Progressive Crockpot Dinner Party

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

With the holiday entertaining season in full swing, it’s time to dig out some old favorite recipes and share them with friends and family. But the very thought of hosting a holiday dinner and planning a menu that will be sure to please a wide variety of palates when so many other things are going on can throw even the most experienced cook into paralysis.

To make this task a little more enjoyable the next time you entertain, consider hosting a progressive dinner party, a theme where your guests can share in the creative process of putting together a meal that everyone will enjoy. If you have a group of guests who live in close proximity to one another, you could start with appetizers and cocktails at one person’s home, and then move onto the main course at another home, finishing with dessert at the final destination. You could also replicate this idea without moving from place to place by simply requesting each of your guests to bring one potluck style course each to your home.

First, begin thinking of different ideas to create a festive atmosphere. You can base the progressive dinner party around any theme that suits your fancy, such as dishes from a specific ethnicity or dishes in a certain regional style, or to a more general theme where everyone brings their classic holiday childhood favorite dish. Or how about a slow cooker theme? Warm dishes will stay warm in the crockpot, and will definitely make the serving and cleanup easier on the host and the guests.

Start by divvying up the various courses and assigning them to each guest or group of guests. Most simply, you could request appetizers, mains and desserts. To take it one step further, you can divide the menu into different components such as soup, salad, meat entrée, side dishes, vegetarian entrees, desserts, and beverages.

If you have a large group of attendees, you could base the assignments around a random designation such as birthday month or alphabetically by last name. Assign those with birthdays at the beginning of the year or alphabet to one set of courses, those at the middle to another, and those at the end to the third course. If you have a smaller group, you can get a gauge of what each person would like to bring--you may already know that one friend excels at making dessert while another is a master mixologist who enjoys coming up with signature drinks--and hand out the responsibilities accordingly.

Don’t be shy about asking for help; most guests will jump at the chance to share a favorite recipe. And for those guests who are not geniuses in the kitchen, don’ t leave out the beverage detail. After all, what would a holiday party be without a good dose of holiday cheer? If guests request ideas, let them know that a bottle of wine or a warm drink such as mulled apple cider or hot spiced wine (which can also be served from the slow cooker) would be especially welcome at your open house.

Lastly, you may want to ask each guest to bring a bunch of recipe cards with instructions for his or her dish. My personal favorite holiday classic is Italian Wedding/Holiday soup, a recipe that my best friend’s mother has made each Christmas for as long as I can remember. Sharing a treasured recipe is like giving a small gift that can bring joy to many others during the busy holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Serves/Makes: 8

• 1 pound small meatballs
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup cooked chicken, chopped
• 1 cup carrots, sliced, diced or cut into matchsticks
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 head escarole, chopped
• OR
• 1 package (8 ounce size) chopped spinach
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup romano cheese
• 1/4 cup acini di pepe pasta (or other small pasta)