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I enjoy good food and have many tips for planning a menu for weddings or for parties. I like the notion of serving finger food because it make it possible for your friends to have conversations and eat at the same time. For this reason, I believe serving Hors D’oeuvres are the best. The bite size food is uncomplicated to make and can be prepare to look stunning on serving plates.
I also like the glazing style. This self-serve setup is like a buffet. It is much easier for the host. People tend to eat less with this setup. Topically, prepare 4 to 6 Hors D’oeuvres per person. You can pick a theme or select a color theme like you do with the wedding. Set up food, dessert, and drinks stations. The linens and lighting can create the environment you want. Glazing can be self serve or serve by wait staff.
When preparing the menu, begin with a food theme. For example, food items can be by country, vegetarian or meat. Does the budget allow for seafood? Is alcohol on the menu? Will you have no host bar or will it be included with the party? Will it be lunch or dinner? Once all of decisions are made, begin to identify the main courses. If you have 40 guests, plan 40 of each Hors D’oeuvres you are serving. Begin picking 4 main Hors D’oeuvres, 2 dessert choices, add drinks to calculate the total cost per person . If you are within budget, add more Hors D’oeuvres, desserts, drinks, etc.
Be sure to have servers keeping all the stations clean and filled. This is your party, make sure you are not the one to worry about the details. Pick items that can be serve hot or cold. If serving hot food, can it be reheated just before serving. For example, if serving finger sandwiches, they are usually serve cold, but needs to be seal really well so the bread do not dry out. Also the juice/sauce from the sandwich are not soak into the bread.
Bread is versatile, economical, and can shape into many forms. Here are a few ideas that can turn bread into a fancy meal. With so many recipes on the Internet today, it will be easy for you to find the recipes you need. If not able to find them, you can contact me by via my website. Listed below are four bite size finger food options. This is a good start for a small party.
Boutique of flowers
- Use crestless marbleized bread to create a stand up roll
- use yogurt and horseradish sauce to make a bread spread,
- toss thinly sliced apple in lemon juice,
- layer bread with your choice of beef (very thin cut) and apple, leaving one edge of the bread with no meat or apple so the bread can stay together.
- use watercress, edible flowers to create vase like roll with flowers and leave coming out of the top of the roll.
Caviar on Blinis
An substitute to using bread is making Blinis. They look like dollar size pancakes. It can be make in advance. Again, search the Internet for Blinis recipe. Cook all that you need in advance and reheat to room temperature when serving. Top it with sour cream and colorful caviar. Once the topping is added, serve it quickly.
Use small cookie cutter of your choice to cut out bread pieces. Spread bread with dill cream cheese and top with smoked salmon, then fresh dill or parsley. Like the Blinis above, they are serve open face.
Sweet Nutty Carrot
Mix 1 cup of finely chopped carrots, 3/4 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, half cup of toasted chopped pecans, 1/4 cup raisins, 1/4 cup chopped parsley, bind all ingrediants with 8 ounce of cream cheese. Use water down honey to coat 24 pecan halves and roasted them. Spread creamy mixture on firm bread of your choice and top it with more string carrots and honey toasted pecan.
Here is an idea for beverage that can look just as good with all of the bite size food above.
Look for a fruity, floral green tea, like our Long Island Strawberry green tea. Use about 6 teaspoon for 2 quarts of iced tea. Use one quart of hot water to steep the tea. and add 1 quart of ice to cool off the hot tea. Chill iced tea until serving time. It’s best to make this one day in advance. Use a fruit juice to make heart shape ice cubes. Just before serving, add heart shape ice cubes to the tea for sweetness and presentation.
You can find our tea blog for more recipe ideas. Beautiful Tea For Two pillow gift boxes are available from our website.
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