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

We had (pre Covid) a dinner system that includes myself and other half and two widowed friends. We take it in turns to host and cook the main meal, the other two bring starter and dessert. It worked well for us - can't wait to get back to it!

Dinner parties no, friends round to dinner and going to theirs for dinner yes, before COVID. It’s rural where I live, so it’s easier to do things at home locally so none of have to drive. To me a dinner party is where people you don’t know well are invited, eg your boss, or work colleagues, I far prefer the friends round meals as you can just be yourself, not have to put on a show. My friends all know I hate cooking!

Loved dinner parties in the 80's. Several couples taking turns to host. It was a real opportunity to be a bit adventurous with cooking and to dress up a bit. The host's babies were asleep (hopefully) and any guests with baba lies brought them and put them to bed in a spare bedroom. As children got a bit older you had to book a babysitter. Nowadays we invite friends for supper. Much more casual and usually eaten in the kitchen. Still lovely though.

Loved reading the above?. Like many over the years my meals have been more informal. Often they take the form of everyone bringing a dish. Most of my group have a speciality dish everyone looks forward to. Occasionally we have a theme. It's really more about the company.
Maybe the only time most of us do anything more formal is Christmas. There is something lovely about the planning and using your best tableware, even if the reality leaves you feeling rather frazzled!

I’ve only been to one formal dinner party and we all had little place names where to sit, the food was delicious but i hated it because it was as if the hostess was trying to impress everyone big time.
You could see everyone felt uncomfortable and the hosts must have spent a small fortune, it was like being at Margos house for dinner (the good life)
I would much prefer having close friends around for something to eat informally and the food isn’t the main event and you can sit where you like around the kitchen table

Far too stressful as I don't like cooking. There are still dinner party circuits around but we've always side- stepped them. A meal with just family and close friends is fun, anything more is too much trouble.

In the 60s and 70s had to entertain colleagues and customers of my husband to dinner as well as friends. In those days it wasn’t the thing to go out to restaurants to entertain. I have always loved cooking.

Presumably no-one is holding dinner parties right now.

For me they are a thing of the past, as we no longer have such a large circle of friends that we could hold anything for more than two or three people at a time.

I love holding dinner parties when I did so in the 1980s.

Suspect it would be too much work now, though.

We tend to have dinner parties at lunchtime no that we are retired - there is something quite lovely at being a little tipsy at 3pm

I've never been posh enough to do dinner parties.

Depends on your definition of dinner party. I enjoy cooking and often have friends and family around for a meal,, lo meet up and eat out at restaurants too

A green pot scourer once turned up on a guest’s plate among the spring greens at my mother’s. Luckily he was a fellow rugby player, and it was all we could do to stop him eating it.

?

trisher

I once aspired to have dinner parties and to cook. So we invited a couple for dinner. All was ruined when the man encountered, and tried to eat, the bouquet garni t-bag thing I'd used and forgotten to take out. I gave up!!

A girl I was at university with (now a very very famous author) did put a teabag in the casserole instead of bouquet garni
Knowing students it probably got eaten anyway.

Apart from having family round, never had a dinner party nor been to one. Nor have I ever had a house party or been to one.

Trisher, the same thing happened to me! He thought he’d found a teabag in the dinner!
We only have family for any sort of meal now, always as informal as possible, and preferably in the garden where the children can be let loose!
I remember once many years ago making baked Alaska for a dinner party pud, and the kitchen light bulb going out just as we were doing the smothering with meringue bit! We managed somehow!

The nearest was about six years ago, four of us from the pub did a ‘come dine with me’ in each other’s houses, we were all couples and a single friend was invited to be the judge at the end, each meal was themed. It was quite fun, but everyone tried too hard. Up until five years ago I used to do curry buffets for people I’d worked with, hard work, but easier for the vegetarians. Now, we have couples on their own, usually a bbq, looking forward to that when we’re allowed.

We often have people round for lunch rather than dinner, more of a French thing. We prefer it as we don't like to eat late and we can have a restful evening.
Usually three courses with optional cheese course. Sometimes we go out for lunch, its our main form of socialising here as there is no pub culture.

I once aspired to have dinner parties and to cook. So we invited a couple for dinner. All was ruined when the man encountered, and tried to eat, the bouquet garni t-bag thing I'd used and forgotten to take out. I gave up!!

I also used to do the dinner party thing in the 80s using my mam and dad’s silver cutlery wedding gifts and proper linen, china and crystal. Loved the planning and producing of not very fancy food but more the social side.

Sadly three of those couples have divorced so I meet the wives solo for drinks or coffee and occasional curry at hers or mine nowadays.

The above happens here in Wales - In Spain however I still have friends over for cocktails or brunch or a curry but it’s very much low key, last minute jobby which I enjoy just as much.

We had one where a friend had rather too much gin and proceeded to to tell all of us about her husband’s indiscretions.
It was awful ? he just sat there not saying a word and the more we tried to turn the subject round, the louder and bolder she got.

Lucca Been there, done that!

Lucca
Are you my friend Susan?

Not for a long time. The thought of a 'proper' dinner party fills me with dread now although I have organised a few casual barbecues.

If I had to, I'd do a buffet, hot or cold, so people can wander and mingle and help themselves.

Carenza we used to call that a Safari Supper.

Coincidentally my DD mentioned the other day how she remembered DH ,me and our friends having hilarious loud meals when she and her brother were young , listening from their beds to the laughter and chatter . She said it was comforting . We never went in for formal meals and often shared it out each bringing a dish . No longer have them now, deaths and illnesses have reduced the “clan” . significantly and the remaining 5 of us prefer (when allowed ) to go to a nice pub for lunch .