Holiday Dinner Party Menu

I’ve mostly about two things lately…food and our nursery project.  Can you tell what is on my mind!?

Tomorrow evening we are hosting a dinner party for 14 (well, 11 adults, two kids and one little baby).  We’re excited to have the members of Chris’ staff over to thank them for all that they do professionally, but mostly because they are incredible friends to us and do nice things for us all throughout the year.  Despite their protests, we are requiring them to come empty handed.

Chris and I love planning a meal together, so this little adventure (our largest dinner party to date) has been fun to organize, and fingers crossed that we can execute well tomorrow evening.

Because I have a hard time finding achievable dinner menus online, I thought I would post what we plan to make, and next week I can let you know how it all went down.  So, allow me to virtually whet your appetites…

Appetizers:

• Baked Brie
• Crudite with artichoke and spinach hummus
• Cheese and crackers

Main Course:

• Glazed Ham
• Butternut squash lasagna (because we have vegetarian guests, but also because it is super good)
• Mashed potatoes
• Green beans with toasted almonds
• Cranberry fruit relish
• Crusty Italian bread (from the bakery)

Dessert:

• Three layer chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting
• Raspberry cream trifle (adapted from this recipe)

I don’t know whether or not you’ll agree with me that this menu is achievable for most people, but it truly is made of a mix of homemade, semi-homemade and store bought items.  Plus, many of the items can be made ahead of time (even days before or just hours before guests arrive), so you can really focus on spending time with guests.

One of the main reasons that we went with ham was that it simply needs to be warmed, which means we won’t be worrying about overcooking a fancy roast or making gravy at the last minute.  It also means we can keep things like potatoes, lasagna and bread warm on the top rack of the oven while the ham comes to temperature below.  Our desserts are make-ahead items that are easy to serve and look appealing.

And while things like baked brie and a raspberry cream trifle might sound complicated, it’s not so bad once you consider that baked brie is simply cheese wrapped in store-bought puff pastry sheets and the cake in the trifle is from a store-bought pound cake mix.  There are always way to simplify!

As an added bonus, having this party has really made me get into holiday decorating a couple weeks earlier than I normally would.  So next week I’ll have to share a bit of how we decked our halls!