10 Tips for Entertaining with Ease
10 Quick Tips (whether your party is for one or twenty)
Don't buy a book on "how to clean." Just take some Windex and paper towels into a room and see how much better it will look if you just dust. When you get a vacuum cleaner, you will learn how to vacuum. For tubs, bathroom sinks, and toilets, I believe in Tilex. You know that bleach products have killed me. But I still love instantly white grout. Sue me.
Potluck is not just a concept, it's a seriously perfect way to throw a dinner party. When you issue the invite, mention a theme (Mexican, Italian, French ProvenVal), and ask the guest what he or she will bring. Call best friends last, and assign them anything that no guest has volunteered. You supply ice, drinks beyond the mandatory bottle of wine that someone is going to pick up at the last minute, and a main course if no one else has snagged it.
No buffet table? An ironing board is your best friend. A tablecloth will help with the homeliness, but be careful about what you put on the narrow end. Something is going to fall off. That's why I once again play the paper towel card.
No dining table? See 3), but lower the ironing board to a comfortable height for those in chairs. It's wobbly, so…no elbows on the table!
Mix tapes. Apparently no one needs these anymore.
The rule of thumb regarding paper plates, plastic utensils, and plastic cups is this: Every meal, sandwich or bowl of cereal tastes better on a real plate. If you come into some money, get new dishware. If, before this happens, your friends are snotty enough to comment on the paper plates, get new friends.
If you have a friend who likes to cook, cook along with her or him once in a while. (I know. You are always welcome to cook along with me. That hasn't actually worked, though.) Being able to say, "Does this sauce look thick enough to you?" to someone else is way better than asking yourself the same question with ten hungry people in the next room.
You have a next room! Score! (You have ten people in your life that you want to have over for dinner! Double score!)
Thawed Sara Lee pound cake, smashed raspberries in sugar, and whipped cream are a perfectly decent end to a meal, and I don't care what they said about me on Yelp.
Homemade is amazing, but having fun is better. We once did top-it-yourself pizzas for twenty guests--Daddy's family--on a night when the oven refused to turn on. Finally we ordered Szechuan for everyone and really, I should have shut up after the first apology and enjoyed the Moo Shu Pork. Everyone else did.