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The house is decked in green, the Irish music is playing softly in the background and you’ve got the table set.

Organizing a Saint Patrick’s Day dinner can be a fun way to celebrate this March holiday with your friends and family. While your first instinct may be to shop for corned beef and cabbage, there are a number of traditional dishes from which to choose.

According to the Food Services of America organization, a Saint Patrick’s Day dinner of corned beef and cabbage is perhaps more of an Irish immigrant luxury than a traditional dinner served in Ireland.

Thanks to the use of expensive salts in production, corned beef was a costly delicacy that was reserved for annual Easter feasts. Pork and fresh beef would be more authentic Saint Patricks Day dinner ideas.

The FSA recommends serving up the following dishes for your dinner this March. Irish Lamb Stew, Irish Pot Roasted Chicken, Marinated Fried Fish Strips & Potatoes, Cod Cobbler, Potato & Parmesan Gratin, Bangers and Rum Sauce and Irish Smoked Salmon Salad.

What Saint Patrick’s Day dinner would be complete without a tasty Irish dessert? Irish chef Damien Brassel of Knife & Fork in Manhattan recommends serving a bottle of whiskey. Cathal Armstrong, an Irish chef at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Virginia, recommends apple-based desserts like crumbles, pies, cakes, fritters, dumplings or soufflés.

For an Irish-American take on desserts, try a Guinness Cake. With any luck, your St. Patty’s Day dinner will inspire your children to carry on Irish customs and traditions of their own one day.

To read more Planning Ideas For A Saint Patrick’s Day Dinner

Thanksgiving is a time steeped in history and family traditions. However, why not take the time to stir things up a bit by adding some Thanksgiving games to the day.

You can play some games while waiting for friends and family to show up and before sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps you will start a few new traditions in your family.

There are many different things you can do to add some fun to your Thanksgiving celebrations, as there are many different Thanksgiving games and crafts that you and your kids can enjoy.

For instance, how about a Mayflower craft that may also inspire some questions about the history of Thanksgiving? Visit http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/thanksgiving_craft_mayflower.htm. to find out how and to assemble the supplies needed.

There are so many different Thanksgiving games that you can play but one for the whole family is always a good choice. For this one have everyone sit around in a circle and the first person will start with something like, “the Thanksgiving food I like the most is turkey” and the next person repeats what they said and adds their own item.

It continues around, yet if someone says it incorrectly they are out. The game ends when one person is finally able to state the whole Thanksgiving menu perfectly.

To read more Entertaining Your Family With Thanksgiving Games

One of the more famous Thanksgiving traditions, at least in America, is having a Thanksgiving turkey for the celebratory dinner. There have been many different reasons given over the years as to why this particular bird is such a popular choice for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners.

So popular, in fact, that Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey, not the Bald Eagle, the national bird of the United States!

While brined pork and ham were both available, many felt that it was not a fitting meal for the day of thanks. As well, feasting on a Thanksgiving turkey was in keeping with the British holiday custom that settlers brought with them to the New World.

Among the available birds, the turkey appeared to be the most ideal for an autumn feast, as the chicks born in the spring would have approximately 7 months in which to grow fat, just in time for the Thanksgiving table.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln finally declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, yet by that time the Thanksgiving turkey was pretty much a family tradition for all.

Some feel that when Scrooge gave the gift of a holiday turkey to the Cratchit family, in Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” that it seemed to forever cement the turkey’s place, as well as its familiar sidekicks dressing and gravy, as the fitting choice for all future Thanksgiving and Christmas Day feasts.

To read more Celebrating Holiday Traditions With Thanksgiving Turkey

A family favourite as an after dinner dessert, is strawberry shortcake. As it is easy to make and often eaten rather quickly and there are never pieces left over the next day.

The best way to make strawberry shortcake, is to use fresh strawberries from your garden, add some light cake and whipped cream and you have a delicious shortcake. There are no complexities in making this dessert. You may want to make slight changes to the ingredients if you have special diet requirements, otherwise the time taken to create this shortcake is relatively short.

If you want to avoid the complexities of a rising souffle, then you can take the easier route and make a strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberries. If strawberries are not in season, then use strawberry syrup, which is often available in many gourmet food stores.

To read more Delight Your Dinner Guests With Strawberry Shortcake

If you know some of your party guests are vegans, then you should make a vegetable platter. Then the question is, what vegetables should you include on a vegetable platter? Well you can include marinated mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower florets, pickled onions, sweet red, orange and purple bell pepper, celery and carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes.

Next to the platter, you can place a small selection of vegetarian dips, for those who like to mix their vegetables with a little something. You may even place a bowl of crackers next to a platter of delicious cut cheeses.

On the cheese platter, you should place little cards on your selection of cheeses, so people can differentiate between low fat and normal cheese, to accommodate those on a low fat diet.

These days, many people want more options for their party platters, and it may please many of your guests to make a vegetable platter.

To read more Increase Party Food Options When You Make A Vegetable Platter

Knowing the needs of your guests, are one of the best party planning tips. For example, you need to know if any of your guests have special dietary requirements. One or two of your guests may be a diabetic, another may be on a low fat diet, another may be a vegetarian. Some of your guests may even be allergic to certain food ingredients like nuts or diary products.

