What food would you like at a lunchtime/ afternoon family party?

[BoogleOogle]

Having a family party from about 13:30/14:00 in a few weeks. About 30 people, mostly adults but several toddlers and primary children.

I was going to get catering but the prices are shocking so going to do it myself. It'll be a cold buffet for easy. I want to make it minimal work as I have very young DCs and work full-time, but obviously I want people to enjoy the food!

I was thinking that no one really eats sandwiches at these sorts of things, so should I bother with them at all? Maybe just bread and butter and then lots of nibbles like sausage rolls, onion bhajis, samosas, pork pies, cocktail sausages etc. Maybe some cold pizza? What else?

Pudding was thinking just a selection of those boxes of cake bites and nice prepared fruit or berries? Maybe jam tarts or something as well? Mini rolls?

Is this all naff or would you like it? Ideally I just want finger food so no cutlery and nothing hot.

Egg n Cress n black pepper. Love it.

OP: I don't want to cook, heat food, or need plates or cutlery

Some replies: how about cooking multiple things that then require some kind of trough to eat slop out of. How about spending hours cooking stuff that will need plates?
🤣

I like sandwiches best as I don't really like sausages or pastry much.

How about quiches (maybe crustless) or frittata in slices.

Carrot sticks, peppers , celery etc with dips.

PS sounds like I've invited myself along 🤣

Big plate Hot sausages

Big plate Hot Chicken wings

Big plate Crudités

Plate Salamis/ cold meats

Tabbouleh type Salad

Potato Salad

Roast Veg Salad

Cheese Board

Fruit Platter

Bread

3 x Dips

Bread sticks

Crisps

Pavlova or Tiramisu or Trifle

Scones/jam/cream or Vic Sponge

Ice cream cones

Brownies ( if I was going all out )

Sorry OP I missed the cold bit. Serve the sausages and chicken cold. 😄

I really love egg sandwiches too- however I don't eat them on buffets as I'm not keen if they've been stood around

She only wanted that "for ease" and never said anything about not wanting plates @B0g

The OP herself considered a dominos. That's hot food. The buffet suggestions on here are much more like hard work when you are short on time. Easier to heat up something in the oven than make "3 big salads, tabouleh, a tray bake cake, loads of crudités, a whole poached salmon" and fucking brownies 😅

For ease I'd go

Crudities n dips

Order pizza

Ices cream/ cones/ berries

brownies

Fab!

You might still need plates 😄🤷‍♀️

Really? I love egg sandwiches, as does my husband, and as I don't have a daughter or son-in-law, that means there are at least two households in the UK where they go down well! Why would M&S and every other supermarket always have egg sandwiches if nobody likes them? I really like sandwiches of all kinds, actually, and if there's a selection of sandwich quarters at a buffet I always pick out one egg and one prawn if possible.

Yes!

Not only that, but OP has carefully explained that this do is on a Saturday afternoon, she works full-time and will be at work the day before, she will be out with the kids on Saturday morning, and therefore she has minutes to put this together before her guests come. Her preparation time, realistically, will be just about enough to get the house tidy, get the shopping done, put the stuff out and get the packaging into the bin before people arrive. And yet people have suggested buffets that would take weeks of advance preparation and a trip to Borough Market!

Beige buffets are great, especially for an informal gathering where people will drop in for a short time and take a snack to keep them going while they chat.

I will just say, though, that bought scones are pretty awful and one of the very few foods I don't find tempting. OP doesn't have time to make scones either, but if she had had time, I'd have recommended making them herself, as they're pretty easy and absolutely delicious while still warm from the oven.

I am not a fan of buffets. Picking at lots of different types of food gives me indigestion.

I much prefer serving a decent portion of chilli with a baked potato or rice.

I'm afraid I've never had a good home cooked curry or tagine either to be brutally honest.

That said, I own the fact that I'm a lazy host. It's pizzas from the local shop all the way for me.

I love an egg mayo or prawn mayo sandwich, but only M&S. think it must be a childhood thing, they don’t taste the same when I make them at home!!

Shop-bought egg sandwiches are rubbish, home-made are delightful.

Anyway. I know OP has time constraints etc. But I could not host and provide poor doings. If I was absolutely strapped for time I'd order a ham from Dukeshill , they also do excellent British cheese. Throw together a couple of salads. Dips take minutes to make, as do crudités.

