Party Ideas for Newbies

Special Fork celebrates Entertaining Week. Stay tuned for party tips and recipes from our Special Fork bloggers all week long. This week also kicks off our annual holiday kitchen tools sweepstakes. Please check our Facebook page to learn about the tools we've selected for the sweepstakes and how you can enter to win our prize package (estimated retail value: $122).

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

Especially during the holidays, when friends drop by unexpectedly, it’s nice to have a nibble or two on hand. Even beginning cooks can make Honey Crystal Almonds, which takes nominal time to prep and cook, and you’ll be all set to welcome company before you know it.

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The Last Big Holiday Party, Ever

By Sandy Hu

Steve and I have had a tradition of hosting an annual holiday party from our days as newlyweds living on West 14th Street in New York City. We would serve a collection of hors d’oeuvres with wine, ensuring there was enough food so guests could linger through the night and make dinner of it, or just drop by for a drink while doing the rounds of holiday merrymaking. The crowd then was mostly magazine people and accountants from Price Waterhouse, representing our two careers.

We continued the tradition when we moved to a condominium in Waikiki. At that stage in our life, the guests included family living in Honolulu, newspaper people and more Price Waterhouse accountants.

By the time we moved to San Francisco and restarted the party tradition, we had two children so the mix of guests now revolved around PR people from the agency where I worked, people from high-tech startups where Steve worked and fellow parents from the French American International School.

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