Are you expecting a small crowd over for a party? Need quick and easy ideas for simple appetizers because you have no time to throw a party together? Then I’ve got the solution for you! An easy appetizer party for a crowd is at your fingertips with a quick review of your pantry and refrigerator and a quick trip to your local grocery store.
This party actually took place at my house on December 23rd. But, the setting and the appetizers are neutral enough that this party could have happened at any time of year. With the Super Bowl coming up, plus Valentine’s Day on the horizon, I thought sharing these tips, even though the holiday has ended and the New Year underway, would still be useful and appropriate.
So, here’s a list of tips to make a last minute event less stressful, but nonetheless successful:
(1) Create your guest list. You will need to know how many people will be attending and what they are. What do you mean “what they are” {giggle}? I mean are they women, couples, families, vegetarian, etc. Your menu will need to accommodate these various options. In my case, it was a family party, so there were women, men and children; young children! I needed the menu to include man-friendly food as well as young kid-friendly food! It’s all about making everyone feel included!
(2) Take stock. Look in your pantry and refrigerator. What do you already you have on hand that could be used as appetizers? We received a packet of cheeses and summer sausage as a Christmas gift, plus a jar of homemade jalapeño pepper jelly. Great jumping off point. In addition, we had crackers, olives, pickles, cream cheese, chips, grape tomatoes (both red and yellow), fresh basil, salad dressing, dried plums, mustard, barbecue sauce and ketchup. Using this list of ingredients, I sat down to plan my menu.
(3) Plan the menu. I decided I would make one hot dish, a hot dip that I wanted to try. I even had all the ingredients, so that wasn’t going to be a hassle. The rest of the food needed to be “finger food”, so I decided to make skewers from the tomatoes, basil and cheese for the women and more “man-friendly” skewers of olives, summer sausage and cheese. I knew the jalapeño pepper jelly would be great over a block of cream cheese served with an assortment of crackers, plus it was ZERO work. But, I decided I need a few more “man-friendly” foods from the store. So, I purchased packages of Little Smokies Sausages and a platter or shrimp (that really was for my mother – the ultimate lover of shrimp who could eat shrimp every day of her life!). In addition, the Little Smokies are “kid-friendly” so along with the cheese, crackers and chips, the younger children would be happy.
(4) Pick the location. Decide where to set up your appetizer party. It can be on a buffet in your dining room, your kitchen table, your kitchen countertop, a folding table. Whatever works for your space – that’s what you want to choose.
(5) Set the stage. Next, decide whether you need to cover the table. If it’s a folding table, you definitely need to, but if it’s a dining table, kitchen table, buffet or countertop, covering the table is optional. If this party is for a special occasion, i.e., birthday party, holiday event, girls get-together like a shower or luncheon, a tablecloth is festive. But, then you need to iron said tablecloth, so depending on time even a purchased paper or plastic tablecloth might work better.
(6) Make it pretty. You will need some type of plant or floral arrangement. For this party, I just used one of the plants I already had. You could even use a collection of your household plants grouped together or down the center of the table. This decision depends on the space limitations of your table and how many appetizers you plan to serve.
(7) Gather your serving dishes and platters. Knowing what I was serving helped me to decide which serving dishes to use. For example, I knew I was serving a hot dip, so I used a wooden cutting board as a trivet. I also knew I was going to serve chunks of cheese with sliced summer sausage and leave the rest whole to use as needed. So, another wooden cutting board was needed. Then, the shrimp comes on a plastic platter from the grocery store, but it is so beautifully arranged that I didn’t want to disassemble it in the short amount of time that I had to get this party together and reassemble it. So, I selected a beautiful, large silver platter that is a family heirloom from Charlie’s aunt and used that as a focal point for the shrimp. Then I found small dishes and divided serving dishes for olives, pickles, mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce, etc. And, I used a long, large olive boat for the crackers. Finally, the table needed a few dishes for “height” so I decided on a pedestal cake plate as a serving dish and a medium-sized clear vase for bread sticks. Don’t forget to put out all serving utensils needed for each dish. This will avoid last minute scrambling to find the right serving spoon, etc. And, set out the plates, napkins and utensils needed for your guests (since I opted for finger foods, I only needed plates and napkins and used cute paper plates and paper napkins for easy clean-up).
TIP: once you have your serving dishes out and placed on the table, countertop, etc., make little “name tags” of the dishes you plan to serve. Place those name tags inside or alongside each serving dish so that you can either add to your display or take away from your display. This will avoid last minute jostling of dishes and over-crowding your display.
(8) Set up a drink area. I used the end of my kitchen counter. We decided on beer, wine, sparkling apple cider and hot apple cider. I got out a very large ice bucket (one purchased from Costco long ago, so imagine the size!) for the sparkling apple cider, beer and wine, a slow cooker for the hot apple cider, plus a tray with mugs for serving. The next morning, I poured the apple cider and mulling spices in the slow cooker and set it for 3 hours and went off to do other things. About a half hour before the party started, we filled the ice bucket with ice and added the beer, wine and sparkling apple cider.
(9) Make your food ahead of time. Since the party was happening the next day, I had time to prepare the skewers and the hot dip (without baking it). Both kept well overnight in the refrigerator and were a snap to put together at the last minute. Plus I made the mulling spice packet for the hot apple cider. Done!
(10) Set the food on the table. As you set the table, be sure to remove your paper “name tags” and throw them away! About a half hour before the guests were to arrive, I put the hot dip in the oven and started putting out the appetizers in this order:
- chips, crackers, bread sticks
- olives and pickles
- mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce (as dunkers for the sausages)
- cream cheese with the jalapeño jelly
- cheese and sausage platter
- put the Little Smokies Sausages in the microwave
- placed the shrimp platter on the silver tray
- placed the skewers on their respective dishes
- got the Little Smokies out of the microwave and transferred them to a pretty crystal bowl
- got the hot dip out of the oven and placed it on the wooden cutting board
Voila’! Party started!
Here are a few more pictures! I wouldn’t let anyone start eating until I took a picture {giggle}!
My mother scarfed one of the shrimp BEFORE I took the picture above! See the missing one? I forgave her – shrimp fiend that she is!
BTW – the Hot Mexican Corn Dip was a HUGE success! The recipe makes about 10 cups of dip (whatever fits in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish), so I thought I’d have leftovers (we had 16 people including 4 young children). Man, oh man, was I ever wrong! It disappeared in a flash even though we followed this appetizer party with a prime rib roast dinner AND dessert!
Here’s the menu:
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Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce (purchased pre-made from the grocery store)
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Little Smokies Sausages (I bought 2 packages) with mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce
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Cream Cheese with Jalapeño Pepper Jelly (a gift) served with an assortment of crackers
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Long, crunchy bread sticks (purchased) with assorted cheeses and summer sausage (a gift)
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Olives, pickles and pepperoncini
- Easy Caprese Skewers
- Easy Olive, Cheese and Sausage Skewers
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Hot Mexican Corn Dip with tortillas chips
Recipes follow over the next few days for the Easy Caprese Skewers, the Easy Olive, Cheese and Sausage Skewers, the Hot Mexican Corn Dip AND the Hot Apple Cider with Mulling Spices. So stay tuned…
- Picture #1 – Princess Sweetie Pie getting ready to “dig in”; Grandpa is in the background!
- Picture #2 – Mom scoping out the shrimp platter
- Picture #3 – Justin eating “man-friendly” food
Guess what? I had a really great time because this party was so easy and stress-free! Hope your holidays were wonderful, too!
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other appetizer recipes)
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