My neighborhood’s Gourmet Dinner party group met a couple of weekends ago for our monthly themed dinner. I hosted this time with a Seafood Extravaganza! Dinner Menu. I’ll be sharing the entire menu with all recipes on this post- just click recipe titles below to reach actual, printable recipes.
EIGHTEEEN friends came to my dinner. I know, crazy huh? Before you think I’m too crazy to do this, I need to let you know that I just hosted the party, planned the menu, and each couple brought a dish. That’s much more manageable and un-crazy. For my table decor, I went with some simple white tablecloths, blue dishes, sand-colored napkins, sea-inspired candles and a few shells and starfish. Oh, and the most important table decoration of all… fish swimming in vases! (Don’t worry- the fish were ALL taken home by my guests to add to the fish tanks in their homes, but not before our friend Brad thought it would be fun to terrorize them by swishing a butter knife around in the vase. Geez, Brad.). They made for pretty cute centerpieces though.
And if you look closely, you’ll see some salt-water taffy scattered on the table too. My guests enjoyed nibbling on those after dinner, and they fit into the theme just right. Warning: black striped taffy usually means that it tastes like black licorice. In other words, chew it up, then realize how gross it is and then spit it into your napkin. Uck.
We set up a simple serve-yourself bar in our backyard. Something for everyone.
Featured beverage: the Sea Breeze Cocktail, of course!
Appetizer #1: Bacon- Wrapped Scallops with Spicy Cilantro-Mayonnaise
Appetizer #2: Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs
Appetizer #3: Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip
Appetizer #4: Shrimp Ceviche
Side Dish: Summer Gratin
Main Dish #1: Baked Salmon with Creamy Coconut-Ginger Sauce over Coconut- Ginger Rice
Main Dish #2: Tequila-Lime Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Cream
Dessert: Key Lime Pie
The dinner was a smashing success! And by that I mean that the plates were licked clean, there was a lot of whooping and hollering and toasting going on, our last guests left at about 12:30AM, and I needed Advil the next day.
All of the seafood came from Anderson Seafoods (via overnight delivery, arriving fresh and perfect! Many thanks to Anderson Seafoods for managing to get the seafood to me in the midst of our crazy Southern California Blackout!) Favorites of my guests were the scallops and the salmon. It was a lot of food! I over-planned a bit since I was serving 18 people. A couple of appetizers would have been plenty, and we definitely did not need two entrees. The key lime pie was much loved too.
I’d kinda like to do a wild & crazy 7 Deadly Sins Dinner Party next (recipes based on themes of the 7 deadly sins), or maybe some kind of 70’s throwback recipes dinner. I’m running out of dinner party ideas… so let me know if you’ve got any?!
Thank you! Used your receipes to serve my wife a tête á tête dinner and now she loves me even more! Jan
Hi Lori,
This is great! How did you serve everyone (plate everything)? WIth seafood, there is the time/freshness factor. Did your guests walk in at a specific time and you immediately started serving? Or were you cooking the main entrees (salmon) while guests gnoshed at the appetizers and fixed themselves drinks? Wondering how to keep all the seafood at a good temperature and servable…Thanks!
Since our dinner group works together in preparing the meal, it was a team effort!
Hey Lori, I just stumbled upon your blog and the menu looks yummy! Im planning a small seafood feast for Christmas & im going to try your creamy coconut salmon & rice. Happy holidays 🙂
Great- hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Awesome ideas!! We’re having a clam bake this summer and I love your app ideas!!! Some other theme ideas could be a Mad Men party (complete with coming in your favorite 60’s attire!) and research food from the 60’s. You could also do a “blast from the past” (where everyone wears normal clothes but adds one thing from their past, like a favorite t-shirt from high school or the veil from their wedding) and you serve foods that were popular when you were a child. Thanks so much for the ideas 🙂
I am throwing a seafood party for my boyfriend and our friends. I love your idea on here. When you said you had each couple bring a dish…did you assign one of the dishes you feature above or did they all bring something in addition to what you made?
I planned the entire menu and gave each of my friends a recipe to prepare and bring.
Lori always love your stuff! My fav dinner party ever I called “regional.”. Everyone had to bring a dish reflective of where they were from (or if couldn’t do that, then reflecting ethnic or aspect of identity). It was hilarious and delicious and made for amazing stories as we got to know new things about each other! I couldn’t decide whether to award first or booby prize to ny friends who brought Kentucky fried chicken (would some fab BBQ been too much to ask?) 🙂
How fun! Love that idea for a dinner party! Miss seeing you around these parts!
This is so cute. I want to join your dinner party group!!!!
Hi Lori,
I saw you in the UT food blogger article! We love culinary theme parties, and I’ve been trying to get our group to do the dinner party thing during the Coronado Concert in the Park off-season (during the summer, we do a different theme each Sunday and have done some pretty wild ones). My friend, Brad, would probably also be the one to stick his knife in the fish bowl 😉
This looks like it was loads of fun. Love how the sauce on the salmon was in the shape of a sea star 🙂 I would love to do a murder mystery dinner party sometime. Tho I have had many dinner parties, somehow it has never happened. So, why don’t you have one, report on it of course, and then I can have one vicariously through your blog 🙂
Oh my stars the food looks and sounds amazing. Love your table setting and how come you aren’t my neighbor?