I’m going to a cocktail party tomorrow and need to bring a plate of very excellent cocktail party-type food. You know, scrumptious finger food which looks awesome too. I can cook reasonably well so simple or complicated ideas and recipes are both welcome.
How about fried eggplant fingers?
You could make some choux paste and pipe it as for cream puffs, but fill it (after baking, of course) with a savory filling instead. For instance, a tiny piece of lettuce lining the inside of the puff, and some crab or shrimp salad in that.
sweet potato fries?
http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/10/spicy-sweet-potatoes-fries-recipe.html
I had some for the first time a couple of months ago. I loves me some sweet potato fries!
Stuffed Snow Peas
The idea I got from Taste of Home Magazine a couple of months ago.
Take crab meat-chop finely, mix with mayonnaise and cocktail sauce.
Take snow peas, steam for a minute or so, chill in ice water, pat dry, slit curved edge with knife.
Insert crab salad.
I’ve also made them with egg salad and herbed cheese stuffing.
Mix frozen chopped spinach (very well drained) with feta and lemon juice/zest in a bowl. Cut puff pastry into squares about 2 inches on a side. Put a dollop of the mixture in the middle. Use an egg wash around the edges and fold into a triangle - press edges together. Brush the top with the egg wash and sprinkle with just a little course salt. Bake per puff pastry package instructions.
It goes faster when you line the squares up in a grid so you can do them all at once rather than one at a time. Great for parties - it can be served hot or room temp and is easy finger food for the guests to snack on while standing/mingling.
This is more of a pretty-pretty presentation than complicated food:
Dainty Pea Salad Cups I don’t know if my review will be up there yet, but in it I recommend brushing the inside of the cups with a little olive oil before filling with salad - the oil helps seal out the water in the dressing so the cups don’t get soggy as quickly.
I like to use the same cups for a Waldorf salad, with the ingredients cut somewhat smaller than you’d do for a fork-eaten salad. You could also fill the cups with tuna salad, seafood or crab salad or a good homemade coleslaw.
That sounds like a winner to me. I think I just found what I will make next time for a party. I also foresee myself buzzing up some of that chimichurri sauce from another of your recipes for dinner soon. Mmmm.
Hmm…what about cutting up the grilled chicken and peppers and putting them in the wonton cups and drizzling that with the chimichurri sauce? 
(Here’s the recipe for the Grilled Chicken and Tri-Colored Peppers with Chimichurri Sauce
I used to make lumpia, which was always a giant hit with people. You need to use honest-to-og lumpia wrappers, NOT wonton or eggroll wrappers. They are very thin and a bit of a pain to work with until you get the hang of it, but the end result are wonderful crispy, tasty treats. I used to serve them with a sweet and sour sauce. I’ve made them with pork, ground beef, shrimp, or just veggie.
I went with the wonton idea because I could take them along cold and because it was way clever. I’ll be saving the other recipes for the future though; eggplant and sweet potato mmmmmmmmmm…
Wontone cocktail things wot i made
I filled them with steamed bell peppers and caramelised onion and topped them with a fresh chive and cream cheese topping.
Oh, very cute! Nice and colorful. Mind sharing your chive cream cheese topping recipe?
Sure! Package of cream cheese, soften in microwave, stir in 2 tbsps chopped fresh chives. 
I sometimes serve up the three colours of bell peppers as a salad, (cut into strips) and put a small bowl of the topping on the side. It’s simple and surprisingly excellent.
It all went so well we’ll be doing it as a regular thing.
And. I’ll be asking my Filipino workmate where to get the lumpia wrappers.
If there is a Filipino community in your town, then your local supermarket probably carries them in the frozen foods section. Any Asian market will have them.
Step 1 - make (or buy) gazpacho - cold vegetable soup
Step 2 - peel cucumbers and cut into 1.5" cylinders
Step 3 - scoop out seed from each cucumber cyclinder, leaving some at the bottom so that you are creating a small edible cup
Step 4 - fill each cup with gazpacho, serve!
Since gazpacho is normally served cold this is a good make-ahead. Fill right before serving.
Thanks to: Martha Stewart’s Hors D’oeuvres Handbook (truly an amazing book)
Mix crab meat with cream cheese and a little mayo and stuff celery sticks with it. Dust with a bit of paprika for color.
Ah, here’s my recipe:
2 Cans crab meat, drained
2 Small cream cheese (or one large)
lemon juice
1 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ Cup mayonnaise (maybe less)
Celery stalks, cut into 3-4” pieces
Combine all ingredients and pack generously into celery. Chill.
It’s my mother’s recipe, so quantities are always a problem (what the hell is a ‘small cream cheese’?).
3 ounces. It’s in the Mom Conversion Table, on page 8. 
Roughly equivelent to “to taste”
No, really, the little package of Philly is 3 ounces.
Man, I need that table. For many of her recipes, I have to SWAG it. Quantities like “one bunch” or “a large bag” are common.
My great-grandmother’s noodle recipe contains the infamous “half an eggshell of water” measurement. :dubious: Which half? What size egg?
You’d think it wouldn’t be that critical, but my family members tell me no one’s noodles are quite as good as Grandma Brunhilde’s.