Party Surprise!

Imagine this scenario. Your friends who had long since relocated to a different country have called to tell you that they are in a town for a few days and would absolutely love to meet up. Overcome by excitement you invite them as well as a few other common friends over for dinner the following night. After the invites are out and everybody has accepted you suddenly realize that you have an important office presentation that is likely to take up the rest of the day and almost all of the next day too. Too late now for you to retract the invites and opting instead for a dinner at a restaurant would seem like a major let down. What do you do?

Preparing the ýSurpriseý Dinner

Preparing a dinner party can be stressful at the best of times and preparing a dinner party a day before the event takes ýstressý to a whole new different level.

You need to make a quick list of the things to be done -- decide on the menu, get the drinks, prepare the food, organize the house to make it more presentable to guests and to allow more space, put on a few decorations, get a few candles, put out your best dining set and silverware, get some party tokens and your list can go on and on.

The best way to handle the situation is to first give your self some time to react to the situation. Come on, panic if you must ý but only for a few minutes. Afterwards, you must start pulling yourself together and plan the night when you play host or hostess.

Cooking Wisely at Short Notice

When you already have a guest list, you may now proceed to finalizing your party menu in consideration of what your guests may probably like and what kinds of foods may be on the forbidden list for any of them. Consider if one of them has an allergy or diabetes or any other condition that requires special attention.

Since you still need to design or arrange your home to better accommodate guests, you must plan for great-tasting meals that will not consume too much of your time. This is definitely no the time to try out something new and you do not have time to prepare your tried and tested recipes, which you know taste good but take a long, long time in the preparation.

Why not bring out the trusty Crock Pot and try out one of your beef or chicken crock pot recipes. It may take some hours to cook these foods but the good thing is that these will not tie you to the kitchen as it cooks. You can prepare the ingredients; put them in your Crock Pot to cook while you busy yourself with the hundreds of other things that need attending to.

While your Crock Pot meal is practically preparing itself, you can focus on other tasks such as tidying and decorating the place and getting other things organized. Cooking using your Crock Pot is your best option as it allows you more time to do other things while ensuring you that your guests can enjoy a flavorful dinner. If you look up your Crock Pot recipes you are sure to find a quick and easy recipe for Crock Pot desserts too.

While your foods are being cooked in your Crock Pot, you can even step out of the house and get some party tokens for your guests. With people now going for healthier choices, tea ball sets, which are typically packed in cute little pouches can be a wonderful party give-away.

With a wonderful meal and a perfect evening your guests are sure to go home with fond memories of you being the perfect hostess, no matter what.

Lisa is an avid home cook who loves to share her favorite crock pot recipes with the rest of us. Discover all her crock pot recipes at www.A-Crock-Cook.com. And be sure to try one of her chicken crock pot recipes.

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