I did mention that I like to host parties, didn't I? Well, these past couple of weeks I was busy preparing for two parties, aside from preparing for work too. One party was to congratulate our dear friends from Luxembourg, Ana and Karl, who tied the knot a few months ago and who came to visit us last week, and the second one was our housewarming party. It took us more than 6 months to celebrate our housewarming party with our close friends! We just never found the right time to celebrate it.
When I make up my mind to host a party I get carried away with planning the event, and that includes the decorations, cleaning the house and preparing the food on time. I don't know why but even if I start preparing from three days before I rarely finish on time. My husband, on the other hand, does his best to concoct original cocktails and serve different drinks. When our parties are over our friends usually leave our house,slightly if not totally intoxicated, holding on to their bulging tummies.
I just love throwing parties but they practically, take up all my energy. As soon as I send out the invites I browse my collection of recipe books to get some ideas, and write a list of appetizers. I try to keep to 12 items per person but somehow in the preparation process the items increase in number. Next, I disseminate each food item to its basic ingredients and write all the ingredients that I would need in a list, then buy the ingredients, prepare each item and finally put the final touches to each item..and each time I invite our friends over I always say to myself that next time I should prepare less food but somehow I never manage to..
The collage above shows some of the food I prepared. Clockwise from left: Choco,Oat and Nut balls, parma ham and melon kebabs, artichokes stuffed with Maltese sausage filling, bacon and avocado squares, double decker egg and ham sandwiches, pancakes stuffed with seafood, classic Maltese timpana, lampuki rolls, apple and pork rolls. Centre: S almon and caviar hors d'oeuvres.
15 comments:
Wow everything looks so good! Great party I bet :o)
Zen... those look so delicious!
I wish I was one of your guests ... LOL!
I'm sure your parites are a great success and your friends look forward to them too.
Well, you can compete with my sister Doreen... she's a great host when it involves parties and a very good cook too.
Great collage too.. seems like a picture from one of those elegant recipe books, everything looks so appetising... well done!
Sue.
I love parties but not organizing one, too much trouble ... LOL!
WOW great presentation and pictures Zen! I bet you all had a great time, yes even though preparing takes alot of energy and time but isn't it all worth it in the end eh!
Glad you got to have your housewarming party, I bet it was a success. Talking of housewarming parties, we were given one when we bought our first house in Canada and even though my husband knew about it, it was a surprise for me and when we came home and saw people moving in our house I thought we had burglers, that must have been the scariest moment of my life!
Thanks Sue for your compliment, you too are a great cook my dear : )
Now Zen I have to take my eyes off those appetizing pics or I will head to the kitchen : )
Oh wow ! what a great varied selection you have thrown together. Both my husband and I enjoy having friends over and entertaining. We are a little stuck at the moment as we are living temporarly in a flat (rather small with unsociable neighbours) and we cannot entertain or invite any one :( ......can't wait to move out and find a lovely old house to restore and make dinner parties and invite friends over. Right now I have my daughter's christening party and christening celebrations to prepare.
@Angie: yes it was a great party! They all enjoyed themselves and they even played at being tourists at our place with one of our friends holding up the umbrella as if he was a guide showing them off our place.
@Sue: I'm sure you would have enjoyed yourself too.: ) yes our friends always look fwd to our parties cos my hubby and I have built quite a good reputation: me as an innovative cook and my husband as the exotic cocktail maker. LOL
@Nick - pity cos you can have fun too organising one :)!
@Doreen - I'm not sure I understood this sentence'We were given a housewarming party'- I thought that housewarming parties are usually organised by the owners of the house themselves.
Dina: Good luck with your christening celebrations. Are you going to prepare the party food yourself? Re living in a flat - we used to live in one before we moved to our present accomodation - it was very small but yet somehow we always managed to entertain our friends there..as the saying goes :where there's a will there's a way hehe! Don't let your unsociable neighbours dampen your enthusiasm.
What a nice selection of food! My husband and I love to entertain too, although since having our youngest we have only managed dinner parties and have yet to throw a big party (but hope to). After a year of living in our house we too should be having a housewarming party. I love cooking and the preparation, but can get easily carried away (especially in making deserts) and be a little exhausted by the end. It's always a balancing act, making enough, getting the house ready and then being able to enjoy it! I love that your husband likes making cocktails, your parties do sound fun!
@Juniper - yes that's my problem in preparing for a party - I still haven't yet grasped how to juggle everything..food, cleaning the house, and being able to enjoy it...I always end up very exhausted afterwards. Need to learn some party tricks : )
this sounds familiar to an extent. i so love planning events and having people over. but i generally get so caught up in the planning that once everyone arrives, all my energy is shot and i'll be thinking 'ok, you can all go home now' lol
I should never have clicked on the photo on an empty stomach!! I'm hungry now!!! Wow, you sure know how to throw a party!!
I'm like you, I also always end up making too much food!
Sounds and looks delicious! Put me on your next guest list please :).
I have mixed feelings about parties... about hosting them that is. Having 3 kids is really not encouraging. Our last few parties were actually birthday ones, where I was literally drained! Since I don't like the idea of having parties at places like restaurants or play houses because I think they are too cold, I prefer organising a theme party at home. But boy that is hard work. So I borrowed an idea to ask them if they'd rather have a party or go somewhere nice. Luckily all seem more eager to go somewhere nice!!! But I think I might still organise a just because party once in a while!
Hi Zen, about the housewarming party whether it is given by the house owners or their family or friends, it can be done both ways. In our case when we moved from our apartment into our first house in Canada we were given a surprise party a little after we moved in. It certainly helped with adding those special added features to the house, a group of friends even got together and got us a Hall set of a hall chandelier and a mirror to match! Getting a surprise party planned is alot of work but the work is divided by the ones who are giving the party. Here is a link if you'd like to read more about it...(the part of the parking is very important so the new owners are not aware until the last minute...http://www.ehow.com/how_2085573_throw-surprise-housewarming-party.html
Surprise parties are quite popular there and I had the opportunity to plan quite a few including a Wedding shower and two Baby showers.
Doreen: Just went through the site you sent me...Here in Malta we haven't yet started the trend of giving a housewarming basket to a new neighbour let alone organising a housewarming party for new people. It's like inviting yourself to someone's party. Planning a wedding shower, and or baby showers for the family is a completely different situation.. you know the people and you know whether they'd like it or not.
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