If you do not take notice of these dietary requirements, then some of your guests will leave early, run home to eat food and feed their hunger. Successful party planning requires you make contact with your guests. A number of weeks before your party, you should contact your guests and ask them if they have any dietary requirements.

By meeting their dietary requirements, your guests may stay around a little longer and may come to your parties more often. If all you want is happy guests, then you should follow these party planning tips.

To read more Keeping Your Guests Happy With Party Planning Tips

Looking for dinner party ideas with easy entertaining recipes, may be a matter of knowing how to meet the expectations and requirements of your guests. Your guests do not expect an elaborate 10 course meal, they may be satisfied with a 2 or 3 course meal. Most of your guests may be your friends and relatives and they just want to spend a few hours with you and your family.

One way to meet the requirements of your guests, is to know their dietary needs, before they arrive. You may contact each of your guests and ask them if they have special diet needs. There may be one or two vegetarians, some may be on a low carb diet or a low fat diet. You need to know, so that you can prepare meals to meet their requirements.

Your guests will be pleasantly surprised at your efforts and will know you are the host who wants to satisfy your guests with easy entertaining recipes.

To read more Planning For Your Dinner Party With Easy Entertaining Recipes

If you’re looking to get away from home during the Thanksgiving Holidays and celebrate with festivals, parades and events, then you have many options! Surely you’ve heard of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City, which is one of the most spectacular Thanksgiving celebrations you could possibly attend.

Yet, if dealing with crowds and freezing your butt off isn’t exactly your idea of a pious, low-stress Thanksgiving weekend, then there are many other American cities that offer more viable alternatives to entertain you and your family, and sometimes at steep discounts.

Chicago, Illinois is home to another big Thanksgiving Day parade, the McDonald’s Parade, which has been around since 1934 and attracts nearly 400,000 people to the streets and another 1.5 million people tuning in.

North Michigan Avenue is quite a sight to behold at the “Magnificent Mile Lights Festival” on November 17th, which dazzles the eyes with more than 1 million lights to signify the beginning of the holiday season. There are tons of restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinner so your holidays and traditions can remain in tact, even if you are far away from home. 

Europe is another option for holidays and works well for Thanksgiving travel too. You can take advantage of deep discounts this time of year, since most American travelers remain state-side. Sure, the weather will be a bit brisk, but you may warm up to the idea of spending six days (including air + hotel) in Paris for just $399/person through www.gate1travel.com!

Stovetop stuffing and canned cranberries can be a real drag for some families who go through the motions each year, without all of the gratification. Instead, you can choose your own destiny and take advantage of great off-peak travel deals to explore the rest of the world. This year, let someone else do the cooking!

To read more Getting Away With Holidays And Thanksgiving

It’s safe to say most people look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday all year round. The savory stuffing, moist turkey, tart cranberries and creamy pumpkin pie live in our memories and haunt us all year round.

Yet for 25-30 million people, the Thanksgiving feast is something to fear, threatening to sabotage their best efforts to lose weight and pack on a devastating 4,500 calories! While Thanksgiving and the low carb diet seem like a nightmarish match, there are a number of ways to be at peace this Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanksgiving and calorie-counting is not exactly our idea of fun, but you don’t have to take that approach. Instead, you can sample a little of everything, but only hors d’oeuvres sized portions. That may leave you feeling satisfied that you’ve sampled all your favorites, fully participating in the Thanksgiving meal.

Some people pass over the mashed potatoes, bread and more common, high-carb foods and instead choose more seasonal items for their calories, like cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie or stuffing. Begin by eating up salads and vegetables before you get to the Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing. Lastly, imagine your stomach as the size of two fists. If the food on your plate won’t fit, then you’ve grabbed too much.

“People tend to make that transition from one day of indulgence to suddenly the whole holiday season, so they have to be careful,” says low carb cookbook author Dana Carpender. She adds that people who eat carbs on Thanksgiving and want to bounce back quickly should eat their usual low-carb, high protein breakfast and give away all carb-riddled leftovers.

Pureed cauliflower can be your alternative to potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner, but cook up some real potatoes for others. Carpender smiles, “You know, my dad is 75 and he’s not going to start eating pureed cauliflower even if you put a gun to his head.”

To read more Thanksgiving And Maintaining Your Carb Diet

There are many different parts of your life that you will look back on. You will remember each milestone you passed. Birthdays are one of the milestones, beginning with your birth, then continuing through with “tweens” and teenage years.

The 21st birthday is a big one for most, bigger than turning 18 because even if you had some limitations after turning 18, when you turn 21, you feel that you own the world.

For your party planning endeavors, perhaps consider something like inviting guests to come dressed as what they wanted to be when they were children. For example, if someone had originally wanted to be a policeman, then rent a uniform; or if they wanted to become the first dancing ballerina on the moon dress in a tutu and space helmet or something similar. This can be a great way to celebrate a 21st birthday and everyone will get a real kick out of seeing what everyone else originally wanted to be when they “grew up.”

Why not throw a masquerade ball for a memorable 21st birthday, complete with Zorro type masks for the guys and gorgeous feathered masks for the ladies and an unmasking towards the end of the party. Or, perhaps a very formal theme is what you are looking for with ball gowns and tuxedos.

Throw in a ballroom dancing contest and you have the makings of a great birthday celebration. Consider contacting a dance teacher that can come during the first half of the party to offer tips and advice on ballroom dancing before the big competition begins.

To read more A Most Memorable 21st Birthday