When hosting a dinner party, it is a nice touch to heat the dinner plates before serving. This helps keep the food warm so it doesn't cool too quickly. This is especially important at a dinner party where people tend to chat while eating, meaning the process of eating the meal takes longer than normal.

Preheat oven at 175. Stack dinner plates on the rack and heat for about 15 minutes. You can turn the oven off and leave them in if you don't need the oven for anything else. Otherwise, remove from the oven and wrap in a clean towel until you are ready to serve.

If it is for a dinner people will be doing buffet style, be sure to have napkins right next to the heated dinner plates. This way if someone finds a plate too hot to hold, they can use a napkin to hold it with... don't forget that "perfect" to you might be "too hot to touch for more than a second" to someone else.