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A Night To Remember: How To Host A Flawless Dinner Party

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There are various reasons why you might want to plan a dinner party – perhaps you’re celebrating a birthday or anniversary, or you might just want to cheer yourself up by hanging out with friends.  However, planning the perfect evening can be incredibly stressful – with 24% of people believing that hosting a dinner party was more stressful than a job interview. 

However, don’t let the fear of planning stop you from having a lovely evening with your friends. What’s more, with careful planning, it can actually be a lot of fun for you and your guests. With that in mind, here are some tricks and tips you can use to execute a flawless dinner party.

Choose a theme.

Choosing a theme for your dinner party is one of the easiest ways to take the stress out of the process, as it will help you to streamline all of your decisions. For example, if you chose ‘Hollywood’ as your theme, you’ll be able to plan the rest of your night around this theme, including the menu, drinks, decor and entertainment. 

Send out invitations.

The sooner you can send out invitations (for any event), the better. This is because it gives your friends and family the chance to fit it into their schedule, reducing the chances of you dealing with disappointing no-shows when they roll around. Furthemore, this step is particularly important if your theme also impacts how you want your guests to dress, as they can plan their outfits accordingly. 

Put together a menu.

It goes without saying that dinner should be the main focus of your dinner party – which means you may need to brush up on some of your culinary skills ahead of time. Try to focus on meals that you already know to be crowd-pleasers, such as 

pan-fried tuna, steak and home-comfort dishes. This way, you can guarantee clean plates across the table, as opposed to presenting overly-fancy dishes that nobody actually enjoys that much. You should also make sure that you take dietary requirements in ahead of time. For example, you may need to prepare vegetarian, vegan or even gluten-free dishes for your guests. 

If you don’t feel like doing all of the cooking yourself, host a pot-luck dinner party where all guests are encouraged to bring some food and snacks along with them.

Focus on the little details.

When hosting any kind of event, the small details often go a long way towards making an impression on your guests. As a result, try to find small ways to wow them throughout the evening. For example, instead of using your regular old (and probably chipped) tableware, why not buy new plates and tableware for the occasion? Verano Ceramics (https://veranoceramics.co.uk/) have a range of stunning options on offer, meaning their products are a great way to take your dinner party up a notch. Furthermore, you can even have them delivered directly to your door.

Make a signature cocktail.

As mentioned previously, little details often leave the biggest impressions on your guests – so instead of trying to stock your fridge full of every drink imaginable, why not make a signature cocktail for the evening? While there are plenty of cocktail masterclasses for you to sign up for ahead of the big day, there are also plenty of recipes online that you can emulate. Remember, you don’t have to be a master mixologist and come up with a completely new drink – as you can simply rename an old classic. 

Furthemore, you should also make sure that you make a non-alcoholic cocktail (or mocktail) for younger guests, designated drivers or those who simply don’t feel like drinking. Non-drinkers are often overlooked at dinner parties, and making them their own drink is a great way to get them more involved and show them that you appreciate them. Plus, there are plenty of delicious mocktail recipes for you to try from. 

Clean & Decorate your home.

As your dinner party approaches, you need to start thinking about creating the perfect atmosphere for your guests. The first step towards this, whether you are throwing a backyard party or keeping it indoors, is to clean and prepare the area. However, this does not mean you have to spring-clean the entire home – as your guests are unlikely to be spending time in your bedroom or home office. Instead, focus on the areas where you are planning on entertaining your guests. 

Once everything is clean and organised, it’s time to decorate. Again, decorating decisions can be made easier by selecting a theme – but there are plenty of decor staples you can incorporate into your home. For example, you can create the perfect entertaining area in your garden through the inclusion of a fire pit, fairy lights and stunning plants. You can also go the extra mile to wow your visitors by making personalised table settings for each guest – which they can then take home as party favours at the end of the night. 

Put together a playlist. 

Another way in which you can make sure your event is a sure-fire success is by keeping the music playing all evening. After all, the right music can make or break an event, especially if guests don’t know each other that well and will take a little while to feel more comfortable. However, being in charge of the aux cord can also be stressful, especially when you consider that a lot of people are self-conscious about their music taste (especially if their playlists are full of cheesy one-hit-wonders). 

However, you can take some of the pressure off your shoulders by making a collaborative playlist for your guests to contribute to. This way, everyone will be able to listen to some music they enjoy, and you may even find a new artist along the way. If you’re finding it hard to choose songs, maybe you could give guests prompts. For example, you could ask them to choose a song that they always sing along to or a song that reminds them of being young. 

 

Making Kombucha With Freshly Fermented #Ad

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kombucha kit

My first experience of kombucha was at a vegan restaurant event for food bloggers in Birmingham.  I quite liked the taste, although my plus one on that occasion was less keen on it. I’d taken the odd glass since then, but I’ve never drunk kombucha on a regular basis until very recently.

Freshly Fermented got in touch and asked me to try out making my own kombucha with one of their kits.  Whilst I was waiting for my own to brew, I could drink some of their ready made kombucha.  Freshly Fermented offer the largest selection of organic & vegan fermented food cultures in the UK.  I was sent one of their organic kombucha starter kits to try.

