We’re having a bit of a party this weekend (if you’re local, contact me), and I’m looking for suggestions (and accompanying recipes) as to what to serve. I will serve Turkey Soup and biscuits, as well as a vegetable platter. It’s a stand-up style, not-really-a-meal sort of affair. I’m looking for ideas to round out the buffet table. Nothing too complicated, please.
Thank you!
Want something you can make ahead that will knock everyone’s socks off?
Make chicken salad - my favorite is chopped cooked chicken breast, diced celery, grapes, chopped pecans and a little bit of onion or shallots with mayo (homemade is better, use jarred if you’re sane), honey and dill, salt and pepper. Cut all the ingredients a little smaller than you’d normally make for eating with a fork or on a sandwhich. Make a day or two ahead and refrigerate - not only is it one less thing to do the day of the party, but the flavors get better overnight.
Take wonton skins (from the produce section of most supermarkets.) Use a muffin tin and push one wonton skin in each space, letting it come up on the sides, forming a “cup” of sorts. I find this is easy to do with a small glass that fits into the well and can push the wonton skin gently all the way down and into the corners. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, or until crisp. Cool and stack in an airtight container. You can do this a day ahead of time.
When ready to serve, scoop the salad into the wonton cups - I use an ice cream scoop to make it easy and pretty. That’s it. Elegant and gorgeous, but very simple. If you want it to look like a magazine cover, put a little sprig of something green - basil, parsley, etc - on top of each scoop.
For a vegetarian version, I like a pea-salad: bag of frozen peas, thawed, with finely chopped celery, mozzarella cheese and the ranch or dill dressing of your choice.
Since we’ve been on a food kick lately around here I’ve been thinking about hashed browns more than usual. This is a nice side dish using hashed browns and it’s great comfort food too.
Party Potatoes
2 lbs. frozen hash browns, thawed
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. diced onions
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
16 oz. sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Salt & pepper
CRUMBS:
2 c. crushed corn flakes
2 tbsp. butter, softened
Mix together hash browns, butter, onions, cheese, sour cream, soup, salt and pepper. Put in 9"x13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Combine corn flakes and softened butter. Add crumb mixture on top. Bake another 10 to 15 minutes.
You can also use crushed potato chips in place of the corn flakes.
Turkey soup and biscuits at a stand-up party? I don’t understand how that won’t be messy. But, YMMV.
What about mashed potatos for maximum comfort food yumminess? You can have a selection of toppers for people to play with.
Gots to get me a Wendy’s baked potato now. Damn you!
Well, those that eat soup will sit, but what I mean by a stand-up party is that it’s not a formal, sit-down, full meal sort of a function.
Thanks, keep them coming!
Chili Cheese Dip
2 - 8 oz. packages softened cream cheese (can use the light version if you wish, it’s softer anyway)
1 - 15 oz. can chili without beans
16 oz. shredded Cheddar cheese
1 large bag restaurant-style tortilla chips
I find this stuff addictive.
Bruschetta is pretty easy and tasty. Just slice some baguettes on a bias and wipe the slices with olive oil and tast in the oven. Then rub them with garlic cloves and put a liitle mound of diced fresh tomatoes, canned sun-dried tomatoes and some fresh basil in the center. Delicious!
tast = toast, sorry
Oh how sad. I was looking forward to learning how to tast.
You’re going to need some sort of dessert. I make an orange bread and a lemon pound cake in loaf pans that can be cut into slices and easily grabbed. It’s easier than pie or cake in that you don’t have to slice them into pie shapes.
Don’t forget a bowl of mixed nuts. Unless someone has a peanut allergy, you can’t go wrong there.
Waikiki Meatballs
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 cup brown sugar; packed
2 cans pineapple chunks in syrup, drained (reserve syrup for sauce !)
2/3 cup vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 large peppers (Green, Red, Yellow, whatever); chopped
2 sweet onions, chopped (your choice of onions)
1 large (160 count) package of pre-cooked meatballs (cooked according to pkg instructions). You can make your own meatballs for this, but I’m lazy.
Sauce: Mix cornstarch and sugar. Stir in reserved pineapple syrup, vinegar, and soy sauce until smooth (Use a whisk - it works better if the cornstarch clumps). Heat (**medium ** heat !), stirring a LOT, until just boiling. Remove from heat.
Pour sauce over vegetables in a large stock pot – heat until almost done, then add meatballs & heat through.
This can be halved for smaller batch.
Enjoy!
I agree. I have done this countless times and it always goes over. Find the biggest baked potatoes you can find. Nuke them in advance and cover them with aluminum foil. Put toppings of different cheeses, sour cream, bacon bits, ham cubes, onions, butter, and whatever else strikes your fancy. It is quick and easy and that is about all I do, quick and easy 
One of the best quick and easy finger desserts I’ve ever tasted:
1 package Oreo cookies
1 package cream cheese
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Put Oreos in food processor; reduce to crumbs. Add room temperature cream cheese; process until smooth. Shape into balls and coat in melted semi-sweet chocolate. If you want to get fancy you can roll them in chopped nuts or coconut.
Another good buffet style dessert is fresh strawberries with bowls of brandy, grated dark chocolate and powdered sugar for dipping.
Now this is one I’m printing out. That sounds absolutely fantastic.
Another option for dessert is pumpkin bars/cupcakes. Easy-peasy recipe, and SO GOOD.
