19 hacks for throwing your first big dinner party

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I am not an entertainer by any means. I do not own coasters or wine glasses and I'd rather spend a Saturday night figuring out what to do with my sourdough starter discard than playing hostess.

But when I do plan to invite a few friends over for a meal, and those friends have boyfriends, girlfriends, friends, or cousins that they want to bring ... the group size skips from four to eight (or five to ten!) — and suddenly, I'm the planner and executor of a sizable gathering.

Here are the tips — and questions — that have helped me stay sane as an entertaining non-entertainer:

The Menu

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1. Plan your menu around your kitchen's constraints.

Do you have a small oven? Two burners, one of which is defunct? A kitchen that can only fit one person? No Dutch oven?

Read through all of the recipes you're considering a couple of days before the party in order to figure out the equipment that you're missing (what can you MacGyver, what can you borrow, what is a dealbreaker) and to conceive of how everything will fit, both literally and timing-wise.

Then rejigger the menu accordingly. It gives me peace of mind to choose recipes with an even split of oven to stovetop to raw. That way, I'm not waiting around to use the oven — I can cook on the stove, or prepare a chopped salad — as one dish bakes. If you will be baking multiple recipes, try to choose the ones that go in at the same temperature (and that both fit in the oven at the same time!).

2. Embrace room temperature dishes, especially those that can sit for a while.

Unless there's some extremely compelling reason to serve a dish that has to be served piping hot or ice cold, I stay away. When you can serve the food at room temperature, you don't have to be as concerned about timing or storage, and you won't be squirreled away in the kitchen, doling out pasta that must be served immediately, while your friends wait at the table.

3. Keep your friends' dietary restrictions and eating preferences in mind.

For me, the bottom line is that I want my friends and family to eat what I make when I'm hosting them. I'm a vegetarian and the menu is all-vegetarian — so that everyone can eat it — and I keep allergies and preferences in mind too (no nuts anywhere; my brother, what a weirdo, doesn't like berry desserts).

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