The kit

In the organic kombucha starter kits there is  everything you need to start fermenting.  To be honest you don’t need anything else at all really: the ingredients are all there, as are all the utensils.  There’s no danger of you not having the right tools for the job. The kit comes with a high quality Kilner jar for fermenting in, plus some glass bottles for your produce.  The remainder of the utensils are plastic (a stirrer, funnel, measuring jug and strainer), but of good quality and they were the right size for the job too.  As well as your ‘hardware’ you’ll get sugar, tea and the magic ingredient: your scoby with starter tea.  The instructions are on the website and you can either read them online or print them off (they print off nicely: no odd words on a separate sheet or any margin problems).

kilner jar

Making kombucha

Getting your kombucha started takes a couple of hours in total.  Just to be clear this isn’t because there’s a lot of work, but you do have to wait for the mixture to cool down and I found that was the most time consuming part of it.  The actual work is only a few minutes in total.  First you heat up your sugar and water mixture – this only took a few minutes on the hob in a saucepan.  I did use a meat thermometer to check the temperatures, but it’s not essential.   Next you add tea leaves and let your tea brew.  I did this for 15 minutes, but you can go for a stronger brew if you prefer.  It’s a good idea to set a reminder on your phone or use a kitchen timer, so as not to overdo it.

Then strain off the tea leaves and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature – this is where the waiting comes in, but obviously there’s no need to sit there watching it, you can just get on with whatever you want. I was surprised how long it took to get the temperature back down. Then you transfer your mixture to the kilner jar and add the scoby with starter tea.  You close the lid and leave for five days (or a bit longer if you prefer).

fermenting kombuchaObviously, I knew I would have to wait to try my kombucha, but you can buy kombucha drinks to tide you over till your brew is ready.  Alternatively, some will prefer just to buy the drink and not bother with making their own.  I was sent some bottles of the Organic Black Orange Kombucha to try out whilst I was waiting.  As it’s a real, unpasteurised kombucha, it continues to ferment when bottled meaning it has a short shelf life and murky appearance (the stuff you can buy in the supermarket really isn’t the same thing at all).  You’ll also need to take some care when opening the bottles as the kombucha is quite fizzy.  Kombucha may also contain low levels of alcohol (less than 1%).

Drinking kombucha

So whilst my kombucha was brewing, I started drinking the organic black orange kombucha every day.  I liked the taste: quite sweet and fruity.  I liked the fizz.  Drinking it became part of my daily ritual.  The first two days I tried it, my stomach made some very loud gurgling noises (apparently this is quite common) for half an hour to an hour.  I have never heard my stomach make so much noise for that length of time before.  So probably best to start drinking when you are at home for a couple of days or drink it after work, just in case it happens to you.

After two days my system seemed to get used to it and my stomach was silent from then on.  I did notice a difference though.  It felt like my whole digestive tract had eased and I felt lighter.  I wasn’t suffering from any particular problems before started drinking kombucha, but there was a definite feeling of ease.  Everything seemed to slip along much more smoothly.  I was surprised at the difference it made.  It made me want to continue drinking kombucha.

Organic Black Orange Kombucha

The results

How was my kombucha getting on? It sat there for 5 days without much obvious difference occurring.  Maybe the scoby had grown a little and the mixture was slightly murkier.  After five days I took out the scoby and the top 10% of the mixture to use for setting up my next batch.  The remainder I transferred into my glass bottles ( I filled about one and a half bottles).  The mixture is ready to drink. I liked my home brewed kombucha.  If anything it was a little sweeter than the organic black orange kombucha and it was less fizzy, probably because it hadn’t been bottled for as long.  I’ve already set up my next batch to ferment and I think kombucha will be a regular habit for me.  I like the idea of experimenting with different types of tea and a variety of flavourings too.

Gin Tasting Kit From The Little Gin Company Giveaway #Ad

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home gin tasting kit
gin loving was launched at the start of 2015 by old school friends, Emma and Nicola…
They’re gin loving ladies who have spent many a time sampling the gin delights on offer in their local town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Now a little older (and wiser?), in 2015 they decided to turn their love of gin into an exciting business venture, to share the passion for gin with others through The Little Gin Company.

Building on our unique and creative style they lovingly converted a retro-style horse trailer into their mobile gin bar, to serve the gin-loving community with a selection of locally distilled and speciality gins. Launching their own range of gin in 2017 with the Trailer Made Gin Range now including a classic London Dry Gin, a fresh Elderflower Gin, a warming Old Tom Gin and a Rhubarb Gin with a Twist of Lime.
Their gin experience now extends beyond the horsebox bar as there’s also have a pop up gin bar and gin tasting experiences suitable for any occasion; be that a corporate function, hen do or just an excuse to get together and drink gin. Since March 2020 they have also been offering virtual gin tasting experiences, taking the popular face to face tasting experience and tailoring it to a virtual setting when it isn’t possible to get together in person.

The Trailer Made Gin Tasting Kit lets you host your own gin tasting experience from the comfort of your own home. Perfect to enjoy solo or with a partner of choice!

Your gin loving includes the following:

5cl bottle (double measure) of our London Dry Gin, Old Tom Gin, Elderflower Gin and Rhubarb with a Twist of Lime Gin.

A selection of complementary mixers to enjoy with the gins.

I’ve been enjoying gin at home during lockdown and more recent partial lockdowns.  I love the idea of gin tasting at home, so I’m pleased to team up with The Little Gin Company to offer one of their Trailer Made home tasting kit to one lucky reader.  Enter via the Gleam widget below.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries allowed.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw using the competition widget.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes at the end of Sunday 15th November 2020.

Trailer Made Gin Tasting Kit