Canapés, finger food, party food ideas and recipes

Dubl07

I'm hosting a birthday party in mid-July and want to start gathering ideas for the food. It will be fairly low key (30 people) and I'd like suggestions for single-bite or two-bite items.

Make ahead and freeze or fairly fast to do on the night before/day itself would be great. I'm very open to buying pre-made quality bits as well.

What would you suggest?

So far I've tentatively got these on the list:

Falafel (are Aldi's ones best of the bought ones?) with a dip - I'm thinking yoghurt and mint - suggestions please
Chicken wings (we intend to buy a few packs of free-range wings, de-tip them and divide in two(?), steam a day ahead and finish on the day in bbq/oven) with dip - does that sound okay?
Cocktail sausages with a spicy tomato basting sauce for oven/bbq
Satay chicken and (peanut?) dip
Cocktail vol-au-vents - any ideas where these can be bought at this time of year?
Small crustless sandwiches filled with ham & honey mustard; beef & horseradish; egg & chives

The above will be culled or added to depending on suggestions.

If the weather's up to outdoor eating, I'll make/buy a few salads etc but would still prefer everything to be easy to eat with a fork. I quite like a few of items on the Dunnes salad bar. Can I buy those in catering quantities or does anyone know who makes those salads for Dunnes? At a pinch I'll just fill a bunch of the Dunnes normal containers. I suppose it'll come down to time on the weekend in question.

BuffyBot

Dubl07 wrote: »

I'm hosting a birthday party in mid-July and want to start gathering ideas for the food. It will be fairly low key (30 people) and I'd like suggestions for single-bite or two-bite items.

Make ahead and freeze or fairly fast to do on the night before/day itself would be great. I'm very open to buying pre-made quality bits as well.

What would you suggest?

So far I've tentatively got these on the list:

Falafel (are Aldi's ones best of the bought ones?) with a dip - I'm thinking yoghurt and mint - suggestions please
Chicken wings (we intend to buy a few packs of free-range wings, de-tip them and divide in two(?), steam a day ahead and finish on the day in bbq/oven) with dip - does that sound okay?
Cocktail sausages with a spicy tomato basting sauce for oven/bbq
Satay chicken and (peanut?) dip
Cocktail vol-au-vents - any ideas where these can be bought at this time of year?
Small crustless sandwiches filled with ham & honey mustard; beef & horseradish; egg & chives

The above will be culled or added to depending on suggestions.

If the weather's up to outdoor eating, I'll make/buy a few salads etc but would still prefer everything to be easy to eat with a fork. I quite like a few of items on the Dunnes salad bar. Can I buy those in catering quantities or does anyone know who makes those salads for Dunnes? At a pinch I'll just fill a bunch of the Dunnes normal containers. I suppose it'll come down to time on the weekend in question.

Personally, I'd go with 3 main "food" items, if salads and sandwiches are in the mix also. Perhaps 2 meat, and one vegetarian. You can always supplement with "nibbles" (bowls of olives, extra bread, crisp, nuts, cheeses etc)

The biggest problem with wings is that you might have to make two different types of wings - maybe mild/sweet and sticky vs spicy. You could always go for a middle ground but that might not please anyone :P. (I'd recommend a dairy based dip if going down the spicy - a soured cream and chive or blue cheese etc, as someone will nearly always overestimate their ability

Shenshen

I would suggest a range of dips (can be easily made a day or two in advance) with vegetables (carrot sticks, celery, broccoli florets) and maybe two types of bread.

While pre-arranged canapes look lovely, they tend to be a lot of work and in my experience at the end of the day people love assembling their own food

Melendez

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Thoie

Various crackers/table water biscuits laid out with a slice of cheese on each. Have pots of things like quince jelly, pesto, balsamic jelly near them. If you have icing syringes, fill those with the jellies - cleaner and easier to let people apply themselves, rather than messing around with spoons.

ChampagnePop

Home made pesto, hummus, guacamole and crusty bread, selection of deli meats e.g. parma ham and baked ham, cheese board with crackers.
I'd put these beside a hot meat option and salads.

chuckles30

You could make a large quiche in a rectangular tin & cut it up into bite size pieces. It's perfect when eaten cold. It can also be made in advance and frozen, so all you need to do on the day is defrost & cut it up. Or you could make it fresh and freeze any leftovers.....as there's always leftovers after these kind of parties in my experience