1 15oz. can of pumpkin
2 cups Bisquick
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Mix well. Pour/scoop into 9x14 (or so – it’s not a picky recipe) pan or into cupcake pan (I really like these as baby cupcakes), and bake at 350 degrees until done. That will be about 40 minutes for a big pan (but make sure to test with a toothpick, it can take longer than you think for the center to set), and about 15-17 minutes for baby cupcakes. Frost with cream cheese frosting (I use store-bought when making bars, but I make my own for the cupcakes – the store-bought frosting doesn’t pipe well.). That’s it!
So easy, and even people who don’t like pumpkin love these. It’s a nice change from pumpkin pie, too.
Make quesadillas. They go over really well, and can be cut into large or small wedges, as needed. At the simplest, all that is required is tortillas, salsa and pre-grated cheese. If you want to get fancy, you can grate your own cheese and add a meat, or corn, onions, peppers, etc. They’re best if you serve them still a little warm, but they can be made ahead if necessary.
We usually cook them on the barbeque grill, for both the taste and the grill marks, making them seem more authentic.
Mini pigs in blankets! They’re incredibly easy and too tasty. Plus, you can probably get kids to help make them.
Get two packages of Lit’l smokies (or whatever) and three tubes of refrigerated croissant dough. Open a tube of dough and divide it into four sections. Each section will be made up of two individual proto-croissants and you just need to pinch them together. Then cut each section into nine pieces, so you’ll have 36 little pieces of dough from each tube. Now all you need to do is wrap one lit’l smokie with one piece of dough. Bake for 12 minutes, dip in honey mustard, and try not to eat them all yourself.
Sausage Balls
1 lb. mild breakfast sausage, broken into dime-sized pieces
2 cups Bisquick
1-2 cups regular shredded cheddar cheese
Makes 16-20 depending on size.
Mustard Chicken is my favorite buffet/potluck standard. You can make gigantic amounts of it easily, stretch it forever with rice and it’s cheap, too!
Place thawed boneless skinless chicken thighs into a baking pan. You can use bone in thighs but it means more work–don’t leave the skin on, though, or it gets way too greasy. Melt a quantity of butter, margarine or olive oil–about 1/4 cup for 6-8 thighs is a good thumb rule. Whisk in as much of your favorite mustard as you can stand–the bare minimum strength mustard for this is Gulden’s brown, so have fun. Honey mustard tastes a bit weird in this recipe, but spicy brown coarse varieties are hearty and Trader Joe’s garlic aioli mustard is fantastic. Sometimes I just use up all the leftover mustards in the house making this stuff. You can’t go too far wrong making this fairly goopy, BTW. Spread thinly sliced onion over the chicken, spread the mustard goo evenly over the chicken and bake at 350-400 for about 45 minutes or until nicely done. Scrape the mustard goo off the chicken, place chicken on a plate and chop it up into bite size chunks. Put the pan with the goo over a medium heat, scraping all the bits off the sides, then scatter in enough flour to make a nice roux, brown it a bit and cook it stirring constantly, add garlic salt and pepper to taste. Then add water, white wine, or broth in batches, stirring constantly, to make a nice smooth gravy. Dump the chicken back in and simmer a few minutes. Serve on huge amounts of rice–I guarantee that even after all the chicken is gone people will be eating any bit of rice that has even the smallest smidgen of the gravy on it–it’s just that good.
Man, I’m in the warm comfort food zone today–scraped the first frost of fall off my car this morning, and elk season is coming up… mmmm, elk stew, gggrrhgggh!
These are recipes that I made for my wedding and they went over very well. Nothing too complicated or pricey.
Artichoke Salsa
1 (6.5 ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts
3 roma (plum) tomatoes
2 tablespoons red onion
1/4 cup black olives
1 tablespoon garlic
2 tablespoons fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
I also added some hearts of palm but it is not neccessary.
Toss all but tomatoes into food processor. Pulse til chopped. Add tomatoes last so they don’t get too mushy. Serves 5.
Shrimp and Dill Deviled Eggs
6 hard boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 (4.5 ounce) can shrimp, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill weed
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons prepared Dijon-style mustard
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 pinch ground black pepper
fresh dill weed
Cut hard boiled eggs in half and remove the yolk into a bowl. Add everything but srimp and mix. Fold in shrimp gently so as not to mush it and fill egg whites. Top each egg with one shrimp or some fresh dill.
Pesto Deviled Eggs
6 hard boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayo
favorite pesto
Add mayo and pesto to taste. Top each with toasted pine nut, if desired.
White Pizza Dip
1 (1 ounce) package herb and garlic soup mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Combine in 1 quart baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve hot with french bread or breadsticks. Serves 10
Cream Cheese and Leek stuffed Mushrooms
Mushrooms (I used two of the bigger packages…don’t know what size they were)
2 leeks, chopped and rinsed to remove sand
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
garlic powder
olive oil
Remove stems from mushrooms. Place mushrooms on oil coated cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees while you are preparing the filling. Saute leeks til tender. Add to softened cream cheese. Add garlic powder to taste. Stuff mushroom caps and broil til tops are brown.
Bacon and Cream Cheese Crescents
2 pkgs refrigerated crescent rolls
8 oz. cream cheese
finely chopped onion
bacon, cooked and crumbled
Mix softened cream cheese, onion and bacon. Unroll and separate crescents. Place small spoonful of mix onto each. Roll and bake as directed. Make a lot…these are so good. They can be made ahead of time and frozen then popped into the oven to warm.