Hosting a party, even a basic “wine and cheese”, can send some people around the bend, but it should be fun. Here are some tips to help you hold on to your sanity:• Keep it simple. Two or three cheeses are all you need. Get a big wedge of each, or a couple of smaller wedges, and lay them out. • Print labels with the names of each cheese, and the type of milk it’s made from, i.e. sheep, as well as whether or not it’s pasteurized. If you like, include a brief description of its flavours, if you have that information. I once posted these notes in champagne corks in which I’d carved a little slot to hold the paper. People still talk about it.• Forget the diet. Buy full-fat cheese, and set out some dishes of unsalted butter.• Create a festive setting. Get out your grandmother’s platter, or those crazy plates you bought on vacation. What are you waiting for? Use bigger plates in order to showcase the cheeses, and to give people enough room to manoeuvre with a knife. Dress the table(s) to reflect a theme, or the season.• Delegate, delegate, delegate. Ask guests to contribute to the party by bringing fancy crackers, or better yet, fresh baguette. Bank on a third to one half of a baguette per person, especially if cheese and bread are the only things to eat. If you have leftovers, you can make French toast the morning after. Guests could also be asked to bring a small sweet thing to end the evening.• Speaking of other things to eat, consider offering pickles, or some raw vegetables to keep flavours interesting.• Choose two wines per cheese. You could feature two different wines, either from the same country, or different places. You could also choose two wines made from the same variety from different countries. i.e. Rieslings from Germany and Ontario. • You do not need to spend a lot of money, as there are bargains to be had. A wine and cheese party is a good way to test out new wines to see if there is something you’d like to add to your regular rotation of mid-week quaffers.Finally, relax and have fun. It’s a party after all. The most important thing is who is around the table, not what’s on top of it.
