Summer Entertaining - Progressive Dinner Party!

Summer Progressive Dinner
 Today is a beautiful day and Summer is near.  Summer is my favorite season by far and our patio becomes our new family room. We love to have friends over and our block of neighbors is the best. This year our neighborhood is going to host a progressive dinner party. Will keep you posted on the success but here are the details so far:

Set the mood with a great invitation. We have a great selection of summer party invitations at Paper Celebration. Everyone meets at our house for cocktails and appetizers at 6:30. At 7:30 we will draw names to determine who goes where for dinner. Each dinner house will host 6-8 people and serve the same menu to keep it simple. After dinner we will move on to the next house for dessert and cocktails. Drawing names for dinner is a good way to mix up the group and encourages everyone to get to know someone new. Providing a menu and recipes also makes it easy for everyone. Each guest is asked to bring a bottle of wine, dinner item or a dessert. Looking forward to the party and keeping fingers crossed for a beautiful summer night!

Neighborhood Progressive Dinner Party Menu

Salad w/ vinaigrette

Parmesan Rice (recipe below)

Shish kabobs (make ahead or have dinner guests assemble their own)

Parmesan Rice

adapted from An Occasion to Gather - Junior League of Milwaukee

2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups long grain white rice
1 1/4 cups (5 oz) freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
1 cup oil-pack sun-dried tomatoes cut into 3/4 inch pieces

Saute the onions in the butter in a large saucepan until tender. Remove from heat. Stir in the broth, rice, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Pour the rice mixture into a 2-quart baking dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake, tightly covered with foil, at 400 degrees for 45 minutes; remove the foil. Bake for 10 minutes longer or until the top is golden brown.

Serves 6 to 8

National Stationery Show is here!

Next week I am travelling to New York for the National Stationery Show at the Javits Center. The show is amazing and attracts stationery designers from all over the country. I love going to see all of the new items and ideas. This will be my 5th or 6th show and I think this show will be very different from previous years. The economy definitely affected the party and stationery industry - if you were looking to cut back that was an easy place to start. Technology has also taken a bite out of the business. Evites are easy to send and economical. The economy and technology have forced the industry to analyze the trends and work hard to create new items that will encourage consumers to spend and encourage consumers to entertain again.

How do you send party invitations? Printed invitations in the mail? evites? phone? Do you feel invitations are a important piece of the event? Has your buying patterns changed over the past few years? Will you entertain this year more than last year? Would love to hear your feedback and hope everyone is gearing up for Summer entertaining! Next post will be a Summer Progressive Dinner!