5 parties to host around your kitchen island
The latest trend in luxury kitchens in Okotoks is the island. Not just a kitchen island with two or three stools for the kids but a long, long island. At least six to nine-feet in length where you can gather around with your family or socialize with friends in Okotoks (parties always migrate to the kitchen anyway).
Here are a few cozy fall activities that lend themselves to hanging out around the kitchen island.
Build your own pizza parties
Bring in a pizza chef to make the dough from scratch. You’ll need a professional pizza expert – someone that knows how to not only roll out the dough and but has the skill to throw the dough up in the air, stretching it out into a perfect pizza circle, keeping it spinning in the air. Have your guests put their own toppings on the pizza and bake them one by one. If you don’t know any pizza chefs, you can purchase frozen pizza crusts or use packaged flat bread or even pita bread. Make the party pot luck and have one person in charge of pizza cause, another responsible for cheese and so on.
Taco time
This is less time consuming because no baking is required. Pre-cook your taco meat filing ahead of time, whether it’s ground beef, ground chicken or turkey or marinated pork. Lay out your taco ingredients on the island and make your taco party self serve. Add your choice of corn or wheat tortillas, hard or soft. Add sangria or home-made margaritas and you’ve got yourself a fiesta.
Christmas Cookie exchange
A seasonal favourite. Invite friends who you know will not go to the bakery and purchase cookies but who will actually dig into her recipe stash and baking something. Each invited guest must bring a dozen cookies for each guest who will be there. If you have invited 11 people, then each guest must bring 10 dozen cookies – one for each guest (they don’t need a dozen for themselves). The dozen cookies can be in a tin, a plastic container a gift bag or zip-lock baggies but the prettier they’re presented the more special the party. Gather round the kitchen island for coffee or Christmas cheer and share tales of Christmas Baking Past.
Sushi parties
The fine art of making home-made sushi is two-fold. Fun to learn, delicious to eat. Book a chef to teach you live and in-person how to prepare the ingredients, put them together and sushi presentation. Or fire up your laptop and check out YouTube for great video instruction. Purchase rolling maps, chop sticks and all the wasabi you can stand and host a how-to for your friends. Pass the Saki!
Host an ice cream social
Ice cream is a treat no matter what time of year it is. Have each guest bring a bucket of their favourite flavour. As the host, provide sugar cones, waffle cones and toppings. That could be sprinkles, fruit, nuts, chocolate chips and a variety of flavourful syrups. You could even attempt banana splits. The fun is in watching everyone’s creations come to life and exploring new flavours of ice cream.