Help! Cold/easy buffet ideas please?

[sureitsgrand]

Hi, I've decided to have a party at our house next weekend. I can get a bit stressed trying to do things perfectly sometimes and don't want this to happen! Can people give me ideas for a low maintenance buffet? I'm thinking cold stuff that can be covered over till everyone is there, then they can pick away to their hearts content, rather than me dishing up hot food, running about all evening! I'm not overly confident in the kitchen as you may guess! So, definitely a good cheese board, lots of nice bread, smoked meat platter, olives, crisps, dips etc....what else??!! Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Crudités
you could do some smoked salmon Bellinis

One dish could be the thing where you cut cherry tomatoes in half and then push the halves onto a cocktail stick around a mozzarella pearl and fresh basil. Drizzle balsamic glaze over them. Looks and tastes really nice.

Puff pastry cheese straws are so easy to make (obvs bought pastry)

I would get a big joint of ham and one or two rotisserie chickens - and have a couple of big salads (potato, pasta, green) some coleslaw and then good bread, cheese etc

Will people have plates?

Two or three big bits of good cheese, good bread, chutney. Big bit of pate. Salad platter / tomatoes. Cured meats or a pulled pork maybe? Big bits of fewer things.

keep it simple (and limited to make it manageable)

an excellent cheese board (one hard, one soft, one blue, one novelty - eg stinking bishop or a local goats) with figs, pears, olives, grapes, celery, good crackers/bread -hardly any prep and served room temp) get plenty -once people start on cheese it becomes an addiction

a ham on the bone, some ready sliced, with a well-honed knife for further cuts- chutney, chilli jam, mustards ( can cook in advance a la nigella recipe etc ) and served cold
selection of around 3 'single ingredient' salads eg one each of tomato /pickled cucumber/avocado

loads (double what you think you need) of roast potatoes- can vary between rough cut maris piper potatoes with rosemary and garlic,, or roast charlotte potatoes (which cuts out having to peel and parboil and only take 20-30 minutes) with salt, pepper and lemon- these can be served when ready, but it doesn't matter if they cool, (can be eaten hot or cold -equally good with aoile-) though in my experience never get the chance to be eaten cold!

big bowls of aoile

plenty of fizz/wine/beer/ice cold cider and ... can i come??

Quiche
Chickpea salad
Feta salad
Beetroot

Ooh yes ! Big bowl of hot buttered potatoes! Good shout.

Cocktail sausages with honey

You can do this with fancy sausages sliced up too

Obviously you just get things like prawns in filo from the shops and pop them in the oven.

It's the law that you have to have a cheese and pineapple hedgehog on a cold buffet.

Thank you! This all sounds great. OK, so I will do a ham joint maybe and chicken pieces. Honey sausages too. I'm going to find disposable plates, it's actually my birthday so I want to just chill while husband takes toddler out and get this done in a couple of hours! But still want it to be nice. Thanks for the ideas!

I'd keep it simple to reduce preparation workload. Meat and salmon from M and S, a few nice salads, breads, cheese. Then a couple of puddings - birthday cake and fruit.