Calling all domestic goddesses...

[zippy539]

Hi - I'm hoping that some of you can help me out here. DD's christening is going to be at 9.30 in the morning and everyone will be coming back here afterwards for drinks/buffet. Given the early hour I'm looking for ideas for brunch type food which can be eaten on laps/standing - I was thinking maybe ham/salmon things but also need veggie ideas. I'm not the world's greatest cook so I need things that are simple and can be made in advance/heated up - or (even better) - ready made stuff (M&S etc). Any thoughts much appreciated!

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loads of cake sounds appealing!!

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sorry - that wasnt very helpful.... what about things like melba toasts with various toppings... a cheesboard with grapes and posh crackers

I think mediterranean food is good - hummous and tzatziki with crudites and pitta bread to dip, little falafel dipped in tahini, dolmades (stuffed vine leaves), tiropites (cheese wrapped in filo pastry) etc. All of those you can get in M&S and Waitrose, or even better if you have a local lebanese or greek restaurant to do them for you - and give you a mixture of hot and cold things. It also encompasses quite a lot for veggies so you don't have to cater seperately. You can also make up some little lamb meatballs in advance and then either serve them cold or microwave them hot at the last minute. I can give you a good authentic completely simple greek recipe for those if you like.
Another nice thing is a strip of parma ham, dollop of ricotta in it, small asparagus spear, and roll it all up. V easy and very nice. serve them on a plate with a bit of olive oil drizzled on them. Also little cherry tomatoes with the stalk taken out, sliver of mozzerella and a basil leaf put in them, again with a drizzle of olive oil. Yummy

Hey I'm on a roll! Sounds good - can I come?!

ps if you are serving on plates instead of just handing around things you can also do a big greek salad - tomatoes, cucumber and feta with oil and oregano. getting hungry now....

Pph can I come visit? I love Greek food, cook it all the time. Your descriptions sound delicious.

any time!
had the finest moussaka ever last weekend - but my mother made it!

ps she is greek, btw, hence the moussaka-ability...

Zippy, pph's ideas sound good but if you don't fancy Greek food you could just do some large pieces of cheese (brie, cheddar, stilton?), some lovely chutney/pickles, french sticks & butter, platters of fruit, ham, cooked chicken or chicken drumsticks, basil, tomato and mozzarella salad, olives, cous cous/green salads, pates and toast etc. All extremely easy and you could have most of it ready in the fridge beforehand so it just has to be whipped out when you get back. Or crackers if even french bread is too fiddly. Most of it is or could be (i.e buy aubergine pate rather than liver) veggie too. It depends on the tastes of the people coming I suppose - the above is the sort of thing I'd do for a lunch for dp's parents, who like plain and simple food (so they wouldn't appreciate sundried tomatoes at all, for instance!) but if you wanted to be more adventurous then what about some bruschetta and other french bread slices with various pates/toppings - Nigella has some good suggestions in how to eat so let me know if you want the recipes. Might be a bit fiddly though. Or you could buy lots of yummy ready made tapas type stuff from M&S/Waitrose - satay sticks and patatas bravas, ooh yes. Except some of those would need heating up so maybe you wouldn't want to faff around that much. Hmm, will post again if I think of anything. How many people are coming?

Or a huge cold poached salmon with wonderful garlicky mayonnaise, accompanied with green salad/rice salad and new potatoes? Since it's not veggie though you could have veggie pates/cheese plates too. Maybe that's a bit lunchy though?

Drool

i'm hungry!!

If forks are getting involved what about tuna and pasta with a huge dollop of mayo and some sweetcorn thrown in as well.

Cold pizza's cut into pieces?

go to the garage and get them all Ginsters pasty!

Get it catered by M&S or Waitrose direct. They do bits and pieces - eg bagels and sandwiches. Also croissants and pain au chocolat plus champagne and bucks fizz and cake. Nobody could expect more at that hour, surely?

Ooh well next time I pass thorugh Wiltshire PPH, I'll let you know!. Just had greek rice and tzatziki as part of my dinner, yum.

I think the continental breakfast idea is the best, it will be ablut 10.30am I guess so a hge basket of various pastries, pain au chocolat, croissants etc, some bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon on half (if you are in london there is a bagel bakery that do mini bagels in hendon - I had 100 for my wedding!). Fresh fruit platter - large slices of melons etc and grapes. Lastly champage (or sparkling wine) and orange juice or nice tea and proper coffee. I wouldn't do much more than that. If you wanted some muffins, Nigella does some great easy peasy fab ones in her Domestic Goddess book. Actually while I am writing this I just thought what I did for my DD's day and we had loads of yummy cakes - again Nigella's Apple Kuchen, chocolate brownies and beautiful fairy cakes (I did them all in advance in bathces and froze then already sliced - the kuchen I got out on the day and warmed in the oven for about 10 mins) Any recipes, just ask.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions (particularly like the Ginsters idea!). The Greek ideas had me dribbling - and I will definitely check out Nigella (I've been meaning to get a copy for ages). At the moment though I think I'll probably go down the coissant/bagel/muffin route - I know I'll get my knickers in a twist if I attempt to cook anything on the morning itself. This also has a hidden advantage - everyone I know is on the Atkins diet so if I supply a feast of carbs there will be plenty left overs for me! (selfish - moi?)

wickedwaterwitch - sorry - there'll be about 12 adults (including domestic goddess MIL ...) and four children (not counting babies). It's not a huge amount of people but about as many as we can squeeze into our flat.

Actually, as I'm typing this I just thought about kegeree (sp?). Is that difficult to make? Can you make that the night before?

zippy, no idea about kedgeree but I wouldn't bother - I agree with Crunchie, the bagels/croissant/pain au chocolat/bucks fizz combo definitely sounds like the best idea. Let us know how it goes won't you?

Yup - you're probably right. It isn't actually happening for ages (October) but you'll probably hear more from me on the subject before then - I like to work myself into a lather over this type of thing!

kedgeree will make your house smell of fish
I love it though, but don't have i often for that reason.

I have a yum recipe for it if you do decide to have a stinky house

If you get the croissants that still need to be baked - some doughy man on the tin then you can park bake sausages, add mustard and wrap them up in the dough before baking in the over. Croissants baked and then filled with egg mayonaise are also good - oh the days of a pret a manger breaksfast