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A Well Crafted Party

Throwing Affordable Holiday Parties – Podcast with Stacking Benjamins

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I’m excited to shared that I was featured on the awesome, and hilarious, podcast Stacking Benjamins today with my tips on “Holiday Parties That Won’t Break the Bank.” Head on over to hear the holiday party tips I share while  visiting Joe’s mom’s basement. Don’t forget to stay for Doug’s trivia!

If you have found my little blog via the podcast… welcome! I hope you stay for the party. 😉 Learn a little more about me and this corner of the internet on my ever growing “About Me” page. Learn more holiday tips below!

Holiday Party Tips | A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Macey Snelson | Festive Green and White Holiday Party

How to Throw an Affordable Holiday Party this Season:

Hosting a party needs to be fun for your guests, but it also needs to be fun for you as a host! When hosting a party becomes an obligation rather than a privilege, it sucks out the fun for everyone. When putting together a holiday soiree think about what is most important to you and ways you can decrease your stress.

Outsource what you hate!

My blog is all about finding affordable ways to celebrate life. However, there are times when where you need to save is less about saving money and more about saving sanity. This might have been something that has come with age, but I think it is really important to figure out what you need to outsource to make hosting an event enjoyable to you as well as your guests. When looking at a limited budget, think about outsourcing areas that really stress you out will go a long way to helping make for a successful event. For instance, if you hate cleaning, consider renting out a venue or hiring cleaners for your home. If cooking isn’t your jam, hire a catering company or order out. You can re-plate a lot of foods to make them look like a million bucks without all the stress of a day in the kitchen cooking. Order flowers from a florist rather than styling your own. A well placed gorgeous bouquet can do the job of decorating for a party without a lot of effort!

Limit options when it comes to beverages and food.

This will go a long way in cutting back stress, but also allow you to better stick to a budget.

Holiday Drinks | A Well Crafted Party

Beverages: Guests don’t often need a multitude of beverage choices to enjoy a party.

Instead of investing in several bottles of different choices of red and white wines, pick a house favorite single red and single white wine to serve. Same with beer. Pick one or two favorites. Don’t worry about stocking up a full bar, instead, create one to two signature cocktails— punch bowls and batch cocktails are awesome ways to limit your expenses and keep yourself from having to tend bar all night long. Always serve non-alcoholic options as well, but again, limit the options. I always love to have a carafe of water elevated with fruit, mint, or cucumber as an affordable and refreshing non-alcoholic option. I generally estimate 1.5 drinks per person per hour for a dinner party event and 2 drinks per person per hour for a cocktail party event. Day-time events generally go with an estimation of 1 drink per hour.

Holiday Appetizers | A Well Crafted Party Photo by Mary Boyden
Photo Mary Boyden – Oysters with Tabasco Shaved Ice

Food: A few well selected food items can go over better than a bevvy of choices that aren’t well-thought out.

Cocktail Party: For a cocktail party event pick three to five appetizers and make sure there are around three to four pieces/servings per appetizer per person. Have them strategically placed around the room or passed out on trays. As a host this is a perfect excuse to make it around the room to see how everyone is doing without being pulled to stay for a long conversation with one guest. Put a tray in your hand and deliver food to your guests! (Check out these awesome holiday appetizers from some of my favorite blogs!)

Dinner Party: I am a big fan of large dinner parties with several courses, but when sticking to a budget I generally stick to a menu of 3 to 4 courses at most. (How to throw a Multi-Course Dinner Party)

Potluck: Potlucks are incredibly popular during the holiday season and I’m a BIG fan. The way to make potlucks more guest-friendly? Make sure you are upfront in the invitation that it is a potluck and what type of item you are expecting guests to bring. When guests do bring items to a potluck, don’t forget to have ways for them to label their foods so that your guests with allergies or food aversions can pick out items that fit their needs and tastes. (Free holiday potluck printables.)

DIY Holiday Decor | A Well Crafted Party photo by Macey Snelson
Photo by Macey Snelson | DIY Branch Holiday Card Holder

My thoughts on DIY

Obviously, my blog is all about ‘crafting’ a great experience. I’m a HUGE fan of DIY. A great way to decrease the expense of a party is to DIY!  But, when doing it yourself causes great stress, it is more important to allocate your funds in a way that will make the event enjoyable to your and your guests. Go ahead an purchase some pre-made appetizers or desserts. Put it on another plate and go! Limit the DIY projects to one or two even if you are a pro DIYer.  The great thing about holiday party decor is that it is sort of already built in with your general holiday decor. Get more easy DIY projects and free printables from my “Natural Green and White Holiday Party.”

More holiday party tips

 

 

 

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Cranberry Sauce for Thanksgiving | A Well Crafted Party
A Well Crafted Pantry

Three Cranberry Sauce Recipes

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I don’t host Thanksgiving. Instead, I’m very happy to be attending a Thanksgiving with friends and family where everyone brings a dish to share and everyone is an AMAZING cook. I tend to do a lot of parties around this time of year so I don’t have a ton of energy to put into making something super involved for the holiday. Which means, typically, every year I’m bringing the potatoes and cranberry sauce. If those are the only two things I’m responsible for then I’m going to make them DELISH.

Cranberry sauce is often an afterthought to the Thanksgiving meal. However, a great cranberry sauce can elevate a turkey quite well. I have three fall back cranberry sauces that I love to make. Some years, when feeling extra on top of it, I’ll bring all three so guests can have their choice.

