Buffet food ideas?

[midori1999]

I have some friends coming round next weekend and am going to do a sort of buffet/snack food. I'm stuck for what to do that isn't very old fashioned/a bit rubbish though.

I like cooking and am competent, but would prefer things that can be done a bit in advance as I have a young baby and need to work around him.

I thought I'd make some fruit tarts as a sweet thing, but any ideas for other nice things? Maybe canapé type stuff or sandwiches with a twist?

Thanks!

Bake a couple of Camemberts and have with nice bread, grapes, radishes, celery etc, maybe a pan of roasted new potatoes. Green salad. Done.

Bruschetta are nice. You can do the bases a few days in advance and then on the day just rub with garlic and add your topping/s

Sausage rolls, sounds boring & not very adventurous, but taste gorgeous.

Buy some puff pastry, mix some sausage meat with finely duces onion & some sage & season. Add to the pastry & brush with egg. Cook at 180 for 20-25 mins. You could also add a bit of paprika or cayenne.

Make some savoury palmiers , they're dead easy and look proper impressive. I usually do blue cheese and hazelnut ones, but have done ham and pesto, anchovy and tomato, all sorts... All you really need is ready rolled puff pastry and some imaginative bits to put in

A v easy but tasty one to make ahead is Nigella's Prosciutto bundles - do try the first one you make, however, to get the balance between fig/goats cheese/ham.

These quick cheese straws are dead easy and were v popular when I last made them in a slightly guilty pleasure/retro way.