Cooking is an activity that should be fun and easy, even more so if you have guests; it shouldn't leave you tired and stressed out before you receive your visitors. The trick to the perfect dinner is in the preparation and planning.

• Before you start, plan the complete menu.
  
  
• Select some dishes that can be served cold (or kept hot in the oven) so that you can cook one or two in advance.
  
  
• Ideally you should only include one dish that takes a lot of preparation.
  
  
• Once you have decided what you will cook read the recipe carefully and prepare your shopping list.
  
  
• Make sure that you that you have all the ingredients that you will need. Nothing worse than starting to cook and find out you are missing one essential ingredient.
  
  
• Decide how you will present your food, also decide what kind of beverage goes well with your dish and make sure you include it in your shopping list.
  
  
• If you are cooking for a party chose a theme and chose dishes that go with your theme.
  
  
• Make your dishes pleasing to the eye as well as to the mouth. Oftentimes a dish that didn't turn out perfectly is saved by its presentation.