Harvest Party: Winning at Wining & Dining in Autumn

Acorn Doughnut Hole Party Favors

It’s a known fact I love nothing more than to throw a party. Give me any reason whatsoever and I will come up with a theme, research recipes and try my hardest to make my house as adorable as possible. So when some of the favorite ladies in my life and I decided to plan a little drinking dinner party, I quickly volunteered to host. We decided on the seasonally appropriate theme of “Autumn Harvest” and decided to do it as a pot-luck style sit-down dinner.

I got into the spirit by decorating my house:

An autumn-inspired wreath helps corral the wine glasses

Autumn potpurri and hors d’oeuvre plates

And as always, a touch of class

Next was setting the table. This is basically what my table looks like at Thanksgiving too. I got the gold-plated silverware as a gift years ago from my stepmom and it’s the perfect accent to a holiday place setting. I really love brown, gold and green together.

Harvest Table

Petite Pears are the Perfect Centerpiece

Next was the food. Oh god, the food! Sadly I didn’t get nearly as many pictures of all the goodness we ate but here’s a couple of the indulgences.

Olives by Candle Light

Spaetzle Gratin — my friend Ariel made this and it was amazing.

Another one of my friends brought this amazing chocolate pumpkin whipped cream masterpiece. I ate a piece the next day for breakfast and it was still divine!

And on top of the copious amounts of wine that we managed to put down, I had a little surprise up my sleeve. I took some of my home-pressed cider and combined it with various liquor to make up these deliciously evil little things. Call them whatever you want (cider shots? apple pie shots?), they were wonderful. A how-to post is in the works!

Mulled Apple Pie Shots with Caramel & Whipped Cream

And of course, I made little party favors to give out as people left. The trouble with this is after a night of drinking wine to actually remember to give them to people!

Anyways I made these little doughnut hole acorns last year for a pumpkin carving party so I knew they’d be easy to put together. I took Nutella and coated the top half of each “hole” and then rolled them in sprinkles. A little pretzel stem, and voila — perfection!

Each one was individually wrapped up in a cellophane bag which was tied with yarn.

And that’s it: our harvest party was a complete and total success! We had a blast chatting and cooking together, eating everything from freshly baked bread with homemade butter to these shrimp pancake fritters that I  am definitely getting the recipe for! Needless to say, we are already planning round two. I can’t wait!