I am planning a party - for tomorrow! It isn’t actually a party . We just have two guests for supper. Actually, we have been wanting to invite a friend of my husband and his wife to lunch or dinner for quite some time ever since they tied the knot two weeks ago. And now it turns out that the only day they can make it to our house is tomorrow before they leave the country. So tomorrow it is!

Since they are close buddies, our friends have especially asked us not to prepare a full-blown meal as they have constantly been eating with some relative or friend or other since their marriage. We promised them that we wouldn’t and put on our thinking caps. A Pizza party seemed like a great idea - easy on the guests as well as the hosts. A few pizzas with different toppings sounded good. And something to go before and after. Ummm, orange juice or a light mocktail will set up a good appetite and we can end with a light chocolate mousse. There’s the menu!

I rushed to take stock and then we rushed again to the nearby store to buy whatever we were short of - mozzarella, vegetables, tomatoes for the topping as well as the sauce, ready made pizza bases, canned mushrooms, babycorn and cherries. I already had chocolate and whipping cream in my refrigerator left over from Sanika’s birthday when I made fudge squares for giving as favors to the adults who attended.

Since we are short of time, I managed to put Sanika to sleep early while Rohit whipped the cream for me. Together, we prepared the mousse, scooped it in individual martini glasses and placed them in the fridge before we got ready for bed. I make it a habit of writing down recipes as I make stuff for the fear of forgetting the exact proportions of ingredients later. And which is why I am still up while hubby dear is already snoring. I will post the recipe along with pics tomorrow when the individual mousse servings are finally garnished. I hope it goes well tomorrow. Will post the details.

I like all my parties to be elaborate affairs with a lot of emphasis on the theme or colors, a good (or some) amount of decor, fresh flowers, menus planned carefully in advance and party entertainment. But there is one other element, which if present, can make up for the absence of any or most of the above. And that is:

Good Company for the Guests to Enjoy.

Yes, making and finalizing your guest list, especially if the party is an informal affair, plays the most important role in determining its success. If your guests find good company among themselves, chances are that they will overlook any other faults in the party planning process. I was at a party the day before and realized how important this little detail was. The party was a casual get together and I along with DHenjoyed myself thoroughly catching up with friends. And that despite the fact there was very little choice in food for vegetarians like me, who happened to be plenty in number. A stereo playing some soft songs was all we had for entertainment but nobody really cared as guests were busy mingling with each other.

Kids were invited and again, not much was planned in the menu for the young guests. But surprisingly, nobody minded this as well. Kids were happy playing in the lovely front yard of the hosts, running around trees or swinging. Happy kids are the most non-fussy eaters, did you know that? I didn’t and was pleasantly surprised to see my finicky little 2 year old eating without any of the usual fussiness.

All in all, a lovely evening spent with friends in peaceful outdoors. A well-thought of guest-list certainly makes a party click!