Party / Buffet

We are having a large group of friends over this weekend and I'm trying to organise a buffet type party. I want to have hot food as well as salads but just lay it all out on a long table and let everyone help themselves. I'm trying to make a list of all the foods I could organise but finding the hot food a little difficult - I'll do vol u vants (sp?), chicken wings - what else could I do? I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me on this - with either the salads or hot food. I want to impress them all! I'm looking forward to it in one way but starting to panic a bit as well.

I'm not sure it is impressive but yummy- a variety of pizzas with many different toppings some veggie, some other. Then presented as big pizzas sliced up Italian breads and dips eg tapenade.Olives in bowls Kebabs veggie ones & meat ones canapes with a multitude of cracker varieties with toppings again veggie & non veggie types A cheeseboard with many types of cheese M&S do fab selections of everything HTH a little

A big pot of chilli, curry, beef stroganoff (sp?), chicken in white sauce, etc are great as they can be prepared before and heated up when you need. They also go well with rices, salads and crusty breads. I know its hard to prepare large amounts of wings, pizzas and hot nibbles and keep them hot. Its always best to stick to a small number of decent salads rather than loads of different. An easy one is roughly chopped tomato, red onion, fresh basil & dressing. Pasta salad, just put in what you fancy - peppers, corn, onion, sundried tomato and dressing. Or just a tossed lettuce salad and vary the dressing. Hope it goes well!

a big pot of chicken curry and rice, will go lovely with salads, maybe a few pizza,cocktails sausies, sausage rolls. garlic bread, god i'm getting hungry now

I normally have, Pizza's, Vol a Vents, small sausage rolls, chicken goujons with garlic sauce and M&S sweet chilli dipping sauce, Loads of Baby potatoes steamed and lots of garlic sauce to go with them. Hard boiled eggs cut in half with a tiny bit of mayo and paprika on top. Home made garlic bread with cheese (so easy to do and ten times nicer than the bought stuff) I don't do a huge amount of salads as they normally end up in the bin, but a few small bowls of coleslaw, corn, scallions, sweet tomatoes etc Avoid beetroot if you've any pale furnishings! And a couple of the cheese selections from M&S shoved together on a large bread board with loads of different crackers/biscuits. On the sweet side I usually fill a large bowl with Chocolate mallows, a couple of bowls of M&S crisps and lots and lots of vodka jelly :wink: :wink: And an easy dessert is (once again) M&S meringue nests with cream, fruit, strawberry coulis and cadbury chocolate curls, takes 5mins to throw a load of them together. Hope it all goes really well for you, try not to spend all night cooking!

I'm amazed at the number of people serving vol-au-vents at parties - they strike me as being very Margo from the Good Life particularily when made with chicken and mushroom canned soup - might be fun for a 70's theme party but I don't think I'd serve them not as a joke. Other good party food - Quesadillas, Nacho's, Sushi Rolls, Chicken Wings w/blue cheese dipping sauce, Calamari Rings with spagetti sauce for dipping, phyllo wraped prawns, spinach and feta spanikopita, Vegetable tempura.

[quote:302m6nyc]I'm amazed at the number of people serving vol-au-vents at parties - they strike me as being very Margo from the Good Life particularily when made with chicken and mushroom canned soup - might be fun for a 70's theme party but I don't think I'd serve them not as a joke. [/quote:302m6nyc] I know what you mean. :lol: Almost as bad as melon and parma ham. I just can't see the point of serving fruit as a starter. The world is your oyster wrt beffet things. There are dozens of magazines in the shops with loads of ideas about things like this in them. (i.e. I'm too lazy to think of any suggestions for you - sorry!)

Ahem, SBB, I think that as long as people continue to like vol-au-vents, there's nothing wrong with serving them! I certainly wouldn't put them in a different category to calamari with spaghetti sauce.. Triona, why not try Bruschetta a la Tomps? Slice a baguette/ciabatta, put a slice of goats cheese on each slice & toast under the grill. When these have turned a golden brown, take a jar of shop-bought salsa dip, chop in some cherry tomatoes & drop a teaspoonful of salsa on each piece of bruschetta. Serve immediately. It's like toasted cheese with a kick, & it's gorgeous.

hjjkjk

[quote:2ye0le3a]phyllo wraped prawns.[/quote:2ye0le3a] What are these??