Tips for Hosting a Dinner Party

By Melanie Breeze

There is nothing like an evening of good friends and good conversation. If you love to entertain friends and co-workers, but lack the funds for a traditional dinner party, you are in luck. If you shop smart, it doesn’t take a lot of money to throw an event that will make you the envy of your social circle. When all else fails, consider a potluck. Have each one of your guests bring their favorite dish or appetizer. It can be a lot of fun to try new recipes and variations.

First off set the mood!

A good dinner party is all about ambiance. Consider going to your local dollar store or discount store to purchase some inexpensive tapers and candles. They are an easy way to brighten up a room, and encourage conversation. Don’t be afraid to try something fun, either. Try a themed party like a Hawaiian theme, or an 80’s theme. The possibilities are endless, and it will help break the ice among your guests. Encourage your guests to dress up, for instant glamour.

Once you have the mood set, its time to think about food. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to serve a seven course meal. Stick with cheap appetizers and fingers foods. Fondue parties are a blast to throw, and cost very little to pull off. Encourage your guests to bring their favorite dippers, to save you even more. A wine tasting party is also a fun event, and can cost you almost nothing to throw. Ask each guest to bring a bottle of their favorite wine. All you have to do is supply the wine glasses! If you choose to go a more traditional route, try buying your food online. There are many websites that sell discount goodies, and you can save even more by using an e-coupon site. If you go through one of these coupon sites you can purchase lobsters, wine, chocolate, steaks, appetizers, and just about anything else you can think of.

It only takes a few minutes to shop, and many vendors offer free shipping. It couldn’t be easier!

Pay special attention to the dinner party invitations. A good invitation will help convey the theme of the party, and instruct the guests on any food or items that they need to bring to the event. You can create cheap, one-of-a-kind invitations, by using supplies available at your local craft supply store. Each invitation shouldn’t cost more a few cents a piece. Don’t forget to address the envelope in your own handwriting; it gives it a personal touch. Good luck!

About the author:
Melanie Breeze, avid online shopper and user of http://www.CouponChief.comis always shopping around for the best deals. You can find food coupons including discounts available around the web at CouponChief, all in one location. Finding a coupon before your online purchase helps you get that extra discount!

We have updated our database which now contains over 340,000 recipes.

We have another update coming in about a week which should update the drink database to over 11,000 drink recipes. Our recipe cookbooks are increasing as well. We just purchased a library of pdf cookbooks and once they have been reviewed and compared with our current library of over 150 cookbooks we will be adding them for your downloading pleasure.
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So you like outdoor cooking? How about Beer or Wine? Look for these two new websites in the coming months.

Mega Recipe Site Announces Free Memberships

The Weekend Chef announced today free memberships to their 340,000 recipe web site until January 23, 2008.

Source: RD Webhosting
Jan 02, 2008 10:56:50

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(PRLog.Org) – Jan 02, 2008 – The Weekend Chef announced today free memberships to their 340,000 recipe web site until January 23, 2008. To start off the New Years with a benefit to the people, Chef Ray and Chef Daisy announced that The Weekend Chef would open membership to everyone free of charge. A coupon code is included on the sign up page that will cover the normal $19.97 annual membership fee. This gives everyone who joins a year free access to their databases, cookbooks, Recipe Exchange and articles.

The Weekend Chef is a series of websites that includes:
The Dieting Weekend Chef – http://thedietingweekendchef.com
The Vegetarian Weekend Chef – http://thevegetarianweekendchef.com
The Diabetic Weekend Chef – http://thediabeticweekendchef.com
and The Weekend Chef – htpp://theweekendchef.com

According to Chef Daisy, one of the owners of The Weekend Chef Web Ring, “This may be the last recipe site or cookbook you will ever need.” The Weekend Chef has several databases including our 340,000 plus food recipe database and a 9,300 plus drink recipe database. Making this the largest recipe database that we know of on the Internet and we are constantly adding to it.

The websites also offer over 150 pdf cookbooks, including the exclusive The Weekend Chef Guide to.Sushi and The Weekend Chef Guide to Deep Fried Turkey and Twinkies written by Ray Laubert the web master and weekend chef.

That is not all that The Weekend Chef has to offer. Every other week or so they post articles on the different websites about dieting, vegetarian cooking, cooking for the diabetic, cooking tips and recipes related to an upcoming season or event. Want to contribute your favorite recipe

? The websites also offer a Recipe Exchange forum where you can post your recipes or ask questions.

This is a great resource for those of you who love to cook. Visit them today at http://theweekendchef.com.
# # #

In the past I have written two cookbooks of sorts. The Weekend Chefs Guide to Sushi and The Weekend Chefs Guide to Deep Fried Turkey and Twinkies. I am making them both available for free to our visitors and members.

They are not in pdf format currently but I will update the format in the near future. In the mean time they are available using the links below.

The Weekend Chefs Guide to Sushi is a beginners guide to making Sushi at home. It discribes the tools and ingredients required to make Sushi as well as some of the recipes for common items that people like.

I use to have a family night every couple of months and Japanese was the theme everyone loved. It got to be so that my neighbors and family doctors showed up during these family nights just for the food. I hope you enjoy it.

The Weekend Chefs Guide to Deep Fried Turkey and Twinkies was a lot of fun to write. When I started this guide, I knew nothing about the process. So this guide is also for the beginner. The family wasn’t too sure of deep fried turkeys, so the first Thanksgiving my wife made the ‘regular’ turkey and I did a deep fried bird. My turkey was done before the wife’s and everyone started picking at it to see how it tasted. By the end of dinner there was absolutly NO meat any where on the bones. Now, we don’t do oven roasted birds.

I will put the links to the files over the weekend when I get home. I am on the road until Saturday. But wanted to get this posted.

My name is Chef Ray and along with Chef Daisy (my daughter and real chef) we are your hosts.

What is The Weekend Chef?

The Weekend Chef has been around for a few years now. It started out as a site to exchange recipes between some friends. Earlier this year we were able to purchase a couple of greate databases as well as about 150 cookbooks in pdf format. At that point it was time for a major overhaul of the site since we would need to do extensive rewriting of the site anyway.

We decided to keep the recipe exchange idea but to expand on it.

By going to a membership driven site we would be able to continue to expand the offerings by using the money from the membership to purchase softare, data, and information that may not be available elsewere on the web. What you see today is the beginning of that process.

We are proud to over one of the largest databases of recipes on the web. We now have over 300,000 food recipes and over 9,000 drink recipes available. No other site that we have found so far has that wide of a selection for it’s members. In addition, we have over 150 pdf cookbooks and a member recipe exchange. We think it is a great start.

2008 is fast approaching and I wanted to take a few minutes to let you know my resolutions for The Weekend Chef for 2008!

During 2008 I resolve to grow The Weekend Chef as follows:

* 400,000 Recipes available to our fellow Weekend Chefs. My ultimate goal is 1 Million Recipes.
* Grow our membership to 10,000 Weekend Chefs.
* Increase our offerings to include more software that you can use in menu planning and cooking.
* Write a new Weekend Chef’s Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking. If you haven’t done so, check out the current Weekend Chef’s Guides.
* To create a webring of sister sites that include Dieting, Beer and Wine Making and Vegetarian Cooking.

Well there you go, it’s offical, my goals for 2008. If you have anything you would like from this site please let us know. In the meantime thank you for being part of the Weekend Chefs and enjoy what we have to offer.

Please look around our free area. We publish articles every week and new recipes montly.