Planning not to Plan
While I normally advocate for preparation and planning, citing them as primary keys to success when hosting a dinner party, sometimes that’s not how things work out. Sometimes, you just wing it.
Before you say “But wait, isn’t the whole point of this site to help me not have to wing it?” I just want you to hear me out.
It’s perfectly fine to wing it whenever you want. However, there are steps you can take to make it easier to do so. I’ll refer you to my list of How to Always Be Mostly Ready for a Party.
That said, in the moment, you need to be ready to move, adapt, and handle whatever comes up. Honestly, one of the reasons that I love having dinner parties on Friday evenings is because the pace of preparing means not being able to think about anything else that happened during the week. My focus has to shift to the here and now. All the rest will just have to wait.
This mindset works whether you have a well thought out plan or opt to put everything together on the fly.
Be Comfortable with a Bit of Chaos
Select Dishes that Don’t Require Precision or Long Prep or Cook Times
When you’re working without a plan, expect things to take a bit longer. For a big party or holiday, we can get 16 – 20 dishes on the buffet table on time. I have a plan, a clear timeline, and my prep work done. The prep work is non-trivial, but I spread it out to make it more manageable. When I’m working without a plan, I largely pick more dishes that don’t require precise measurements. The exceptions are those items that I’ve made many times over. In this case, our goal is for nothing to be or turn into a Swiss watch job.
Some Level of Mess is Likely
Since I haven’t planned out things like my oven time, pan usage, etc. in advance, the kitchen gets a bit messy. It’s not uncommon for the counters to be completely covered with sheet pans, bowls, and ingredients. Any concern you might have about the mess will just need to wait. As long as you can find space for what you’re doing right now, you can get to clean-up later.
Be Willing and Able to Change Course
Pessimist (and former consultant) that I am, one of the mottos I live by is: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Expect that something will not work out as you hoped.
Your choices are to: (1) salvage it if you can, (2) ditch it if you can’t save it, or (3) turn it into something else. You’ll want to look at the clock and figure out if you have time to even consider options 1 or 3. If not, pick option 2 and move on to something else.
Don’t Pick Any Hills to Die On
When hosting a party on the fly, I recommend that you do not consider any dishes as “must haves.” If something isn’t working and the clock is ticking down, you need to be okay with deep six-ing that item and switching gears. Emotional attachment to a dish has no place in this story. Remember, there is no plan, so nothing was set in stone in the first place.
If it makes you feel better to not throw something away, you can wrap it up, stick it in the fridge or freezer, and make something useful out of it another day. You’ll just want to be careful to not forget about your abandoned projects or else they’ll turn into science experiments in the back of the fridge.
Be Ready to Switch to Plan B (Even if It’s Not a Plan)
“Plan B” doesn’t have to actually be a “plan.” It just needs to provide a path to your end goal, which is most likely to feed your guests something that tastes good. Because you are picking ingredients with which you’re familiar, there is likely some bare minimum dish you can make with any one or more of them which will be quite tasty even if not particularly fancy. If you have to pull the plug on a dish, you can fall back on those ideas.
Work Within Your Comfort Zone
I am all about experimentation and trying new things on my friends. So there are many times that I or we are creating something for the first time right before prime time. That level of adrenaline is well within my comfort zone. It means that I sometimes sacrifice presentation, but that’s a trade I’m willing to make.
However, when winging it, I cannot in good conscience advise you to do so. If you’re like me, by all means, have fun. Otherwise, I suggest saving new experiments for another day.
Choose Foods and Cooking Methods with which You are Familiar
To help you keep the train on the tracks, I recommend sticking with foods and cooking methods for which you understand the “rules” of how they work. Doing so means that you know how far you can push boundaries before ruining a dish.
For example, I recently tried a squash variety that I had not worked with in the past. I had no idea how long it would take to cook, what its cooked texture would be, or what flavor it would impart to any dish in which I used it. That would not have been a good candidate for Winging It.
There is a distinct difference between “adapting on the fly” and “figuring it out as you go.” The former has an idea of the desired end state; the latter does not. When you’re Winging It, I recommend sticking with “adapting on the fly.”
Lori’s Winging It Menu Playbook
Here is what I could call my standard playbook for a “Winged Dinner Party.”
Appetizers
Variations on charcuterie, cheese, and pickled vegetables make a frequent appearance. Store-bought dips and veggie dippers are also MVPs.
Sides
I season vegetables however I feel like it for the day and taste test as I go. My cooking methods tend towards oven roasting, sauteing, and grilling.
Mains
My mains typically fall into either the category of a nicely seasoned protein or a casserole containing a protein. If I want something that is normally a long, slow cook, I’ll turn to my pressure cooker. Otherwise, I’m picking something that is more of a quick cook, usually on the stove or grill. For the casserole route, I am likely to use pre-cooked store bought proteins unless it’s ground meat.
Desserts
Dessert is the biggest crapshoot for me. Depending on my guest list, I might grab a boxed cake or cookie dough. Since those do not always suit the special dietary restrictions I need to take into account, I lean heavily on mousses and berries. I love dips, but store-bought sweet dippers can be challenging to find when you’re looking for low carb, diabetic friendly, gluten free, coconut free, and dairy free. Sometimes I have time to whip up a batch of cookies from scratch; other times, not so much.
Summary
Winging It can be a lot of fun once you know How to Host a Dinner Party without a Plan. I suggest before you start that you take a deep breath, put on an apron, and push any other concerns to the back burner. You’ve got things to do. Just remember to:
- Be comfortable with a bit of chaos
- Be willing and able to change course
- Work within your comfort zone
Most of all: Have fun!
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