Company’s Coming…Now What Should I Make?!

I have vivid childhood memories of my parents hosting dinner parties: clinking ice cubes at cocktail hour, mom’s fancy perfume, dad’s laughter, and delicious smells wafting upstairs from the kitchen. Once we were old enough, my sister and I were allowed to come downstairs in our pajamas for a little while to say hello to my parents’ friends, and then we would run back upstairs and pretend that we were adults hosting our own party.

Now that I am, in fact, an adult, I find that dinner parties are few and far between. More often, we have a potluck-style family dinner at the home of someone brave enough to host 10 young children, or see friends at an organized couples’ party run through one of my moms’ groups. These are great occasions, don’t get me wrong, but I do sometimes wonder what happened to the gatherings of my parents’ generation. There is a part of me that associates being an adult with hosting a dinner party, which is something that I haven’t done in quite a while!

Perhaps if I had some solid menu ideas under my belt, I would feel more confident in my ability to host such a soiree – this, my friends, is where you come in! Please share your dinner party ideas with us here in the comments section – recipes are not necessary, although certainly not discouraged. I would also love details on the types of food that are expected at such a gathering – for example, is a nice pasta dish an acceptable main course, or should some type of meat always be served? Do appetizers need to be homemade, or is a nice Brie with chutney and crackers enough? Can I get away with serving only wine, or do people expect cocktails of some sort? And to clarify, I would probably only be hosting two to three other couples, so this does not need to accommodate a huge crowd. Thank you in advance for your ideas!