Easy New Year's Eve Party Ideas

Real Simple keeps it super simple with great New Year's Eve party ideas

Plan Games:

Make light of New Year’s resolutions by turning them into a guessing game. Give partygoers cards (download the New Year Playing Cards) and have guests finish the sentences with hopeful wishes―or tongue-in-cheek witticisms. Gather the cards, read them aloud randomly, then let the gang try to figure out who wrote what.
Print cards with these fill-in-the-blanks: "The bad habit I want to kick this year is ―――." "The good deed I want to do this year is ―――." "The person I want to be more like this year is ―――." "The skill I want to learn this year is ―――."

Provisions:

Snacks: Let guests nibble on hearty little bites, as well as tidbits from gourmet markets, such as Bella Cucina Artichoke Lemon Pesto, Food Should Taste Good Olive Tortilla Chips, Sahale Soledad Almonds, and Tillen Farms Pickled Crispy Carrots.
Drinks: For a refreshing alternative to Champagne, try Prosecco or nonalcoholic Twelve, a fizzy blend of fruit and herbal tea (twelvebeverage.com).
Dessert: Chocolate Bar Fondue with fruit and pound cake for dipping, in a fondue pot.
Favors: Give guests parting gifts of good fortune. Pack up black-eyed peas (which bring good luck, according to southern tradition) in a box or cellophane bag and a recipe.

And more....... check our Real Simple

Cinco de Mayo

Here are just a few crowd pleasers for your Cinco de Mayo fiesta!
Chicken Flautas
Cranberry Margarita
Flan

Let us know your tips or favorites for a Cinco de Mayo celebration!

Comfort Food Potluck Party

Get Comfy!

With the weather still very chilly outside, it make me want to stay home any eat things that are warm and comforting. So, how about a Comfort Food Potluck Party.


Here is a list of the Top 25 comfort foods:
• Apple Pie• Baked Beans• Banana Pudding• Beef Stew• Brisket Pot Roast• Chicken & Dumplings• Chicken Pot Pie• Chicken Soup• Chili• Chocolate Chip Cookies• Corn on the Cob• Fried Chicken• Gelatin• Green Bean Casserole• Hot Dogs• Ice Cream• Macaroni & Cheese• Mashed Potatoes• Meatloaf• Potato Salad• Pumpkin Pie• Shepherd's Pie• Spaghetti• Tomato Soup• Tuna Casserole.


Have each of your guests bring a dish from this list or have them bring their own favorite comfort food.
The list is endless as far as what type of invitation to send depending on the amount to time you have. Some suggestion are: A cutout of a bowl of chicken soup with the information about the party in the middle. Wrap up a chocolate chip cookie in a small cellophane bag with a tag tied to it with all the party details.
You can go one step further and have your guests arrive in their most comfortable clothes (sweats, flannel pants, pajamas, robes, slippers etc...)
For the table, keep it simple. Use a very warm colors to set an soothing ambiance. If it is a girls friends gathering occasion, create a spa like ambiance with lots of candlelight, soft colors of orange, yellow, light blue, soft pink etc. Fresh flowers could be a nice touch too, but don't over do it.


The whole idea of this gathering is to create a warm and cozy ambiance for your guest to enjoy while they are warming their sole with comfort food.
Send us your favorite comfort food idea or recipe!


Stay tuned to more ideas on gathering during the winter season. Visit us at www.tableambiance.com for table setting and entertaining ideas.

Harvest Time

Here in the Northbay, Sonoma County has the Harvest Fair. At this weekend event, held every year on the first weekend in October, it celebrates the variety of amazing wines and foods produced here locally. Hundreds of people gather the last weekend in September at the Harvest Fair Awards Night Gala to see who the big winners are in the wine and food industry. This year's winners of the sweepstakes prize (the highest honor given) went to Adler Fels of Santa Rosa for its 2007 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ($25.00) and Owl Ridge Wines of Sebastopol for its 2008 Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc ($12.00).

What does this have to do with Table Ambiance....... Well, we thought with all the amazing wines (and foods) that are introduced during this Harvest time it is a prime time to entertain - Host a wine tasting party for friends and/or family, and get their opinions on different wines.

