A formal evening meal is truly one of life's luxurious joys. Either it is romantic fare on an apartment table for two or a grand outlay in a dining room for twelve, there is something extra about the mixture of tasty food, kindly evening meal companion(s), and a beautifully set table. Fortunately, every person can enjoy this luxury. Do not be intimidated by the belief of throwing a formal evening meal party. With a microscopic planning and preparation, you can generate a meal that will impress your guests and make you an enviable host(ess). To make your event a success from start to finish, keep these three words in mind: Ponder, Prepare, Present.
Ponder:
The first stage is to ponder with a pen and paper in hand. Jot down ideas as they come to you. What is the occasion? Is it Christmas dinner, an engagement party, Valentines Day, or something just for fun? What date will you select? How many citizen do you want to invite? How many citizen can your table accommodate? Do any of the guests have allergies (to pets as well as foods)? What kind of ambiance do you want to create? Brainstorm and get you ideas and thoughts out on paper. Once you have done that, look at what you have written and generate a summary of your event that includes the date, the amount of guests, and any required accommodations for the meal or setting. Here are two examples:
o On December 25th, I will throw a evening meal party for seven citizen with a roast turkey as the main dish. None of the dishes can contain nuts.
o On March 7th, I will host an engagement party. Ten guests will attend. I need to serve a vegan and a meat main dish and find two extra chairs.
The point of brainstorming and manufacture a summary is to focus and institute your thoughts. Once you have completed this, you are ready to move on to next phase: prepare.
Prepare:
A rushed, harried, and stressed host(ess) makes your guests uneasy and destroys the atmosphere of your event. Avoid this embarrassment by being prepared. Being ready relates to all aspects of the dinner, from getting your initiations issued on time to manufacture sure you have adequate room in the oven for all you wish to cook. Make yourself a checklist to keep on track.
Two weeks in advance, get ready and deliver the invitations. You invitation medium (e-mail, text message, hand-written, printed, spoken) will depend on your type of event and guests. If this is a extra evening meal for two, challenging your guest by phone or in someone is appropriate. For an engagement party, a printed or written invitation sets a romantic tone.
Three days (or earlier) in advance, get ready your menu and shop for your items. Do not leave this principal part to the day before your event. Shop do run out of things like cranberry sauce and condensed milk on major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Be realistic about your cooking expertise. If you are a novice in the kitchen, focus on making ready the main dish, one side dish, and dessert. Plan to purchase appetizers, bottled dressings, rolls, and premixed salad. A more experienced chef may wish to make their own sauce, bake their own bread, and assemble their own appetizers.
A formal meal consists of some courses. The amount of courses typically ranges from three to twelve, depending on the occasion or preference of the host(ess). Variations contain serving the salad as a detach course, adding a final course of cheese and fruit, or making ready two smaller main courses in place of a particular large one. Your selection of drinks must also be matched to your courses, especially if you are wine paring. Be sure to have non-alcoholic options available for those that abstain or are designated drivers.
A basic formal menu consists of:
o 1st course - appetizers. These bite-sized morsels are available to guests as they arrive. Your guests eat these while mingling. Appetizers should be easy to pick up and eat with one hand. Plan for three appetizers per person, per dish. Limit your selection so your guests do not fill up on these tasty treats and have no room left for dinner. Cocktails, soft drinks, and punch are served.
o 2nd course - soup and/or salad and breadbasket. Your guests are now seated at the table. The soup may be hot or chilled but it must be light and refreshing. Avoid serving a hearty stew and opt for a broth or small bowl of creamed soup. Likewise, a small plate of baby greens with vinaigrette or a Caesar salad is great than a filling Chef salad. Serve a selection of white and wheat rolls or sliced French bread with butter. Water and wine are served.
o 3rd course - the main course. The main meal consists of a large protein dish and some vegetable or grain based side dishes. Unless you know that all of your guests enjoy meat, furnish an alternative vegetarian or vegan main dish as well. Guests on calorie or cholesterol reduced diets will also appreciate this gesture. If biscuits or buns are not part of this course, replenish the breadbasket. When the main course is on the table, there should be a collection of color - it should not be all brown. While turkey, mashed potatoes and biscuits are delicious, adding green peas, red stuffed peppers, and orange dilled carrots will make your table and meal more inviting. Water and wine are served. (A photo of main course on table could be used here).
o 4th course - dessert. Use sweetmeat to equilibrium out the meal. If your main course was hearty, filling and contained red meats, serve something light and refreshing (sorbet, fruit crumble). If your main course consisted mainly of white meats or vegetable based dishes, a decadent sweetmeat (black forest cake, cheesecake) provides a nice finish. Bear in mind that sweetmeat tends to be an personel taste so if you need to accommodate a wide collection of palettes, serve a platter of microscopic fours, chocolate truffles, fruit, and chocolate dipped strawberries. Wine, coffee, and tea are served.
