Party Recap

October is a big month to celebrate in our home - my husband's birthday is in October, and our 1st anniversary is less than 2 weeks later.  In addition, although we had some friends and family over for a meal, we never actually had a party.  Most of our friends had either been in our apartment in passing or not at all, so we figured it was high time to have some people over.  Our apartment isn't too large, so we couldn't invite everyone, but we asked a handful of friends over.  Neither of us had ever really hosted a party before, so we just jumped in feet first and tried to not screw it all up.

Things we learned from our party:
- always plan ahead.  Leave plenty of time for shopping, setting up and cooking.
- while making everything from scratch sounds like a wonderful way to impress your friends with your cooking skills, it's ok to buy some things pre-made to cut down on prep time.
- Set everything out the night before, so you know what serving dishes/utensils you need and where they will go.
- Don't worry too much, it'll all be done, and if it's not, your guests will never know dishes were missing!
- Open the plasticware the night before.  The plates we got had a film on them and had to be washed as guests were about to arrive.

Our party was apps & desserts.  We served dairy and parve dishes.  This was our menu (I will make the links clickable as I post the recipes throughout the week)

Appetizers:
Tapenade with pita chips
Hummus (store-bought) w/pretzel chips
Butternut Squash soup (served in mugs)
Caprese
Veggies & dip
Spanakopita
Avocado Tartlets
Cheese Ball w/crackers

Desserts:
Trifle
Mini cheesecakes
Fruit

We had a few other things in mind to make, but ran out of time.  In the end, it didn't matter and it seemed like everyone had a good time.  And now we will be better equipped to play host and hostess next time!