How To Have a Week Day House Party

Hiya! It’s been such a busy year that I’ve barely been keeping my head above water. It was my birthday last week and I just didn’t have the time, energy and confidence to book a restaurant and ensure people pitched up and paid up. So, considering we’d recently redid the apartment, I decided to have a few (dozen) friends over for some drinks and snacks as a house-warming/birthday bash. I was spoilt enough to have received a few treats which helped make it a great party. This included:

Bubbly

JC Le Roux was kind enough to send over some of their new, gorgeous MCC bubbly. I decided to save it a few days so that I could enjoy it on my birthday with my friends. I’m not a big bubbly person as it always tends to be quite dry, but the JC Le Roux is sweet and really delicious. My Mom also loved it and she’s had her fair share of bubbly! I saw it at Pick n Pay for R130 per bottle.

Savanna Dark

Savanna cider also spoilt me by sending over their new Dark Savanna which I hadn’t tried. It’s got a decent kick at 6% and perfect for a long drink at a party. It has a slight beer taste to it, but as someone who doesn’t drink beer, it wasn’t enough to put me off. I really enjoyed the cider as a change.

Food – The Flying Pan

I managed to order food from my favourite home style cooking service: The Flying Pan. Owner, Matt, will create a menu for you depending on your budget and your taste. I don’t eat seafood or curry so he made a menu to suit my palate. It included delicious feta and spinach quiches (where you could actually taste the spinach). Bacon and caramelised onion quiches (everyone plowed through those). Lamb koftas with mint yoghurt dressing (I LOVE Mediterranean cuisine and these were delicious). Beef, bacon and pear sliders (my Dad’s favourite, he loved them) and sesame seed crusted chicken wings which were also divine. It’s amazing what a little bird seed and bird can do to your taste buds! All freshly prepared, all the guests loved tucking into the food and enjoying the ampt up homestyle cuisine.

Things to Remember:

• Ashtrays

You might not smoke but some of your guests will and ensuring you have ashtrays or empty bottles for them to drop their butts in, is important. I prefer the water in a bottle route (yes the ash might be messier) but once the butts are in the bottle, you can reseal the lid. Ashtrays that sit out all night or over night really permeate throughout the apartment which can be a pain to get rid of.

• Glasses

Put all your glasses out before the time. This way guests can help themselves without asking you every 15 minutes for a glass. When you have a few dozen people in your house you can spend most of your time hosting and not enjoying the evening.

• Napkins and pit bowls

Again, putting napkins out and bowls for olive pits or kebab sticks can keep people out of the bathrooms and kitchen if you have a small amount of space. Not that people aren’t welcome to use the bathroom (haha) but keeping it traffic low is a good thing.

• Mix

If your friends ask if they can bring something along I always ask for mixers. This way, everyone can mix and match different mixers for their drinks without costing anyone person too much. It’s a great way to share and join groups of people together.

• Dustbins

Ensure you have plastic bags in all your dustbins so that your visitors can easily throw away their bottles. This will also make cleaning up a lot faster as all the glass will be in one place (if you like to recycle like I do).

Laughter

Be prepared for more guests to arrive than you think will. This happens to me every year but because I had gone away the weekend before and of my birthday, I didn’t expect a huge turn out – especially not on a week night. But my friends (and family) rock and I had a ton of people join the fun. Even though I thought I was keeping it small, it was great to have a day filled with the most important people in your life. To help with “space management” I made the invite from 5pm onwards. That way you can have a rotation of people and not all 50 at one time!

It was wonderful having close friends at home, enjoying the space, commenting on our artwork and the details we’d put into our home (not to sound arrogant but your home is a reflection of you who are and of course you want your friends to appreciate, love and respect that). Next time you’re wondering what to do for your birthday, maybe have a few friends and toots at home? xoxo

WIN

Because Savanna wants you to enjoy the darker side of life (weekday parties?! Shocking!), they’re giving you the opportunity to win a Savanna Dark hamper. All you need to do is:

• Retweet this post or share it on Facebook.
• Follow me (Boring Cape Town Chick) and Savanna Cider on Twitter.
• Leave a comment below telling me what your favourite party snack with cider is?

Please read competition T’s & C’s under the WIN tab on the home page. Good luck!