Please help me - party food for grown ups!!

[puddle]

Oh god, I am having a party and am now having a panic about the food.

It's a proper adult do with plenty of drink, dancing etc. I have about 40 people coming and I feel I have to offer some sustenance.

But I need something really quick and easy to put together - I have enough to do without faffing about about with canapes etc.

What's easy, tasty and stylish? And how much do I need for those numbers?

Huge bowls of cous cous? very easy to do, just boil some water and leave in a pan for 5 mins. Cool, add chopped peppers, tomato, cucumber, spring onion and feta cheese. Pizza's, how big's your oven? you could do jacket potatos with sour cream and chives, huge trays of lasagne (one veggie, one meat) with crusty bread and salad. Or are you aiming for more 'nibble' type stuff?

Thanks Furball but more picky stuff rather than baked potatoes and lasagne I think. It's at my house too and putting the oven on will make it v hot in the kitchen (which as we all know is the hub of a party).

cocktail sausages tossed in a bit of wholegrain mustard and honey
smoked salmon on wheat bread squeeze of lemon
hummus( buy it) and tortilla chips
brie and cranberry tarts(bought puff pastry cut in circle. line bun cases. bake til golden top with brie and dollop of cranberry sauce 5 mins in ove til melted)
buy a baguette. slice into rounds about 1/2 cm think
bake in oven until dried out
top with pesto and feta/ chopped cherry toms and rocket
olive tapenade and parmesan
roast beef and horseradish

Sounds good crem (although don't eat meat and won't prepare it so sausages and beef are out).

puddle have a recipe for spinach roulade with cream cheese and pink peppercorns- can be served whole or cut into slices as a canape

or
what about some Cauldron pate on melba toast

or
goats cheese and pine nut mini scones

I hear what you say about putting the oven on, but these can be done in advance, everybody loves them, very quick and easy:

Roll out some ready-made shortcrust pastry, cut into rounds with your mincepie cutter, put in bun tins. Smear a little bit of Dijon mustard in bottom, add pieces of cherry tomato cut into halves or quarters, top with grated gruyere. Bake about 15 mins hottish oven.

Lovely!

Quick hijack q for cremola - do you toss the sausages in honey and mustard before or after cooking? I know I should know the answer...
We are having people round next week so these are exactly the kind of recipes I'm looking for too.

hi swedishmum- yes- mix a couple of tablespoons of wholegrain mustard with a couple of tablespoons of runny honey . add a dash of oil and chuck over the sausages. marinade in the fridge for at least 2 hours. preferably overnight.
roast in a hot oven until sizzling golden and sticky.
kids don't always like this but adults love it.make twice the ammount you thought you'd need.
[ps are you my secret santa??]

Thanks - will make lots then. Don't know - don't know my receiver's MN identity.

You want things that people can eat with one hand and in one bite imo. I think ideally you'd go to Waitrose entertaining and order it all from there but in the absence of that I'd do

quails eggs and celery salt (novelty factor too) - you just hard boil them like normal eggs though they are a faff to peel although you could leave them unpeeled

grapes

some lovely cheeses

bread/french sticks to soak up the booze

mini baked potatoes, just roast some baby potatoes in their skins with olive oil and garlic and salt

cherry tomatoes

a couple of roasted chickens, you could roast them the day before and slice them on the day

posh crisps/vegetable crisps

olives

Vegetarian chilli on the stove, french bread, soured cream, grated cheese and salad. Everyone helps themselves.

GREAT canopy ideas Cremola. Thanks, i have pinched them too.

I swear by this for really big cheats.

I make mini pizzas like this:

Roll out pizza base and cut small enough to fit a fairy cake tin, whatever the correct term is . Then inside each little pastry hole, dump some passata/pasta sauce/chopped veg/salami/smoked sausage, pop in the oven for 10 mins, drag out, cover with a bit of grated cheese, pop back in until cheese has melted. Hey presto, delicious mini pizzas!

Trust me they are heavenly, almost zero effort and really cheap to make. All my party people think I'm a whizz in the kitchen when actually I'm a big CHEAT!

call round a dozen or so of the closest friend you have invited and ask them to do you a dish (instead of a christmas pressie?!) If someone asked me to do it I would not mind at all - would enjoy it.

OK aside from hitting M&S and buying it all I would done (and have done) the following. Aim for approx 2 of each per person x 6 options plus the usual crisps, veggie sticks and dip. So in total 80 each

quails eggs - boil for 2.5 mins, serve with dish of salt along side (pricey though)

Brown sliced bread with smoked salmon (butter bread lightly, top with salmon and black pepper) cut off crusts and cut each slice into 4 or 6. 1 full loaf os bread and 2 packs salmon would be enough, plus a couple of lemons to garnish

Thai bites, blob of Tzatziki (must be total) and topped with huge king prawn mmmm sprinkle with chopped corriander

Brushetta with goats cheese, buy mini crostini/bruchetta 2 packs should give you 80 slices, 2 or 3 logs of goats cheese, cut very thin. Whack under grill for couple of mins.

Mini sausages always go down well

Buffalo mozarella, cherry tomoto, basil stick. 3 balls mozzaerella, cut into 1cm cubes, 2 packs cherry toms (I buy red and yellow for beauty) 1 bunch basil. Cocktail sticks. Thread 1/2 chery tomato, cube of cheese wrapped with bassil leaf, and other 1/2 tom onto coktail stick. Arrange on plate and drizzle with balsamic vinegar

Mini pizzas food too.

basically try to have 2 or max 3 hot things that you can preprep and cook at last min. The rest is all cold and done in advance.

another vote for cous cous, add in roasted veg, really cheap to make, and still nice served cold.

make some houmous, only really need a couple of tins of chick peas, chop up some peppers to dip in.

buy a pack of ready made puff pastry, roll it out, spread some sun dried tomato paste on it the add whatever you like, ham and cheese, mushrooms etc, roll it up and cut into slices of about 1cm thick. paint on some beaten egg, then bake in the oven for about 20mins, really easy. dd helps me make these. you can even make a sweet version using jam and some nuts, apricot and walnuts go well together.

mini jacket spuds, scoup out the potato, mix with cheese and refill, top with grated cheese and blast under the grill to brown. small potatoes cook quicker and can be eaten as a finger buffet rather than with a knife and fork.

home made popcorn?

we're having a party for about 40 on christmas eve so i'm going to watch this thread and refer back to it for ideas myself next weekend

Very very nice bread, plenty of different cheeses, a big bowl of mixed salad, and some olives, and nothing else. All these foods go down well with wine and cocktails.

I don't think you can go wrong with standard party food, I really don't.

It's a party, people will be gabbing and drinking and dancing, they're not really going to notice your wonderful canapes are they?

Those mini pizzas sound fab. Mini quiches made in a similar way are also fab. Sausages fab. Mini sausage/cheese and onion/chestnut rolls fab. That would do - don't give yourself a load of work no one will appreciate. I wouldn't muck about with bits of vegetables and fruit.

lucykate's pinwheel pizzas also fab