Vegetarian Irish themed dinner party

When it comes to entertaining, I'm all for cooking meals that are quick and easy to prepare. After all, the cook wants to enjoy his or her dinner party without stressing over complicated recipes.

But nevertheless, we want to produce a meal that is excellent and that our guests will enjoy.

That's why I love the fact that it's so easy to cheat these days!

If you want to hold a themed dinner party based on food from Ireland, or buffet party, you can order almost everything you need online. Then you'll need one trip to the grocery store for fresh fruit and vegetables and in no time, you'll be able to create a delicious meal that your guests will love. Or why not have an Irish themed dinner for your family?

Side note: I mentioned to a neighbor that I was devising a sophisticated Irish dinner party menu and she said that she's never associated food from the Emerald Isle with sophistication. How wrong she is!

There's nothing easier to serve at a dinner party that soup. Homemade soup is wonderful and if you have the time, make a delicious potato and leek soup. This is typically Irish and very tasty. Alternatively you can order a vegetarian version online and all you'll need to do is heat it and garnish it.Here you can see that the soup is garnished with scallions (spring onions) and fresh parsley, so add these items to your fresh produce shopping list. You can add the contents of a can of potatoes if you wish to make this soup seem even more 'homemade'. If you'd like, you can add a swirl of cream to every bowl before sprinkling with the chopped parsley so if you want to do this, add cream to your grocery store list. It will make the soup even more luxurious and tasty.

My Guinness and Mushroom Pie is perfect for your dinner party. If you want to make it ahead, it's easy. Cook the mushrooms in Guinness sauce the day before - you'll need to add fresh mushrooms and leeks to your grocery store shopping list. Oh, and lots of Guinness!

If you want to make the pastry cases yourself, add flaky or puff pastry to your list. If you're in a hurry, you can buy the pastry cases online that just need to be heated through and filled. Easy.S

erve this with a simple salad. Kale, tomato and cucumber make a lovely salad. Add these to your grocery shopping list. Make it in advance and toss in vinaigrette just before serving. And why not serve Guinness bread (buy the mix online) to mop up the beautiful sauce?

Ice cream, Baileys and chocolate makes a wonderful dessert. You can make this in advance - just leave out the last step which is adding the warmed Bailey's Irish Cream. Keep the chocolate and ice cream layers in the fridge and add the warm liqueur just before serving.

Remember to add vanilla ice cream and a lovely chocolate bar to your grocery shopping list. I garnish this with fresh mint because I have it in the garden. You can buy fresh mint or, if you prefer, garnish this dessert with fresh berries - something the Irish love.

Ireland is famous for its cheeses. See the dark cheese in the foreground? That is nothing short of amazing. What gives it that marvelous brown marbled look? Guinness of course! This cheese can be ordered online and served with a selection of crackers.

Fruit is perfect for cleansing the palate after a wonderful meal. Be sure that there is a fruit bowl on your dinner table so that your guests can help themselves. Add fresh fruit - apples and pears are a good idea - to your fresh produce grocery list.These are easy to serve - just arrange your fruit in an attractive bowl.

Chances are that you'll serve Guinness with your meal. Do remember that there's a lovely drink called Black Velvet. A real Black Velvet is half and half Guinness and champagne but more often than not these days, cider is used instead. To make this less alcoholic, use apple juice.For the designated drivers, offer iced tea - most nations 'across the pond' love their tea.

As a finale to your meal, serve this wonderful coffee. To make this, fill a glass halfway with a good quality coffee, (It's a good idea to heat the glasses first by swilling out with warm water so that the glasses don't crack.) Add a shot of Irish whiskey. Then add a teaspoon of sugar and stir. Now, and this is tricky, pour cream into each glass over the back of a teaspoon. This ensures that the cream will float on the top of the coffee.

• Mushrooms
• Leeks
• Fresh parsley
• Salad ingredients - kale, tomatoes, cucumber
• Cream
• Fresh fruit
• Parsley and mint - fresh
• Scallions to garnish the soup

There are many foods that you can buy online that will make your dinner party a great success - and a lot easier too. When we're having a party, we always order the bulk of the food online. It's excellent when the doorbell goes and your 'instant dinner kit' has arrived!

See Irish foods online here.

The wise host or hostess uses a combination of fresh foods and convenience foods. This relieves stress and makes entertaining your guests easy.

The Guinness that is brewed in Canada uses no animal by products. Other Guinness products may. If this concerns you, please check before ordering. Please check with Irish cheeses also.

You don't really need a reason because an Irish dinner, either for guests or for the family, is a great idea at any time of year. But just in case you're looking for addition themes, here are some Irish birthdays to celebrate.

14th. Sam Neill
24th. F. Scott Fitzgerald

1st. Richard Harris
5th. Bob Geldof
19th. Michael Gambon

8th. Bram Stoker
29th. C.S. Lewis

8th. James Galway
10th. Kenneth Branagh
15th. Edna O'Brien

Can you help? I can't find any Irish actors, singers or writers born in January!

2nd. James Joyce
9th. Brendan Behan

2nd. Rory Gallagher

4th. Graham Norton
5th. Spencer Tracy
13th. Samuel Beckett
29th. Daniel Day-Lewis

10th. Bono
16th. Pierce Brosnan
17th. Maureen O'Sullivan
31st. Colin Farrell

2nd. Milo O'Shea
7th. Liam Neeson
11th. Richard Todd
13th. W.B Yeats

16th. Michael Flatley
26th. George Bernard Shaw

2nd. Peter O'Toole
9th. Eileen Gray
17th. Maureen O'Hara