You don’t want to be cooking while your guests are playing. I’ve done it before, and while everyone was extremely satisfied with all the freshly deep friend and baked finger food that kept coming, they were nagging me all the time to come and sit with them.

The secret is to do as much preparation as possible before the event and serve hot foods that can be simply reheated at the right time, such as lasagne and pastas, curries, bolognaise and chilli con carne. For warm deserts I’d go for fruit pies, puddings and custards. They can all be made ahead of time and reheated, so you can have your pie and eat it too.

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