Cynthia Cheng Mintz

A nice dinner party with friends should be simple and casual and not like the wild and crazy parties of university students.  It doesn’t, of course, have to be super-formal, where guests are dressed up and dinner is served in formal china with multiple courses (you’d probably want to hire caterers and servers for that, anyway), either.  Instead, it should be about the food, conversation and people.  The best ones are casual and don’t require too much preparation.  After all, you want to spend time with your friends, not in the kitchen.  My husband and I recently did just that.  On the menu were some delicious nibblies such as chip and dip as well as an Asian appetizer platter (spring rolls, shrimp rolls as well as other delights), a main course of beef kebabs and a simple green salad as well as cake for dessert.  Wait.  Kebabs?  For a dinner party?  Is that even traditional dinner party food?  Well, my question back would be why not?  They’re easy to make and easy to eat.  They also don’t necessarily require cutlery – especially nice if you’re having a cocktail-style dinner party.

The beef, which was cut into cubes approximately 1 1/2″ in length, were placed on sticks, alternating with cut up bell peppers and onions.  They were sprinkled with a mixture of garlic, peppers and herbs.  Small potatoes were cooked along with the kebabs as a side.

To cook the kebabs and potatoes:

Place potatoes on to cookie sheet or other pan and sprinkle herbs and/or spices to taste

Lay the meat and veggies over the potatoes

Place the sheet in the oven and bake at 400 F for about 10 minutes.

Once the meat is cooked, take it out and place somewhere that can keep the dish warm as the potatoes should stay in the oven for another 10 minutes.  Once everything is done, you have your main course!   If you don’t like beef, you can try chicken, pork, lamb or fish.  For the vegetarians, try eggplant or zucchini.  Please note that different types of meats would require different cooking times. 

With such an easy-to-make main course, you’ll definitely have time to spend with your friends.  Now, how should the food be served?  In a casual get-together, family style dining is the most ideal.  Since the food is placed in the table, there’s little need to go back and forth between the kitchen and the dining area as everyone has access.  Place settings can be set ahead of time, or they can be passed around.  Other than dessert, there’s also no need to have separate courses.  Why bother? It’s not a formal meal.  People are there to enjoy themselves.  However, there is such a thing as too casual.  Nix the disposables (after all, you want to be kind to the environment!) and any store-bought foods – especially appeztizers should be placed in a platter that DID NOT come from the store.  This is still a dinner party, not a picnic. 

The most important thing about hosting a dinner party is that your guests are having a good time.  Enjoy yourself and chill.