Not sure how? We have a new and fun product called MusicCooks - Wine Tasting. It is a box set filled with fun and easy recipes (along with photos), instructions on how to host a wine tasting, and it also includes a shopping or pantry list for your convenience. To top it off, it includes a CD filled with Wine Country music (a blend of bluegrass, classical jazz, and country). This little box is everything you need to impress your wine tasting guests, but it will be our secret!

Entertaining On a Budget

How to Make Cheap, Fast Dinners Look Expensive

By Kristie Leong MD


Cheap, fast dinners don't have to look and taste that way. Here's how to turn them into feasts for the eyes and the taste buds.
If you don’t have the time to cook a restaurant quality meal in the evening, you’re not alone. Many busy Americans struggle to get dinner on the table and frequently resort to bringing home fast food or take-out options. Even if you only have time to prepare a fast, cheap dinner, you can still make it special by adding a few special touches that’ll make your family think you spent a great deal of time in the kitchen. Here’s how to make quick, cheap dinners that look expensive.

Bring out the Nice Dinnerware
Instead of serving a fast, cheap dinner on ugly ceramic plates, or even worse paper plates, bring out your nicest dinnerware. Food always tastes better when it’s served from attractive bowls and plates. Some people make the mistake of storing away their best dinnerware and china for a future “special occasion”. An occasion that’s special enough never seems to arise and that beautiful china ends up being unused. Isn’t every dinner you share with your family special?

Add a Garnish
Even cheap, fast dinners take on new flavor when a garnish is added to the plate. Use sprigs of fresh herbs to add a touch of color or add fresh fruit slices to your presentation. Invest in a zester so you can quickly create lemon and orange zest to add color, texture and flavor to simple dinner. Use an ice cream scoop to create luscious melon balls. If you want a more elaborate presentation, create simple flowers out of raw vegetables. There are a variety of books that will show you how to do this. This is a great technique to use when you’re entertaining on a budget. No one will ever suspect you paid so little for the food when the presentation is so detailed.

Serve it by Candlelight
Nothing adds more ambience to cheap, fast dinners than serving them by candlelight. Before serving dinner, dim the lights and bring out your prettiest candles. Not only will dinner be more pleasant, you’ll be saving on electricity too.

Add Some Background Music
Soft, new age music playing in the background adds a special atmosphere to even the most inexpensive meal. The harmonious sounds of music have the added benefit of relaxing the body and helping to improve digestion. When you serve dinner to the melodious tones of Kenny G or John Tesh, your family will think they’re eating in a five star restaurant.

Drizzle on the Sauces
When you apply sauce to an entrée or side dish, don’t just pour it on. Put it into a squeeze bottle and drizzle it over the food by moving the bottle back and forth to create a pattern. Many fine restaurants use this technique to give food an elegant, artistic flair. This is a simple way to serve your next meal “chef style”.

Even though you may not have the time or money to prepare an expensive dinner at home with a little imagination quick, cheap dinners can still be memorable. Why not give these ideas a try?

This article came from: http://www.gomestic.com/Entertaining/How-to-Make-Cheap-Fast-Dinners-Look-Expensive.558969

Stay tuned for more entertaining on a budget ideas. Also, Table Ambiance has incredible table elements on sale now that will add a bit of ambiance to your table.

Super Bowl Party Ideas

Throwing A Super Bowl Party

This year’s Super Bowl takes place on Feb. 1st in Tampa Bay, Florida where the Pittsburg Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals will face off for Super Bowl 43.

A Super Bowl party is the simplest party to organize and do with minimal cost.

Invites: The fastest and simplest way to get the word out about your party is to send it via evite.com. They offer a wide variety of super bowl invitations. Encourage your guests to wear the colors of the team they want to win (Steelers – black, yellow, white or Cardinals – red and white).

Decoration and Table Setting: Again, keep it simple….. Typically a table setting for a Super Bowl party should be buffet, because your guests will want to graze before, during and after the game, and a full buffet table is the best way to accommodate them. That being said: Create a football field on your table. Purchase a disposable green table cloth and with masking tape, create lines for yardage and end zones, you can also make numbers or purchase numbers (at your local craft store) to mark the yardage on the table cloth.
Purchase paper products for easy clean up. You can keep it neutral with just brown, green and/or white, OR have a combination of the team’s colors.