I know PP mocked my effortful buffet but it only took four hours.

It's not hard or time-consuming to provide a decent spread.

Four hours? You must work at the speed of lightning, @RhadamanthNemes. If I set to work to prepare all of this for 15 people, I'd need days. I'd also need another fridge/freezer and very deep pockets. You may be able to afford all of this but we're in the middle of a cost of living crisis and most UK reisdents can't.
***
Tomato, thyme and roast garlic tart
Rare roast sirloin
Coronation chicken
Poached whole salmon
Devilled eggs
Cheese board
Guacamole, hummus and blue cheese dips with crudités (cucumber, carrot, pepper, radish, celery, cherry tomato). Quality crisps.
Olive mix.
Potato salad with vegan mayo, capers, red onion & cornichon.
Coleslaw with vegan mayo.
Tabbouleh
Roast cauliflower & chickpea salad with tahini dressing
Garlic mushrooms
Roast purple sprouting brocoli with roasted Tomatoes, capers and a mustard dressing
Pasta salad with vegan pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, toasted pine nuts and basil
Green salad.
Sour dough and baguettes
Vegan pecan pie
Poached pears
Baked cheesecake
Rhubarb sorbet
Blood orange sorbet
Vanilla icecream
And a bought vegan Vanilla icecream.

Yes I'm particular about my egg sandwiches too. Must be mashed with melted butter, mayo and a splash of salad cream and lots of pepper.

To answer the question, I'd probably order the M&S sandwich platters and supplement with things that work well cold like quiche or sausages and various types of salads and raw veggies. I don't like cold pizza, although I always think I wouldn't want a cold chicken goujon but find myself strangely drawn to them at a buffet.

I think there's another consideration that the more things you have on a buffet the more food you need as people tend to go down the line having one or two of everything.

So that's at least 30x samosas, 30x bhajis, 30x sausage rolls, 30x pizza slices, 60x sandwiches, quiche for 30...

If you stick to a couple of big things whether that's chilli and wraps, pulled pork in rolls, cheeseboard/meats with bread, pasta salad it may be more manageable overall. All could be done in advance and just heated up quickly when guests arrive.

Yes, four hours @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g. You need decent knives and knife skills though.

(I did used to cater professionally so my kitchen work-flow is on point!).

This was my suggestion.

I always do a slow cooker of pulled pork and loads of bread, butter, salad bits and cheeses, sauces and apple sauce, and stuffing!

Some meats, sausages, sausage rolls etc

Crisps, nibbles

Fresh fruit and pastries.

The only problem is people tend to enjoy it so much I don't get as much left overs as I'd like

@RhadamanthNemes I’d like to read a thread of peoples dream buffet suggestions. No suggestion too over the top. It’d inspire me make me ravenous. Do you have a favourite recipe for a cheese and garlic and carb loving vegetarian?
Doesn’t sound like OP has catering experience, fancy knives, knife skills and several hours in this event though 😄

Thanks for all the responses!

To clear a few things up:

My family all love pork

I am happy for my guests to put their beige items on a plate rather than just grab with their hands from the table and shove the food straight in

As PP says, I will have minutes to set things out that I'll pick up from my local shop which is the main reason why I was against hot stuff as a) it won't be ready for a while so will mean the food comes in dribs and drabs and b) I don't want to be cooking and in the kitchen as I have several DCs to keep an eye on and I also want to enjoy chatting to my guests!

I do think that maybe pulled pork and rolls or similar might work though if I can get hold of a slow cooker

I don't have loads of fridge space meaning I can't prep much in advance

I hate egg sandwiches!

I'm not a professional caterer

Prices for literally some sandwiches and sausage rolls from a caterer were about £15pp which is why I need to do it myself. As this was the menu for a couple of the caterers I feel like it can't be too bad to serve this?!

I don't want to speak to PieGate too much but although I do love pie, this event will be mid summer so I imagine very hot if it's like last year so maybe cold food will actually be what's wanted?

Also, I don't care about impressing people with the food. I obviously don't want anyone to be hungry or feel the food is embarrassingly bad, but the food isn't the focus - I just want a nice afternoon catching up with people.

If you have a slow cooker make a pot of chilli and jacket spuds

Or rolls , cheeses , bread and cured meats

Or. Slow cooker pulled pork butties with apple sauce