One or two days before the event, get ready the ambiance. The location needs to be clean and tidy. A formal evening meal cannot take place in a cluttered, dirty, unkempt environment. While you do not need to have the carpets supplanted and the rooms repainted, you do need to have a clean, challenging atmosphere where your guests can relaxed and not worry about getting dog hair on their clothes. get ready the powder room. Ensure you have extra toilet tissue, a discreetly located can of spray deodorant, and clean hand towels.
The night before the event, get ready your kitchen. This is done after the last meal of the day. Wash the dishes or load and run the dishwasher. Have some clean dishcloths and tea towels folded neatly on the counter. Keep potholders and hot mats nearby. Do a quick list of your cooking hardware to ensure you have adequate pots, pans, stir spoons, etc. If you will need a roaster, make sure it is big adequate for your main dish (and dash to the store for a new one if it is not!) Place all your serving dishes in one spot where they will be easy to grab so you will not wind up frantically searching for your crystal dip bowl as your sauce boils over.
The night before is also the best time to perfect your menu prep work. If unable to do this the night before, do it early on the morning of your event. Go over your menu and take care of items that can be assembled, chopped, diced, grated, marinated, etc. Put together your salads, but keep the dressing separate. Fill your salt and pepper shakers and chill the liquid refreshments. Once you have completed your prep work, clean up the kitchen. Either you are doing your prep work the night before or the morning of your dinner, it is important to clean your work area in the middle of the prep and the actual cooking phase. This mid-phase clean up keeps you organized, frees up mixing bowls, pots, and other kitchen hardware, and reduces the chances of cross-contamination from raw meats.
The morning of your dinner, get ready to cook. With your prep work completed, you need only assemble what needs to be cooked and place it into the oven at the strict time. If you are cooking a turkey or roast, make sure you leave adequate time in the middle of cooking and serving for the meat to sit and reabsorb some of the pan juices.
With your salads in the fridge and food in the oven, you can move on to the final phase: present.
Presentation:
We eat everyday. What sets a formal evening meal apart from a regular meal is how it is presented. Presentation applies to the food and the setting it is served in.
An hour before your guests are due to arrive, set the table. The type of formal setting depends on how many courses you are serving, but there are some general guidelines. (Illustration of formal setting could go here).
o Forks are set to the left of the evening meal plate. The salad fork sits to the left of the evening meal fork. If salad is part of your main meal, you do not need to furnish a detach salad fork. If your sweetmeat requires a fork, set it to the right of the evening meal fork.
o The knife is set to the right of the evening meal plate and the spoons are to the right of the knife. The teaspoon sits to the right of the knife and the soup spoon is to the right of the teaspoon.
o The water and wine glasses sit to the right of the evening meal plate and above the knife and spoons.
o If using a bread plate, it is located to the left of the evening meal plate and above the forks.
o The napkin may be located to the left of the forks, arranged in the wineglass, or artfully folded and located on the evening meal plate.
Present the meal to your guests in an elegant manner. Dishes that furnish color, like the salads, are best served in glass or transparent dishes. Roasts and meats are challenging and easier to serve on platters. Show off your unique porcelain and ceramic dishes by using them to serve the sides. Make sure you use allowable serving dishes for the butter and condiments. Do not serve condiments out of their traditional containers.
You now have the tools to host a flourishing evening meal party with confidence. Remember, the goal of the evening is for every person to enjoy themselves, and that includes you! When you ponder, prepare, and present, you stay focused, relaxed, and organized and the follow is an elegant evening food and fun.
Tips on Hosting a Formal supper PartyIn the Kitchen with Vegan NBA Champ John Salley (1/2) Video Clips. Duration : 17.68 Mins.