Cranberry Sauce for Thanksgiving | A Well Crafted Party

 

Traditional Cranberry Sauce

A traditional cranberry sauce is SO easy to make. You need a sauce pan, cranberries, orange juice, and sugar to make this sauce. Occasionally I’ll add in something like a cherry or orange liquor to give it a bit of a kick.

Ingredients:

  • 1 12 oz bag of cranberries
  • freshly squeezed juice of one large orange
  • 1 cup sugar
  • (Optional) 1 Tablespoon orange or cherry liquor

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally so the sugar doesn’t burn. Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until your berries are bursting and the sauce has thickened a bit. The sauce will further thicken once cooled. Serve warm or chilled. It will be extremely hot once finished so wait until it has cooled before tasting. If you feel that your sauce is too thick you can thin a bit with water.

Apple and Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce

Sometimes I want a little more texture to my cranberry sauce. Sweet apples are a great contrast to the tartness of cranberries.

Ingredients:

  • 1 12 oz bag of cranberries
  • 2 fuji apples diced (or other favorite sweeter apple)
  • seeds of 1 pomegranate + any residual juices
  • 1 cup sugar
  • freshly squeezed juice of two Meyer lemons

Directions:

Put all ingredients except for you pomegranate seeds into a sauce pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally so the sugar doesn’t burn. Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until you berries are bursting a bit and you can put a fork through your apple easily. Add in pomegranate seeds and juice and stir to incorporate. Chill. Serve Chilled.

Cranberry Salsa

This rendition of cranberry sauce is my favorite and is perfect on a leftover turkey sandwich. I tend to like the spicy things in life and will always opt for jalapeño when asked, so if you are similar in your flavor profile think about adding this to you Thanksgiving menu.

Ingredients:

  • 1 120z bag of cranberries
  • 1 to 2 jalapeños seeded (depending on how spicy you want your salsa)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • Juice of two large limes
  • 1/2 red onion diced
  • 1 small bunch of cilantro (this is according to taste. I think I had about 1 tablespoon in mine because I don’t tend to love a lot of cilantro.)

Directions:

  1. In a bowl mix your sugar and lime juice together until the sugar has dissolved.
  2. Put the cranberries, jalapeños, red onion, and cilantro to a food processor and pulse until incorporated.
  3. Add the cranberry mixture to your lime and sugar mixture. Mix and let sit in fridge covered for 4 hours. The lime juice will soften the cranberries a bit.
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Tequila and Berry Cocktail for Space Themed Party | A Well Crafted Party
A Well Crafted Pantry

Berry Good Cosmic Cocktails: Martian Sunrise

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I think that many Halloween cocktails err on the side of too sweet and too kitschy. Sometimes, you just need a twist on a good, classic cocktail to get the effect that you want. I’m hosting a space themed Halloween party this year and needed some ‘spacey’ cocktail ideas. When I started created this berry cocktail I tried it with a different liquor. One taste of the drink made me realize that I was way off base and that I needed to stick with a classic.

This post is in partnership with Oregon Berries. All opinions are my own. See my other collaborations with Oregon Berries: Triple Berry Smoothie with Miso & Marionberry Champagne Cocktail. 

Oregon Berries to make a triple berry syrup | A Well Crafted Party

This cocktail is a twist on a Tequila Sunrise. A traditional Tequila Sunrise consists of orange juice, grenadine, and tequila. So, I guess I’d say that this drink is a loose interpretation of the classic, but I like it even more. 😉 My big twist on this cocktail is that I use a berry syrup instead of grenadine and just a squeeze of fresh orange for orange juice. The ratio is certainly different, but the berries are brightened by the orange juice and the gold tequila really tastes great with the sweet and tart berries.

Triple Berry Simple Syrup

This triple berry simple syrup can be made to mix with cocktails or non-alcoholic drinks. I love this syrup in Italian Creme Sodas or mixed with lemonade. YUM.

Use the below portions to create a batch of syrup in any amount that you need:

  • 1 part each type of berry
  • 2 part water
  • 2  part granulated sugar

Or, to make approximately 2.5 cups of syrup:

  • 1 cup black raspberries
  • 1 cup raspberries
  • 1 cup Marion blackberries
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups sugar

Directions:

  1. Put the frozen berries and water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat (stirring occasionally so it doesn’t stick) until the berries soften. Approximately 5 minutes.
  2. Add the sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Approximately 5 minutes.
  3. Strain the liquid from the berries. Squish the berries as you go to get all the lovely juices.
  4. Refrigerate the berry syrup for up to two weeks

Tequila and Berry Cocktail for Space Themed Party | A Well Crafted Party

Tequila and Berry Cocktail for Space Themed Party | A Well Crafted Party

This drink doesn’t look like it so much in the photos… but, it looks like a real sunset. A friend was over testing out the drinks and as I was throwing out names she nailed it with a Martian Sunrise. Mars is quite a bit colder that here on Earth. This drink sort of touches on that fact with the shaved ice base. To shave the ice I simply threw ice cubes into my blender and blended away. I filled the rocks glass to the brim with the shaved ice.

Martian Sunrise Cocktail

Ingredients:

  • Shaved Ice
  • 1 quarter medium size orange plus a slice of orange for garnish
  • 2 oz gold tequila
  • 1 oz of berry syrup

Directions:

  1. Fill rocks glass to brim with shaved ice
  2. Add tequila
  3. Add the squeezed orange juice
  4. Add the berry syrup slowly
  5. Garnish with an orange slice

 

Tequila and Berry Cocktail for Space Themed Party | A Well Crafted Party

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