Christmas Eve Vegetarian Lunch Party
Home » CELEBRATE » Dinner Parties »I know I’m taking my sweet time to catch up with my Christmas posts, and since January can be such a miserable month, I hope my readers don’t mind to still have some festive cheer to read!
I planned a Vegetarian Lunch Party for Christmas Eve and here’s how it all came together.
I’ll start with the table decoration. I did a Sunday Inspiration post about Christmas table decoration and the one that stood out for me was the red, white and rustic layout and that’s the direction that I headed. I used red and white as the two main colours and bought some decorations for the centrepiece.
The white table cloth went down first, followed by some red place mats that I bought from Ikea.
I then worked on the centrepiece, with a red candle going in the middle of the table. I bought the red reindeer ornaments from Poundland and the pinecone ornaments from Tesco. When decorating I try to work in odd numbers (I learned this rule when I did a floristry course many years ago) – it’s meant to be more appealing to look at.
Sometimes I like to break the rules…I added 4 bundles of cinnamon sticks – another decoration I bought from Tesco. To my eyes, they balanced things out. I then had some brown paper covered cubes, tied with raffia and pinecones (Tesco, oh how I heart thee!) which I placed in threes, either end of the centrepiece.
I love how the centrepiece turned out, and I love it when I go into shops and see *exactly* what I need for ideas I had in mind :)
Next up was the crockery….dinner plates first.
Followed by side plates. The place mats were so big I was able to fit them both on!
And finally, the soup bowls. I was serving my soup starter from a tureen, so the bowls were able to go straight on the table
You’ll also notice the menu that I designed and printed off. I place that on a diagonal above the side plate.
I am an Avon Representative and saw the cutest little Santa mitten cutlery holders in the brochure a few months ago. I had to buy them to use over the holidays, and as they were red and white I felt they should be used at this dinner party :)
So I popped in a knife, fork and spoon into each one and laid them on the side plates.
Next, white napkins with my pretty, silver napkin rings. They went on top of the soup bowls and were later joined by red and white Christmas crackers.
The final touch were the favours – candy canes. I placed them just on top of the menus.
And here is the dining table in its full glory…I love how it turned out!
With the table all laid, I went off to prepare the three courses…we started with Chestnut and Sage Soup which was creamy and delicious. I served them with garlic and herb crostini.
Main course was Squash stuffed with leeks. These were so good! They were very tasty, and if you think vegetarian food is boring, you MUST try this dish! It was also a great dinner party dish as it looked magnificent on the plate to serve each person with their own stuffed squash.
I served the squash with Hasselback Potatoes, Honey Mustard Roots and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Shallots.
To end the meal, I made Cranberry and Chocolate Cheesecake Shots. The original recipe calls for them to be served in shot glasses, but I wanted a bigger dessert, so they went into dessert bowls, but the name remained!
Everyone was well and truly stuffed by the time dinner was over, but there was my Christmas Cake also up for the taking…some was taken home instead!
Another Christmas blog post down, a few more to go…*phew* I am already in planning mode for my Year of the Dragon dinner party next weekend, so look out for those posts too!