Food ideas for a small party?!
Answers: I want to have my parents over for a little Christmas party. I don't have much $$, so I'm going to make little egg salad sandwiches and ham salad sandwiches. What else would be great that I could display in a way that looks more lavish than it really is? :)
make spinach and artichoke dips, or bruschetta, they are all simple and cheap to make
Here are some easy and i think lavish dishes :
Very small "new" potatoes, boil or microwave tender and with a small melon scoop, spoon off the tops and fill with a bit of sour cream, and top with caviar or chives
Small servings of warm savory dishes in a martini glass - like truffle mashed potatoes and braised short ribs or fancy macaroni and cheese, or wild mushrooms
Rice paper wrapped rolls - fillings can be rice stick noodles with mint, cilantro, sliced pork or a sliced shrimp, fake crab, sesame spinach, or pickled carrots - sorta like an asian salad burrito and pretty when cut on the diagonal Serve with a peanut sauce or sweet chili-lime sauce
Canned stuffed grape leaves -- nice when warmed and sliced in half, on a tray with imported olives, and a good crumbled feta
You can get a tiny bit of seafood or fish, make sushi rice, and roll your own sushi.
Make a fancy cheese ball or get a nice nutty or salty soft cow cheese or a goat cheese, some quince paste or quince jam, mix some white truffle oil with some honey and randomly drip the jam and the truffle honey on a white platter and put the cheese on the platter with fancy crackers
Dates stuffed with Almonds - sauteed in olive oil
Make little baking powder biscuits with chopped dill, split them and make fancy baked ham sandwiches spread with some chutney or mustard
Fry almonds in olive oil with sage and herbs
Sautee a hard Chorizo sausage in olive oil and serve with a potato omlette
Dredge chicken wings in jerk spice and grill til crispy
Make an unusual vegetable tray with cauliflower and cooked cubes of yams and small potatoes - Serve with a "romesco" sauce ( dip like hummus sorta but made with spanish smoked paprika, roasted red peppers, almonds, garlic, and bread crumbs)
Buy frozen artichoke hearts and stuff with a pork or turkey sausage meat, top with a bit of mozzarella, and bake
Make a fancy meatball with lamb and feta, herbs and toasted pine nuts , or pork cilantro, ginger, water chestnuts
Grill fancy sausages and slice and serve with flavored mustards
Also on the egg sandwiches - they are nice open faced with a bit of chopped nicoise olive, anchovy, and roasted red pepper.
cheese and crackers
mini burgers
fruit salad
do you have a costco store where you live? they have excellent little finger foods for parties. you can pick up a few things at a decent price.
I do this all the time and the kids and adults both love it.
Stuff some celery. I sometimes stuff with peanut butter (if you have it in your house add about 1 tsbp. of honey and a pinch of cayenne pepper). Then sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds. I also stuff them with cream cheese and sprinkle with olives, chopped nuts or fresh herbs.
Another great one is frozen boxed mini pierogies. You can get them for about $4 a box and there's a ton of them in there. Toss them in a little oil or spray the tops and bottom with pan and bake them according to the package directions. They will get crunchy and puff up nicely. Serve them with sour cream. If you have add some chives to the sour cream the night before. You can do the same with frozen ravioli and sauce, but I prefer the pierogies.
This sounds gross, but it's really good. Take 2 packages of cream cheese and spread it in the bottom of a baking dish, pour a large bottle of salsa over it. Bake on 350 for about 10 minutes. You don't want it to bubble (it will curdle) just get hot. Serve with tortilla chips.
Crackers are filling and satisfying. You can serve them with a variety of dips for little cost. You can pretty it up with some colourful veggies for munching as well. Most of us welcome something like that to help ward off those extra holiday pounds :-)
A simple spread for crackers:
Place a brick of cream cheese on a decorative plate. Pour over it one jar of jalapeno jelly. It is a lovely green color - very Christmasy - not too spicy but a nice mellow flavor in combo with the cream cheese.
For something sweet - Divinity is fairly easy to make and I don't think it costs too much.
Egg Rolls made with spring roll wraps. The ingredients are cheap and you can make a ton of them. They also taste good warm or not as warm.
A flavored cream cheese placed in a cute bowl with a spreader and some good crackers will always impress. Spiced olives and some glazed almonds set about in bowls will get the conversation off of disappointments and onto more fun things, as well as invite mingling if you set them around the rooms in differnet places. And if you look and feel fab, the food will seem just that much more glam.