Following the dinner party from hell thread........

Number one rule of any dinner party menu planning - never serve steak!

I used to love dinner parties, a group of eight of us would host one every other month, until the advent of children, and going back to work gradually put paid to them. After I was divorced I would continue to host them even though I realised that it was nearly always me, because My Husband and My Adult Children made it difficult for others to host. I was very hurt when I took a birthday present round to a friend and found a full-blown dinner party in session; all the guests being married couples.
I only cook for family now.

In the 70s I was staying with friends and we were invited to diner by another young couple. I thought it was all very sophisticated until we say down to eat. The first course was Avocado pear with a vinaigrette dressing. I'd never seen or heard of an avocado and this just seemed weird and didn't taste of pear at all and why had they put vinegar on a pear?
The main course was fillet steaks cooked rare. The only steak I'd ever eaten was Mum's braising steak which fell apart. I thought our hostess would be mortified when she realised that the meat wasn't cooked but everyone tucked in to their very pink/bloody steaks with relish. I thought they were just being very polite. Obviously I didn't have a sophisticated bone in my body.
I love having friends and family round now and do make an effort but would never consider it a dinner party. Don't want to impress people, just want to enjoy them. Also DH says we only get pudding when folk come over.

There's a very silly programme on TV - gets repeated almost daily - that would put anybody off 'Dinner Parties' for life.

'Come Dine With Me' - where a group of strangers take it in turns to Host in their own homes. They are filmed while doing their shopping, prepping and cooking before the 'unknown guests' arrive. The 'voice-over' guy is the usual one from this type of programme. While the Host is doing the final cooking, the guests go around their home, prying and poking into bedrooms etc trying to find out more about their Host.

By the end of the programme each Host is convinced that they've done well - while the 'so-called guests' are pulling them and their food to pieces on their journeys home in a taxi!

Give it a watch --------- you'll NEVER want to go to one, or Host one, ever again!

Not any more. Some friends came round for Christmas and they only ate fish or vegetarian food. I cooked a turkey for everyone else and did stuffed monkfish in puff pastry for our friends. It was really tasty and they seemed to enjoy it. Only a year or two later did she announce that she hated monkfish!! I haven’t had them round for a meal again! I also made a lasagne for an informal supper with friends, only to be told how they make their lasagne, I took it that they didn’t like mine. We don’t see them now either!! I am actually rather a good cook but never mind.

We were invited to a meal at a friend's house years ago.
Cushions on the floor to sit on with about 4 curry dishes laid out on a cloth. All were vindaloo hot very very spicy. I ate very little as I hate hot curry, and sitting on the floor with the greyhound dog was really not our style OH said it was brilliant and the best curry ever.

nanna8 I found that pre-Covid anyway in Australia - everyone went out to eat so early and left by about 9.30pm!

-Last week I went with a few friends for a meal and a drink and by 9.30 pm everyone had left except us-
The Restaurants here don’t start filling up until 8.30 pm, after the evening news. I do have problems trying to get an early dinner for my English friends when they are visiting.

We used to have dinner parties and everyone dressed up in the 1970s and 80s but they morphed into more casual affairs with food and music , then to BBQs and now just lunches from time to time. Mostly we meet friends at a restaurant these days. The restaurants aren’t what they were, either. We used to make a real night of it and stay until midnight but these days everything seems to shut around 10 pm. Even the hotels are closing early round here. Last week I went with a few friends for a meal and a drink and by 9.30 pm everyone had left except us. The staff were obviously keen to pack up so we did,too. Miserable Covid.

To me the difference between a dinner party and having friends invited for dinner is the level of formality, and the number of people.

I love hosting smaller groups of 6 which is all that can fit around our table comfortably. Our group of friends is rather small so it tends to be more informal. The trouble is that DH tends to get a bit stressed over having people over. He is a wonderful host, and if a dozen people dropped by without notice, he would bartend with flair and help me dig up snacks. If I ask him would we like to host so and so for dinner next Saturday he goes into a fit of worry and cleaning.

I like to be spontaneous; if it's a nice day see if people are available and dig out a cookbook!

Used to do dinner parties till the divorce, people didn’t like to have a single, unless it was to make up an even table, twenty odd years ago. However, these days it’s more relaxed and I am in different circles but it’s for lunches.
I —still do— did the 25th sit-down or weekend lunch 4 course ones with white table cloth etc. for 12/15 but I suppose it doesn’t count as it’s family.

6 people can make a dinner party. All you have to do is eat in the dining room if you have one. White tablecloth, place mats, glasses with paper napkins, and cutlery set out. Food doesn't have to change only the way you serve it. Like everything in individual dishes so that diners can help themselves. Very little to make it an occasion, and costs no extra I should think. Yes I used to dinner parties, often about 10 and loved it. Don't even want to cook for myself now, only if the family come.

No, because I am a rotten cook.

Yes, pre COVID they were our main sort of socialising. We’d go to one most weeks and hold one ourselves most months. We’ve got a large circle of friends and the parties tended to centre around the same two dozen people and could be anything from 6 to 12 people each time depending on how energetic we were feeling. I really miss them at the moment and can’t wait to get started again.

Not as much as we used to, and certainly not during the past year. But now we and all our friends have had both our vaccinations and have been told we can meet inside without masks, we have already had a couple of dinner parties. But probably not quite as formal as the name suggests. I love to cook and entertain.

When we have met with groups of friends for a meal we have always done a course each. Whoever is hosting does the main course, others do starter, pudding and maybe cheeses if there are enough couples. Same with buffets. Each household brings a dish or dishes of some sort. It has always worked well and doesn’t mean anyone has all the work to do. Never fancied ‘safari’ meals . Just as you settle and are having a good chat off you all go.

Mrs Bucket's Candlelight Suppers anyone? www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1562285753902918

Used to do them. Was good at it. Hated it. Glad it's over.

The last one I hosted (40 years ago,) My starter included lettuce. The night before I had a nightmare that I'd forgotten to buy lettuce, and found I did have green taffeta. I crinkled it with the iron and decided no one would notice the difference - I was so relieved when I woke up and found it was a dream!!
Never again!!

I guess 'dinner party' suggests to me a more formal, sitting round the dining table affair, with at least three courses, followed by coffee and chocolates, and probably a combination of people who aren't already best friends. 'Parties with food' are informal, of varying size and combinations of guests and having one, two or three couples over who are all already mutual friends is 'coming over for dinner/ supper, or tea' if that's what you call it where you live? I love all of them but probably do the first one a lot less nowadays than the latter two.

Had to do Dinner parties or large Buffets for husbands job from as soon as I married. It was competitive among some, husbands included.
Started to think twice when at one huge buffet one Christmas I over heard a sneery commentof "Why are we all here". The hostest had gone to so much trouble.
It all tailed off when the divorces started in our 40's.
Now it's supper for family and I still enjoy trying a new recipe.

Have done a few and been to a few and as already mentioned, you always get the competitive thing spoiling it. The whole point for me is to sit and talk with people so eating out allows you to do just that and not keep dashing off to check on cooking progress while missing all the juicy bits!

Never really had a Dinner Party, and definately dont these days even pre COVID, we tend to have small BBQ gatherings in the summer, not a party exactly just meeting up with neighbours.Roll on those days!

We're all planning on going out for pub lunches!

Although family might come to dinner and others come to stay but they'll just laugh if something goes wrong.

Abigails Party, gosh that was a big thing in the day. I remembered it a a cringe but amusing film but watched it recently and hadn’t remembered how it ended .....I felt quite upset.