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Getting friends over and enjoying some food, wine and great conversation is one of the greatest perks of adulthood. When you’ve hung up your clubbing shoes and life has moved on a little, dinner parties are a fantastic way to socialise instead. 

A dinner party allows you to enjoy your home. Sites like this one here for example have all kinds of interesting furniture, and along with your decor and other items having friends over allows you to make the most of the effort you have put in while impressing with your cooking skills. However, even of you’re a fantastic cook, cooking for a crowd can certainly put the pressure on. Plus, for a dinner party you want to be able to socialise with your guests, you don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen all night and so these easy make- ahead dishes could be well worth considering. 

Soup makes an excellent dinner party starter, and best of all this can be prepared well ahead of time. You could make it a day, even a couple of days beforehand and let all of the flavours infuse. Because you can make soup in just about any flavour it’s easy to choose something that complements the main course, and you can make it as light or filling as you want depending on what else you will be eating at your dinner party. Pate is another crowd pleaser and is something that could be made ahead of time. Once your guest have arrived, all you need to do is assemble it with some tasty bread, crackers, chutneys and sliced raw veggies such as carrot and celery. Easy!

Chances are your main is where you will most want to impress, and it’s the course that most of us stress out over when we’re serving guests. After all, it is the ‘main’ food of the evening! Your best bet is to avoid anything with very precise cooking times and techniques that need to be made right before plating up. Therefore things like steak should be avoided unless you’re as cool as a cucumber in the kitchen. Guests will all want their steak cooking different ways, and getting this right as well as having it all plated and hot at the same time can be difficult to get right. Slow cooked meats can be a good option, as you have more of a window. Towards the end of cooking you can turn the oven right down, and the meat will remain hot and tender for some time before it starts to dry out. Pork belly, whole chicken and other joints of meat would work well here. Casserole style dishes are another option, moussaka, tagine, curry and much more can all be made ahead and kept on a low heat for some time until you’re ready to serve them. That way you can focus on cooking any simple vegetables or side dishes and bring out the main food when you’re ready. 

Most desserts can be made ahead of time and so this should be easy to get right. From chocolate mousse to tarts, cakes, pies and much more you have tons of options. To make your dessert look a little fancier and suitable for a dinner party, assemble desserts in individual dishes which often looks nicer than trying to take a slice or portion out of a larger dish.