Party Planning: Mixed-Up Meal

The holiday season is filled with parties! Grab your guest list, and let's go! Here's a whimsical plan for entertaining any group of folks. This party is guaranteed to keep people on their toes and encourage animated conversation!

First, enlist the help of some quick-minded folks to help you serve the meal. Preteens and teens are ideal for this role.

Next, plan your menu items. Include everything you will offer, along with utensils and dishes. You will need at least 16 items in all.

Choose a fun name for each item. These should correspond to the holiday, season, or theme of your party.

For example, a Christmas party might use these names:

Angel
Bell
Candy cane
Carols
Elves
Gifts
North Pole
Ornaments
Poinsettia
Reindeer
Santa
Sled
Snowman
Star
Stocking
Tree

A Valentine's Day party would likely include these labels instead:

Arrows
Boyfriend
Candy
Chocolate
Cupid
Flowers
Gifts
Girlfriend
Heart
Hug
Jewelry
Kiss
Love
Romance
Roses
Sweetheart

Now, make a list of all of your food items and serving pieces. Assign a themed name (from your list) to each item. Create menus, listing only your code words. Place a menu, four plain index cards, and a pencil or pen at each place. (Do not put any utensils, plates, cups, or other dining wares on the table at this time.)

Station your servers in the kitchen, where they will fill orders. Assign one or two to act as waiters or waitresses for your table.

When your dinner guests are seated at the table, give them simple instructions about the four-course meal. For every course, each guest may order four items.

During each course, your guests will fill out their order cards. Your wait staff will collect these and deliver them to the kitchen. The guests will be in suspense, as they will have no idea what to expect.

Using your master list, your kitchen staff will fill each order and send it to the table with the wait staff.

Imagine the fun. A guest might order soup, a fork, coffee and crackers. Another might receive spaghetti, a spoon, a fruit cup, and a straw. The napkin may not arrive till much later.

After each course, the wait staff will clear all items from the table. Each guest will only receive an item once.

This dinner is a lot of fun for guests. Certainly, your behind-the-scenes workers will go all out, but they will also have a blast.

For extra mystery, you might ask your staff to name the items, so you will be in the dark as well.

Bon appetit!