Party Tip #2: Simplify the Menu

All great parties have great food, whether it’s formal or casual, snacks or full blown dinner. The trick to hosting an event with great food is to tailor the menu to the event. It’s easy to think of everything you love, or have a really great recipe for, and throw it onto your party menu, but if you streamline the menu you’ll find you can still receive rave reviews while actually being able to enjoy your party.

Take M’s recent birthday party/open house, with a guest list of 30+ including friends, family and children. Dinner options included beef brisket and veggie chili. They thought about adding grilled food as well, but (rightly) decided it added a level of complexity to their menu and would require a lot of outdoor time away from the party. Both the brisket and chili had prep that had been done the day prior, and both spent the day heating and getting delicious in crock pots on their counter. Right before the party, chili accompaniments and sandwich buns were placed out and voila! Dinner is (self) served and the hosts spent the party chatting with friends.

Not sure where to start? Here’s what I do when planning a menu:

• Begin with either a centerpiece item (such as the brisket) or a theme (Mexican is a favorite of mine). Both focus your attention on a handful of recipes that you can coordinate. It also makes decisions about whether to include things easier (Q: What goes with brisket? A: Coleslaw).
• Choose items that work for the number of guests you're planning to have. Save your chicken parmesan for a dinner party and go with lasagna for the crowd.
• Keep the number of total items low. You want variation, but you don’t need to go crazy. Avoid several of the same thing, for example four kinds of chips, and overlap where possible, for example pita chips and veggies both go well with hummus.
• Plan to make some things and buy store bought for others. This will save you time and sometimes money. Plus, pre-made can be better than what you’d make at home.
• Think about the preparation of the food, both prior to and during the party, and minimize items requiring last minute preparation or overlapping timeframes. You don’t want to be sautéing peppers while a stream of guests are ringing your doorbell, or juggling items in your oven so everything stays hot.

Providing delicious food for your party doesn’t require days of food preparation and slaving in your kitchen. PARTY TIP #2: SIMPLIFY THE MENU. Organize a menu that contains a balanced selection of items that are low on day-of prep and maintenance. Let the crock pot do the magic while you entertain your guests. Impress your father-in-law with your unbelievable beef brisket.

You just planned the perfect party. You’re Welcome.

Kindness: A Good Turn

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. ~Charles Kuralt, On the Road With Charles Kuralt

Granted, the CTA bus system of Chicago can hardly be considered the back roads, but nothing cheers me more than witnessing random acts of kindness during the thirty or so minutes I spend on it to and from work. One person giving up their seat for an elderly woman really does help to right general society wrongs.

I especially enjoy the kindness in the morning, as it’s the first interaction I’m having with society for the day. I love when my bus driver says hello or “watch your step” when the weather creates a daunting situation for taking a giant step off the bus.

I am constantly monitoring how often people running to catch the bus are let on. I understand, of course, that the bus driver has a schedule to keep, but I can’t help smiling when they stop after seeing someone waving frantically and running down the street in the hopes of making the bus.

Just yesterday our bus driver stopped after leaving the bus stop, even though the light was green. He let not one, but two folks on, one who was racing across the street from the North, and the other who realized she might still have a chance and came hustling from the West. You should have seen the joy on their faces when they stepped onto the bus.

The older I get the more I am convinced that it is our regular daily behaviors that define who we are, not our larger, life long pursuits and accomplishments. We experience literally millions of interactions with others; each one is an opportunity for us to demonstrate the people we really are.

That’s a sobering thought, that our true nature is based mostly on actions that we don’t even think about. Then again, it’s hard not to see how even a small act of goodness would multiply out over so many opportunities to repeat it.

For me, nothing speaks more to one’s character than kindness. And no one attribute covers so much. Synonyms for kindness include humanity, generosity, charity, sympathy, compassion and tenderness.

All those warm and fuzzies from the simple act of handing someone’s dropped CTA pass to them on the bus. Maybe there's hope for us, after all.