Ideas for nibbly things that are simple

[Quattrocento]

I've decided to dispense with a starter, and have a lot of nibbly canape things with champagne

The trouble is that nibbly canape things can be a pain to do. Last year, they took me around 3 hours on Christmas morning.

So I'm looking to MN for some inspiration on nice nibbly things that don't take too much time. Or if they do take some time, they can be prepared two days in advance and reheated on the day.

antipasto? Chorizo, tapas. There's loads of things you can buy frozen that are nice.

can you do a 'to hell with it' (a bit ironic for Christmas) and order some platters from Waitrose?

Preprepared puff pastry sheets, cut into small squares. Fill with ham and cheese or salmon and cream cheese or whatever else takes you fancy.

Fold over corners to make envelope shapes and pop in oven for about 10 mins.

You can freeze them, just reheat on the day.

Also delicious with chicken and pesto.

I looooooooooove Nigella's parma ham, prune and cheese parcels.

They look a little messy (or "rustic chic" as I prefer to call it ) but taste divine.

Basically you get a prune (the nice squishy kind), stuff on a wodge of cream cheese (she uses goats cheese but I use philadelphia) and wrap the whole lot in a strip of parma ham. You can do them in advance (Xmas eve would be fine) and a whole tray takes about 15 mins.

The combination just says Christmas to me...

Or smoked fish (smoked salmon and smoked halibut) on thin brown bread is always a classic. They really do have to be done on the morning though.

We had a Christmas party last weekend and two things were particularly easy but good - the most simple cheese biscuits (a sophie grigson recipe on the good food channel website) which are really just equal measures of flour, cheese and butter. I used christmas pastry cutters for these.
And stuffed peppadews, I did a green olive tapenade (olives, garlic, capers, basil, lemon juice made into a paste) and cream cheese.

Oh, thanks you lot. I knew MN wouldn't let me down.

Waitrose platters is cheating, surely? Wouldn't people know?

Puff pastry thingies. Do I stuff them and cook them and then reheat?

Prune and cheese parcels sound good. They don't sound too time-consuming either.

Shall we call them MmeLindt's Puff Pastry Delights rather than puff pastry thingies?

I stuff them, bake them and then reheat.

The DC like to help, but the results are are then a bit more haphazard.

Use gruyere cheese rather than cheddar, or parmesan.

I also make mini quiches but they do take a long time to prepare.

They shall be known as Mme Lindt's Puffy Delights henceforth

Gruyere is painful in the UK. Well from Sainsburys it is. It comes in thin rectangles so that when you grate it, you end up grating either your fingers or the palm of your hand.

But I'm going for it. How long do you bake them for?

As long as you do not bleed into the Puffy Delights.

Um, I think about 10 mins.

Quattro, we did something similar last year, and the biggest hit wasn't the blinis (homemade), or Nigella parma ham prunes, but retro stylee cheese/pineapple/pickled onions on cocktail sticks, all stuck into an orange a la 1976. No-one had had them for the last 20 years, 'twas a nostalgia fest!

cheese straws
1 sheet of puff pastry, brush with beaten egg, sprinkle on 1 oz of Parmesan and 1 tbsp paprika, fold the pastry in half, press down lightly to seal, cut in half, cut each half into 8, twist each piece a few times, put on baking tray, press each end down, bake at gas mark 7 for 12-15 minutes and leave to cool for 10 minutes,
takes about 5 minutes to prepare.

Okay, finally decided on these. I know it sounds like a lot but this is in lieu of a starter.

Blinis - with salmon and cream cheese
Beef pastry things
Toasted french bread slices with tomato and mozarella
Puffy delights
Olives and feta
Big fat juicy tiger prawns and chilli mayo
Mini chicken kebabs
Tiny little sandwiches on cocktail sticks
Quails eggs (this last is an impulse buy and I am already wondering what to do with them - they can't be softboiled
Oodles of fizz

It's all over the place isn't it? Lacks a coherent theme ...

Oh well anyway. The plan is to get them all too drunk to notice.

Pringles

for my party I am keeping it to 2 hot and 2 cold nibbles - so its easier to prepare/timings rather than too much different stuff
2 hot are: spicy wedges, homemade sausage rolls (both can be prepped well before and then just chucked in the oven - not literally!!!)
2 cold are: salmon & cream cheese blinis and mozzarella sticks (mozzarella ball, basil leaf, cherry tomato on a cocktail stick with a drizzle of pesto - usually add more olive oil to make it more like a dressing so its easier to drizzle)

def ply guests with alcohol so that they don't focus on the food but on the conversation!!!!

Cheating with food!!! (waitrose Platters), who cares surely your friends and family just want to catch up with each other and be happy you didn't spend all your time stressing in the kitchen!!!!

However saying that I did make my own puff pastry filled delights last night very easy, I just put in stilton cheese !!! Nigella's prunes wrapped with parma ham and cream cheese sound yummy and easy peasy !!!! I will be trying that for sure next week .... So a big thanks for all your superb ideas ...... for one busy mamma who likes to keep thing simple and stress free as much as possible .. xx

Ps also have a large mixed cheese platter with french bread always goes down well with hungry men ....