 The party that most of us look forward to the most in the holiday season is the party with our closest friends. No family pressure, just good times and good friends.
Inject some extra fun into your holiday party with a theme. Doing everything all in white gives you both a fun theme for decorating and a fun theme for cooking.
Decorating
Make your own placemats for the party with cotton batten, which is available at craft stores and silver stars or snowflakes. Absorbent and whimsical.
Dollar stores are your friend for the rest of the decorating. Buy anything you can find in white and silver. For a simple party favor, tape an inspirational quote around a a plain white candle that you leave at each place setting – better than a fortune cookie. Your guests can be reminded of your friendship every time they burn the candle.
Dinner
Even though the theme is white, have a red wine available for those who prefer to imbibe their polyphenols. White wine is the best complement to the menu suggestions but everyone has their own tastes. Make sure that you are serving white wine chilled and that you have plenty of it.
Appetizer – Garlic Bread with Mozzarella
Salad- Tomato & Boccocini Salad
Main Course- Chicken Fettucine Alfredo
Dessert- White Chocolate Cheesecake, or any white dessert
Make just enough appetizers for your guests, as garlic bread and salad do not keep. Toss the salad together at the last minute for maximum freshness. Make enough of the main course for about half of your guests to have seconds.
Chicken Fettucine Alfredo
Serves 4 – Increase or decrease portions as needed
1/2 cup real butter
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cloves minced fresh garlic (one for sauce, other for chicken)
sea salt and coarse ground pepper – pinch each
1 dash cayenne pepper
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 lb. box fettuccine noodles - prepared as directed
4 chicken breasts
Olive oil
Directions:
- Cut chicken into strips, bake in oven at 400F while making sauce. Turn over after 10 minutes and see how done it is – if still white leave in for another 10 minutes, if not then turn over and leave in for 5.
- In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter; add cream, garlic powder, and salt and peppers; simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring constantly, until thick.
- Remove sauce from heat and stir in parmesan. Do not heat sauce after cheese has been added.
- Remove chicken from oven and sauté in olive oil and 1 clove of minced garlic for 5 minutes on medium heat.
- Serve sauce over hot fettuccine noodles and overcook them a little, al dente can be unpleasant on the stomach.
After Dinner
Have some good group games available, such as charades or the hottest board game of the moment. If you have a Wii, break out Rock Band for some crazy fun. Make sure that whatever you do engages the whole group. If you see anyone drifting off into smaller groups don’t worry about it, your job is to keep the bulk of the guests engaged.
 White Drinks
Don’t forget to make arrangements to get your guests home before serving them more than wine with dinner.
White Chocolate Martini
-1 ounce white chocolate liqueur (Godiva or similar)
-1 ounce vanilla vodka
Just mix and serve, strain through ice if desired.
Pina Colada
3 oz light rum
3 tbsp coconut cream
3 tbsp crushed pineapples
Put all ingredients into a blender with 2 cups of crushed ice. Blend at a high speed for 10 seconds. Strain into glass and serve with straw.
Remember that the main theme of the night is to keep it simple and cheap, not to come off as the next Martha Stewart. Use pre-made drink mixes and don’t say no if friends offer to help you with the dishes.
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