Food and Beverage: You know by now our favorite thing to do is “Fake the Food, and this party is perfect for doing such a thing. Costco or Trader Joes is the ideal place to purchase the “Fake the Food” from chips/salsa, pizza bites, fried mozzarella sticks, hot wings, chicken tenders, variety of cookies and nuts, a deli platter etc….
However, if you wish to make the food yourself, knock yourself out! You can make a big pot of chili with all the toppings to feed a large group or have a variety of finger foods such as a layered dip with chips, breadsticks with deli meats around them, green salad, pasta salad, fruit salad, cupcakes, brownies shaped as footballs etc…...
The typical choice of beverage for a football game is beer. However, you can also serve nonalcoholic drinks such as soda, sparkling water, or a fun punch.

Games: The football game is the obvious entertainment, but you can offer your guests to participate in a football pool: Click here to see how you can create a football pool.

Visit us at http://www.tableambiance.com/ for all your entertaining needs featuring a variety of themes and occasions. Table Ambiance is the place to go to find all you need to set the table and the mood!

Stay tuned for more Super Bowl Party Tips and Food Ideas.

The Lunar New Year

The Year of the Ox

January 26th marks the beginning of the Year of the Ox on the Lunar New Year.

Here at Table Ambiance we have some suggestions for table settings and entertaining this lunar holiday.

Make an edible invitation: Purchase fortune cookies and replace the fortune with an invite. Place the invite fortune back into the cookie and place it inside a small take-out container and leave it at the guest's doorstep.

This is the perfect time to "Fake The Food" for this occasion. Call up your favorite Asian restaurant and place an order for take out. Place the food onto your own platters or keep it in their original containers, it is entirely up to you.

Set your table: Red is the traditional color for entertaining the beginning of the New Year. So start with a red table cloth. From there, you can use disposable tableware or your own. Place an red envelope (a red envelope with money in it, which symbolizes luck and wealth) at a each place setting for the favor and or place card. Have the option for your guest to use chopsticks or a fork to dine with at each place setting.
Centerpiece:A simple centerpiece can be a variety of paper lantern hung from the ceiling or placed down the center of your table. If you don't have electricity to illuminate the lanterns a good tip is to place a glow stick inside them to add a safe ambiance to your table. Or as shown above, fill a glass bowl with fortune cookies to create a fun and edible centerpiece.

To keep it simple and add more texture to your table add a bamboo or natural placemat at each place setting and/or colored candles to add to the mood of your table.

If you have any ideas for entertaining the Lunar New Year we would love to hear from you.

advice@tableambiance.com.

For other table setting and table top decor, visit us at http://www.tableambiance.com/

Fall Table Setting Ideas

If you want your Thanksgiving to go smoothly this year, you have some planning to do. Thanksgiving should focus more about the people you gather with then the food you serve them. Do you honestly think that your guests really on come just for the food?
Of course not, they have come to visit, reminisce about the ole days, create plans for the future, and hopefully give thanks for being in the company of such wonder family and friends.
So here are some of our ideas to make this Thanksgiving at bit more hassle free. You probably already know what we are going to say first. Set your table a few days before; don’t wait until the last minute.

If you are looking for ideas for a fall table setting visit us at http://tableambiance.com/home.php?cat=65, to see what we have created for this holiday. Unless you are using perishable items for your centerpiece or accents, set your table early. If you are worried about dust or little fingers, once you set it cover it with a light weight material. The plastic covers you get from the dry cleaners are perfect.
If you absolutely enjoy making everything from scratch by all means go for it! However, there is nothing wrong with “Faking the Food” a bit (check back with us in a few days for ideas for “faking the food”). Or have each guest bring something to contribute to the meal. We know that most people are happy to bring at least one thing toward a Thanksgiving dinner.
We are huge list makers. Our biggest suggestion is to write it all down, that way nothing is forgotten. You can even do an hourly schedule to keep you on track. For example: 1:00 make stuffing, 1:45 place bread or biscuits in basket, 2:45 take butter out of refrigerator etc…
We hope some of these tips make your Thanksgiving Holiday a bit smoother so you too can enjoy the gathering.

Visit us at http://www.tableambiance/ to see all of our selection of table setting ideas.