Asian Inspired New Year’s Eve Party

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TaiPeiGoodFortune #CollectiveBias

New Year’s Eve is one of the best days of the year to have a party! This year I put together a plan for an easy Asian Inspired New Year’s Eve Party.

While we are celebrating on January 1st, the traditional Chinese New Year isn’t until February 19th, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to include some Chinese New Year’s traditions in our celebration.

Party Menu

I want to serve a variety of bite sized appetizer foods, and I headed to Walmart to see what was available. Since I was looking for food that is quick and easy to make I headed for the frozen aisle and chose some Tai Pei Egg Rolls and Spring Rolls, along with some shrimp and dipping sauces.

Here is my final menu:

• Tai Pei Pork Egg Rolls
• Tai Pei Mini Vegetable Spring Rolls
• Shrimp Cocktail
• Sweet and Sour Meatballs
• Fortune Cookies
• Dipping Sauces

A big factor in party menu planning for me is convenience. I want to be able to socialize and have fun too, not spend the whole night cooking! The Tai Pei Egg Rolls and Spring Rolls are easy to make, since all you need to do is heat them in the oven. But they are delicious, with crispy wrappers covering fresh cut veggies.

They also come with their own dipping sauces, another big time saver. Shrimp Cocktail is one of the easiest party dishes around, since all you have to do is thaw the shrimp. The Sweet and Sour Meatballs did take a little bit of cooking, but it is a family favorite, and it is easy to make it ahead of time and just heat it in oven along with the other appetizers.  You could also just grab some frozen meatballs when you get the Tai Pei though, and end up doing no cooking at all!

I did so much baking for Christmas that the last thing I want to do right now make more desserts! So store bought fortune cookies are an obvious dessert choice, and reading and sharing fortunes is fun at a party.

I served four different sauces with the appetizers, the tomato-soy sauce that came with the Tai Pei appetizers, a Thai Peanut sauce, a Thai Spicy Mango sauce, and a Vinegar-Chili Sauce. All were pre-made, except the Vinegar-Chili sauce, but that is a super easy recipe. It is just 3/4 of a cup of rice vinegar mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar and a sliced chili pepper. With the variety of sauces we had something to please everyone, with both sweet and spicy flavors. And they were perfect for dipping the egg rolls, spring rolls and shrimp.

Party Decor

Red is the traditional Chinese New Year color, since it symbolizes good luck, so I used red party decor. Red accessories are pretty easy to find during the holiday season, so I had no trouble finding up some candles, toothpicks with red tops and party bowls. I also used red takeout containers to hold the fortune cookies, and of course chopsticks are a necessity for an Asian theme.

I had some Asian vases that worked perfectly for holding chopsticks, and our bamboo made a nice backdrop on the sideboard.

The result is an easy to create themed party that offers a fun take-out style Asian experience.  Here are my top party planning tips:

• Include a variety of food.  So many people today are on special diets like vegetarian or gluten free.  Make sure you have enough different foods so that everyone can enjoy some.
• Think easy!  The more complicated you make the party the less fun it will be for you as the host.  Frozen foods like Tai Pei offer authentic flavor, so you can entertain easily without compromising flavor.
• Use what you have to keep costs down. Simple decorationg touches like chopsticks and red toothpicks add to the theme without breaking the bank.

You can learn more and connect with Tai Pei on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest.  What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?