to slice until ready to serve – this will keep it  warm.>
<Stuffed mushroom casserole bakes for 20 minutes – put that in when the pork comes out.>
How long will it take to make the mashed potatoes? 20  minutes [Boil the potatoes while you are making the gravy, after the  pork comes out, so they will be ready around the same time the rest of  the meal is.]
How long to roast the butternut squash? 25 minutes
<Start roasting squash around 11:45am. Assemble rest of salad while the pork roasts. Don’t dress until ready to serve.>
How long to bake the dinner rolls? 30 minutes (3 pans at 10  minutes each) – If you want to rewarm the rolls just before dinner,  simply place them in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes.
<First pan should go in at 11:15am>
How long will it take to shape the dinner rolls? 30 minutes
<Start shaping dinner rolls at 10:45am>
So, as you can see – the oven work for this meal started around  10:30/10:45am. I would suggest padding each time segment by 5-10 minutes  in case things take a little longer than you anticipated.
You will also want to ensure that the appetizers are out prior to  your guests arriving. We had planned on eating this meal at 1:30pm, and  told family to come over for 1:00pm, so I put out the appetizers around  12:45pm so as people came in they had something to munch on while they  mingled and waited for dinner.

So there you have it! The planning of a dinner party broken down into  baby steps so that what may be a daunting task is totally able to be  conquered.
On a side note, can you believe I have not ONE picture of this  event?! The day ended up being a little crazy with Pittsburgh’s first  significant snowfall of the season coming through the night and that  morning. My grandparents were stranded as their roads hadn’t yet been  plowed (by midday!) so there was commotion about how they would get  here, and my uncle ultimately ventured out in his SUV to retrieve them. I  was working on keeping the food on schedule (and then keeping it warm)  and so my camera became an afterthought. I vow to do better next time!

So tell me: What is the first party you are planning in 2010?

saigonhoanmy

SAIGON HOAN MY CO., LTD
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