If you had to take something to a party/buffet for 40 people

[CountryQueen]

What would you take? A mixture of adults and kids.

The easiest thing will be cheese, crackers, meats and fruits and crisps. I think most people will bring the same and we will be overrun with cheese! Not a problem for me but I’d like to take something different, maybe something the kids will enjoy?

Is it zucchini season in the UK yet?

https://www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/recipe/dinner/zucchini-slice-6436/

very easy, travels well, slices well for serving.

Isn't there a list yet of those doing what?? Maybe start one?!

Otherwise, yes, you'll end up with just cheese

Tiramisu;
a Greek salad with the beg chopped smaller;
and some naan because everyone likes bread of some sort.

ETA a rolled sushi platter goes over well, too if you want to spend the money.

Marinaded olives. Lidl often do big jars of Greek or Spanish olives in ornamental jars. I empty them into a tub and marinade them in lemon and garlic. Sometimes I’ll throw in some chilli flakes. Add some olive oil and leave for a day or two, stirring gently occasionally. Remove the label from the jar and put the olives back in. Decorate with string/ribbon.

I did egg salad sandwiches out with the starters a few years ago and I’ve never been so popular! People order sandwich trays now but I remember the assembly lines when I was young. So easy!

I would bring a vegetarian pasta salad. I bet most won’t bring food-like things and this might be appreciated

No, most of the people don’t know each other. No way of doing this without being completely annoying and disruptive! Might try egg sandwiches for 4 hours in the car..plus another two or three on the table 🤣

I brought sliced watermelon and pineapple to something and the kids wolfed it down. I think watermelons are still (a bit) in season?

Big bowl of couscous with roast veg stirred in

I would do one of;

home made sausage rolls
mini quiches
big bowl of jazzed up tabbouleh
cheese straws
cocktail sausages cooked in honey + mustard
fancy pesto pasta
mini samosas
lamb and feta bites
smoked salmon on something with cream cheese and dill, and some lemon to add on arrival.

Honestly, I’d take a proper meal. Tray bakes. They’re much nicer and healthier than plates of picky type things and can be prepared very quickly.

People seem to think that kids must love picky bits but I think they can easily get fed up of them and crave something nice to eat just as adults do.

Chilli and an insulated box of hot baked spuds.
or 20 scotch eggs
or a pasta salad

Its a buffet, how can anyone get 'fed up'!!! Its not forever!

Referring to other posts - pasta salad, I would imagine nearly everyone is going to bring a pasta salad.

My usual contribute-to-a-buffet thing is crispy bread cases with a nice filling.
They're like tartlets but much easier than making pastry cases.
You just cut the crusts off a slice of white bread, brush with oil and press into a muffin tin and repeat. Bake until golden. I usually do them with Coronation Chicken filling plus some Coronation Chickpea for vegetarians/vegans. For me, that's chicken or chickpeas mixed with mayo (vegan/vegetarian if needed), curry paste, mango chutney and toasted, flaked almond and finely chopped coriander sprinkled on the top.

I would take a platter of falafels, veggie sticks and pitta sticks with a big tub of houmous to dip them in.

@Dliplop I remember those production lines too. Happy memories of being Bap Butterer in a church hall for the Queen's silver jubilee.

Nothing worse than a beige buffet, all sausage rolls and chicken nuggets. I am fed up with that type of buffet 🙁

@It’s a buffet, how can anyone get 'fed up'!!! Its not forever!*

I suspect when guests regardless of their age are faced with another picky bit buffet table very few will be thinking ‘wow, more picky bits’.

my experience of buffets is that there is a lot of crisps etc but very little real food. If this is at a meal time, then I would want there to be sandwiches, wraps, sausage rolls etc, not just crisps and cupcakes.

The other thing is that I would never take anything with a dip as kids just bite off the dip and then double dip their carrot or whatever in the dip and yuck.

and last thing is, make it finger food. So if you want to have healthy salad, make it cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes, not a mixed salad that needs forks.

I think any food is going to suffer from 4 hours in the car, whether it is egg sandwiches or ham. So I would be planning a cool bag, food in tupperware covered in ice blocks, and given that, you can take anything.

mini quiches, pizza squares, decent quiche are all alternatives to sandwiches. Wraps cut into pinwheels make a nice change, but are a fiddle to make.
Sausage rolls, cocktail sausages etc still go down well particularly with a lot of kids and they know what they are.

But (depending on budget) my preferred option would be to get the party trays from supermarket that have mini samosas, spring rolls, onion barjiis etc. They are always the first to go on a bufftet, very popular.

these sound lovely. Will be remembering this for the future

Because you’re travelling and don’t need faff take something easy to package that doesn’t go stale/limp.

Savoury pinwheels, cheese and chutney pastries or sweet stuff like a tray of brownies or another easy tray cake.

If you are traveling for four hours stick with simple. I would do something like a tray of Brownie and a tray of savoury muffins. Easy to transport and easy to serve.

I think filo parcels always look good and you could do more than one filling.

Cheese straw

Buy a ready rolled puff pastry.
'Butter' it with Dijon mustard.
Sprinkle parmesan over it and mark in to 'straws' but keep it in one piece.

15 mins in the oven and then break them in to straws.

some sort of pie?

I think it would be rude to turn up with something that needs cooking. What if everyone did that and there’s only one oven?

Definitely prefer something I can just put straight on the table without creating any work for the host

We used to do this for our work Christmas party. I appreciated the quite random simple things people brought. A bowl of really nice tomatoes, someone brought carrot sticks, one colleague brought a platter of samosas and other savoury treats from his local Indian sweet shop. Or if you come from a culture that isn’t British, or can cook it well enough, bring something really stereotypical. I grew up in the US, I’ve brought a pumpkin pie to a few things.