We're having all the in-laws over for Christmas dinner this year. I haven't got enough crockery for everyone to have a starter, main and pud . Plus our dining table is in the kitchen, so to keep them out form under my feet I would rather serve canapes in the sitting room than have a starter. Any ideas? I would prefer something cold, or that can be prepared well in advance, as over space will be limited.

Last time I had a drinks party I just bought loads of frozen canapes from Waitrose and dressed them up with a bit of garnish (all hot) and they were bloody yummy.

Mostly Indian Selection and Chinese Selection. Ooh I could just eat some now [slaver]

parma ham wrapped around pineapple/figs
smoked salmon blinis
salami wrapped around olives
tortilla crisps with cream cheese on

I would buy them too if possible. Although I also tend to do easy snack food at dinner parties instead of a starter and these are the kind of things I do:

If not, smoked salmon on brown/soda bread in bite size pieces, lemon and pepper (cover with clingfilm if doing in advance). That's nice and easy cold.
Those little fat round peppers stuffed with feta or ricotta?
Smoked Mackerel Pate (easy peasy - smoked mackerel, low fat cream cheese, lemon and lots and lots of pepper. Bit of horseradish or mustard if you have it).
Other dips and pates? Houmous etc?

Hot things you can prepare in advance then just shove in the oven if you have a spot could be:
Spinach and feta pies in phyllo pastry?
Mini balls of mozzarella with a dab of pesto and then wrapped with grilled aubergine or peppers, spiked with a toothpick and warmed for a few minutes in the oven before eating.
Goats cheese tarts cut into hand sized pieces?

I always also put out piles of bread with really good olive oil and balsamic vinegar and olives on the side.

thanks everyone. am steering away from chinese/indian as DH's grandma is unadventurous in the extreme, but the other ideas sound fab.

Any more?

Mini oatcakes with different cheeses/pates. Mini quiches,hot or cold. Little bit of stilton/camembert topped with cranberries/sauce in filo, again hot or cooked the night before.
Mini ckicken skewers(on cocktail sticks) with dip or just honey/mustard marinade.

ooh i love blinis
with sour cream and smoked salmon
or sour cream and caviar (or cheapo equivalent)
yum

I second blinis

also a different not quite canape more of a nibble which is
cherries in a jar (moschino? marachino? canNOT remember)

wind two up inside a rasher of bacon and roast until the bacon is crispy to taste, a jar does a roasting trayful and you halve the rashers to make it go further, really nice, really easy, you might need to fix with a cocktail stick

My advice would be to keep it really simple.

We always just do little squares of thinly sliced and buttered brown bread with smoked salmon and a squeeze of lemon and black pepper on.

And kettle chips.

It's all you need as long as the smoked salmon is top quality.

cocktail sausages cooked with rosemary and then given a quick spoon of honey for the last 10 mins
big of flaked salt on serving makes them fab

honestly try!!

sophy has reminded me
my friend does white bread/brown bread salmon sarnies

you cut off the crusts and do one side white, one side brown
put them on a nice place and turn every alternate one over so you get a chessboard look

it's right fancy

Frittata

Stilton, peach wrapped in parma ham

Stuffed cherry toms (lovely with crab meat or chopped olives and lemon zest)

Errm

crackers with different cheeses,
mini pizza,
slices of french stick with toppings,
mini fruit or veg kebabs,
Mini shots of fizzy set jelly (add alcohol for adults)
Prawns & dip
Buy roll out puff pastry cut into squares add toppings (tomatoe & cheese,or ham etc..even do strips and dust with sugar and cinnamon for a sweet taste)and cook always go down a treat,
Somoked salmon parcels,
sausage rolls,
mini quiche

you lot are bloody brill.

thanks!

hot smoked salmon flaked mixed with some creme friache and bits of lemon on a black pepper cracker

parma ham wrapped around a chunk of mango or peach

sausages with a mustard dip

a nice blue cheese mashed with cream cheese, bashed walnuts and chopped grapes and a slosh of white wine to loosen it up and pile it on oat cakes (god i love that one!)..actually thats really good that one..do that one!!(preg. at mo and cant have it aarrrgghh)

come on..i want to drool over your favourite nibbles!!

at the weekend I wanted something easy so did blinis with cream cheese and smoked salmon and then quails eggs (hardboiled with salt to dip in) and Nigella's cocktail sausages (cooked with soy sauce, honey and oil) and olives. They were delicious.

Those squeezy tubes of veggie yeast pate are good for squeezing on little round toasts and dotting with something - tastes a lot like foie gras. Mini Yorkshires with beef and horseraddish aren't as fiddly as they sound - I think I used a recipe from the delia smith website. You can thread cooked but cooled filled pasta with sun blush toms and basil on to a cocktail stick for a very easy/tasty bite size nibble too.

ladies, are we making the blinis ourselves, or are we buying in?

Personally - I usually buy in [lazy slattern emoticon]. Waitrose do some bigger ones (cocktail size as opposed to canape apparently) and I usually buy those because its less faff to put stuff on them

If you've got oven space, then I'd do:

Devils on horseback a.k.a. prunes wrapped in bacon
Cocktail sausages with a sticky marmalade coating

If you haven't, I'd definitely go down the smoked salmon on brown bread route.

In fact, that's what we have at home as nibbles pre-Christmas dinner. It works well because you can delegate someone to butter the bread, someone to arrange the salmon and someone to put it on the tray in an artsy fashion, thereby freeing yourself up to get on with other things.

i LOVE parma ham wrapped round a bit of dried fig and goats cheese

smoked salmon on blinis

i have roasted tiny new potatoes before and cut them open put a dab of sour cream and lump fish roe - looks gorgeous

streaky bacon wrapped around water chestnut and cooked for about 15 mins in hot oven, sprinkled with a little dark sugar and soy for last few minutes are INCREDIBLY yummy too

Think tapas - just a few dishes of little, yummy tasty things:

thin slices of salami/some other cold meat - but make sure they're little slices

sliced roasted red peppers (you can them in a jar if you don't fancy doing it yourself)

I forget the name for these, they're essentially pickled onions, but Italian and done with balsamic vinegar. You will be able to buy them in jars in a good deli.

Small mushrooms roasted with garlic

Skewers of cherry tomatoes and mozzarella dipped in pesto

Asparagus spears wrapped in proscuitto

Bruschetta with sundried tomatoes

Good duck pate and chunk of fresh mango (or mango chutney) in one of those little canape cases or on a small cracker is also v nice.

this thread is making me hungry.

perkin- you can buy good blinis

can anyone recommend good canape to have when pregnant?....don't want to sit forlornly watching everyone stuffing faces and quaffing champers whils i nibble on a dry cracker with my non alcoholic beveridge!

We were at FIL and step MILs silver wedding party a couple of weeks ago, and on teh buffet table was tiny pastry cases filled with Pate. They were good.

bump for me me me! whos preggers please!

baby new potatoes roasted with rosemary, garlic and olive oil.

top tastic!

that sounds yummy.....but the oven will be rather busy on the day!!