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Be the Hostess with Mostess!

Like anything in life being a gracious host takes a little practice and skill but can be mastered by anyone. The real key to being a great host is making your guest feel welcome and like they are at an extension of their own home. One of the easiest ways to make your guest feel welcome is a great greeting. Here are a few tips to ensure that your guest will feel welcome and at home.

The Greeting:

The Door:

You guest should be greeted at the door if at all possible. If you are having more of an open house type of gathering there is not need. If you happen to have dog that loves to greet people also by barking and jumping up on them be sure to put him or her away until your guest leave.

The Coats:

If your guest are wearing coats offer to take them. Go hang them up or place them on the bed as long as the linens are clean.

Gifts:

If your guest have brought you gift (bottle of wine, six pack of beer, or pie for desert) be courteous and thank then for it even if it something you don’t real want or care for. If they done bring something to eat ask them if you should set it out.

Drinks:

Its always polite to offer your guest s something to drink. If they have brought something over ask them if they would like some of that.

I finally got invited somewhere. Do I need to bring anything?

I often am quite surprised to find that when I go a dinner party or just over to a friend’s house to for dinner how few people actually bring something over for their host or at the very least offer to bring something. It got me to thinking more that maybe people just don’t know what to do when they are invited over to someone’s house. Here are a few easy tips that you can follow to be a gracious guest and keep getting you invited back!

A Gift? What do you bring? When you are invited over be sure to ask your host “Is there anything I can bring.” Often your host will politely say “no“. Offer again, “Are

you sure there is nothing that I bring?” Sometimes your host will have though of something or sometimes they will say “no” again. If they say “no” again your response should be “Well, if you think of anything let me know.” If you do get that second “no” you need to bring something anyways. I know what you might be thinking. They just told me “no” I don’t need to bring anything so why should I bring something anyways? Remember you are being invited over to someone’s house. The place where they live, love, sleep, and eat. It’s an intimate gesture to get invited over to someone’s home and they have gone through a great deal of trouble to have you over. At the very least you can bring something as a gift of thanks.

Ok…So if I got the “no” what should I bring? Before you ask that. Let me ask you this: What’s the party all about? Is it a Bar-B-Que? A clam bake? A Halloween party? Or just watching the game? If you are going to Halloween party why not bring some of your favorite Halloween candy or some of those Halloween cupcakes or cookies that your local grocery store has. If you’re just watching the game that any easy one, chips and beer. If you can’t think of anything or are just in a rush a bottle of wine always works (especially if you’re coming to my house). I once had someone bring over some home made peach strawberry jam that they had made that that fall. While we did use it that evening I had it on my toast in the morning and it was unbelievable.

One last thing. Leave your gift there! I can tell you how many times I have seen people leave with the rest of the six pack of beer that they brought over. Would you take back someone’s birthday present that you gave them if they didn’t use it that day? No! So don’t take back that unopened bag of chips.

Wines…90 points for $10

Ok to be honest with you I like to drink wine. Ok to be really honest with you I love to drink wine. I am mostly a red drinker but, if the food calls for a white I am fine with that. Being a wino though isn’t cheap. I would love to be able to drop $40 or $80 a night on a few bottles of great wine but, my bank account just doesn’t seem to let me do that and there are this little things called billed that I guess I need to pay also. So, I had to ask myself can I still drink good wine on a budget? Or, do I need to switch over to Miller Lite permanently?

No! I have to still drink wine. But, how can I afford it? Never to be discouraged I came up with a challenge for myself. Only drink 90 plus point wines and never spend more then $10 a bottle. While this was my Holey Grail Quest. I started by searching online on some online wine shops. For those of you who haven’t taken a look at these online shops they are really fantastic. You can search by, varietal, region, price, country, and wine score. One of my personal favorites is www.winex.com. They have a great selection and a great search tool. Normally you can count on an additional $2 a bottle shipping and handling fee. Even with that fee their prices are normally marked down enough to compensate for the additional cost. I started creating my list from the info that I dug up on the internet and forwarded that list to my blackberry so that when I was in the wine store searching for bargain buys I wouldn’t have to really on my not so reliable memory. Also I could always add to the list if I found a new one at the store.

To be honest I was amazed by how many great wines there are out there that are 90 points and under $10. I would go to my local wine shop and buy a few to try and then if I liked them I would search for the lower price either online or at the local shop and buy a case. Needless to say its been a pretty fun experiment and the research fairly rewarding. The winner so far? Well…for my personal tastes I like the PENFOLDS 2006 KOONUNGA HILLS SHIRAZ CAB blend. I found it at Costco for $7.99 a bottle. It will go with just about anything from pizza to a steak. You really don’t have to spend more then $10 to get a truly great wine.