Thanksgiving is right around the corner and you get to host. How exciting! You want to show your guests a fabulous time without going insane. And you also want to enjoy. Try some of these tips to keep your guests happy and entertained during this potentially stressful hosting event.
Easy Hor’dourves: Let your local grocer or market do the work in putting together your hor’dourves for pre dinner nibbling. Let them know the varietals of the wines you are serving and they can create a cost effective and really nice cheese and fruit tray that will compliment the wines. Pick a few easy finger foods and one bite goodies for guests to nibble on. Cheese cubes, meat trays and shrimp cocktail are easy pleasers. For your health conscious guests, pick up a veggie tray and swap the dressing dip for fresh hummus. If you are in the Tri Cities area, we love the made from scratch hummus and small bit custom options from a great local bakery.
Cocktails Please: Select three wines that are nicely balanced and that you personally selected for your guests. These can be wines that you pull from your cellar, pick up at your local wine shop or market or wines from your favorite wineries. As you mingle, you’ll want to share the stories of how you came across the wines. Guestimate that for your 3 hour or so event, guests may enjoy 2.5 glasses of wine. From our family of wines, we recommend our 2011 Red Wine , 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon and our 2011 Reserve Blend all easy drinking and nicely balanced wines. Grab the nearest tub or container, fill with ice and craft beer. Sit out your wines and plenty of water along with a visible garbage can. Serve yourself stations are always a hit.
Dinner Time: Gone are the days of a million entrees and dishes. Stick to the staples that matter most to your family and you. For my family, it’s homemade mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce and a couple of veggies. For dessert, we get the traditional pumpkin pie with whipped cream. I always pick up a vanilla bean ice cream to stick in the freezer to accompany the pie for turkey eve movie and dessert. If guests volunteer to bring a dish, let them. The more someone else can take off your plate, the more you get to enjoy. Preset the table with plates for a more formal setting or for an easy dish up, sit food out and invite guests to serve themselves before taking a seat at the table.
As the host, be sure and grab yourself a glass of wine, kick back and enjoy the meal. After all, you deserve it. Happy Thanksgiving!