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?!
Looks like the dinner party of the summer – I will have to look for Anderson’s Seafood. Terrific post, Lori.
My mouth is watering! What a lovely collection of dishes! I think my man and I might just have to try the Tequila-Lime Shrimp Tacos this weekend! Thanks!
Oh my! I want to be your friend and invited to a dinner party! 😉
I love the idea of a 70’s party with old school recipes!
What a fun party, everything looks so wonderful!
we belonged to a dinner party group years ago and I think the part I liked best was the menu planning and portioning out who would make what . . . I LOVE this seafood theme . . . I may have to borrow it . . .
meantime, I’ve only been following you for a short time so I don’t know if you’ve done these before, but here are some of the menu plans I can remember from our dinner club days:
Fondue – with everything from appetizer to dessert being fondue-d in some way
Things you wouldn’t eat when you were a kid but love now – included rabbit, cabbage and such
I’m italian and so one year we did a traditional italian Christmas Eve feast which was mostly traditional fish and seafood dishes
Brunch for dinner (we all wore pjs to dinner that time) – the main course was eggs benedict but the “ham/bacon” was replaced by pan fried salmon trout filets . . . yummmm!
Game night – where each course featured some sort of wild game . . .
thanks again for a great column!!!
Awesome ideas- thank you!
What an wonderful array of seafood delights..I want those deviled eggs now!
This is one of the best themed dinner party ideas I have EVER seen. Bravo.
Oh how fun! I love the theme, too. While your hard work was evident, it looks like a delicious and relaxing time was had by all 😉 I’ve always wanted to host a murder mystery party, where guests come dressed in character and all try to guess the whodunit hints!
Lori you throw a party like no other….WOW!
It all looks…fabulous!!!
18 Dinner guests! Eek! I don’t think I have as much crockery and cutlery to serve 18. Well done on what looks to be a sumptuous meal Lori! The bacon wrapped scallops and the salmon with coconut and ginger sauce are the front runners for me 😉