Creating an atmosphere that complements your dinner party meal will make the food you serve taste even better, so try to buy or make decorations that match the menu:
• An elegant party requires silver candlesticks and vases of fresh flowers. • If you’re serving something messy, go old-school classy with individual finger bowls. Just fill small bowls with water and a slice of lemon, and place one next to each guest’s water glass to use during the meal. • Serving Chinese food? Hang Chinese lanterns above the table. • Offering a Mexican feast? Drape chili-pepper lights around the doorways of your dining area, and serve your guacamole and salsa in bowls shaped like sombreros. • A Moroccan meal means you can banish tables and chairs — and utensils — and eat on blankets and pillows right on the floor. |
Dinner parties tend to be dressier affairs, so leave the jeans and t-shirts at home. You will want to tell your guests what you're eating and how you're eating, so they'll dress in a way that makes them feel comfortable.
If you're packing guests into a small apartment for a buffet meal where they'll sit on the floor, for example, your female guests will appreciate knowing that they probably shouldn't wear a skirt. If you're serving messy handheld fare, letting guests know in advance could save on drycleaning bills later.
You have guests trapped around your table, so make them squirm. Get everybody talking by having guests go around the table and reveal something about themselves: a childhood nickname, their favorite song, their biggest celebrity crush. If your friends are the dramatic type, buy or make up a murder mystery game to play during the meal, culminating in revealing the culprit over dessert.
If your guests are into wine, incorporate a wine-pairing lesson into the dinner. Ask each guest to bring a bottle that pairs with one dish or course of your meal. While you're eating and sipping, that guest can explain why they chose that wine, what flavors and characteristics that grape has, and how it pairs well with the ingredients in the dish you've prepared.
The most important tip for a dinner party: Splurge on high-quality ingredients. They'll enhance both the flavor and texture of your dishes. As you pick your dinner party recipes, find out if your guests have any food allergies or restrictions, and serve plenty of sides to give your guests options.
Assorted cheeses and olives are crowd-pleasing snacks before the meal, and you can’t go wrong with chocolate and fruit for dessert.
Featured Dinner Party Recipes from Epicurious.com Champagne Celebration (serves 1)
• juice of 1/2 lime, freshly squeezed
• 1/2 oz. Cointreau
• 1/2 oz. brandy
• 1 sugar cube
• Angostura bitters
• 4 oz. Champagne
Pour Cointreau and brandy into a Champagne flute. Saturate a sugar cube with bitters and add to flute. Fill flute with Champagne. |  |
Non-Alcoholic - Sparkling cider, sparkling water
| 1. | Whatever Will Be, Will Be / Doris Day |
| 2. | The Way You Look Tonight / Billie Holiday |
| 3. | You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To / Sarah Vaughan |
| 4. | It’s De-Lovely / Jeri Southern |
| 5. | I Get a Kick Out of You / Dinah Washington |
| 6. | Fly Me to the Moon / Frank Sinatra |
| 7. | That's Amore / Dean Martin
|
| 8. | Unforgettable / Nat King Cole
|
| 9. | La Vie en Rose / Edith Piaf
|
| 10. | You Do Something to Me / Rosemary Clooney
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