Easy finger food recipes for your next casual, or elegant
Easy finger food recipes for your next casual, or elegant get-togetherWe're all so pressed for time these days, it's hard to justify spending days in the kitchen to assemble an array of goodies to serve at a Saturday night get-together with friends. On the other hand, you want to have a more or less lavish spread for your guests to enjoy. So what's a good solution?
Easy finger food recipes are perfect for filling out a buffet style party dinner or cocktail get-together, especially when you can get a head start on the preparations with deli and supermarket selections that require little in the way of cooking! The trick to finger food recipes is selecting foods where the prep work is, for the most part, done for you! Here are some suggestions on laying out a buffet fit for the most sophisticated palates.
It's always good to have one or two main dishes to make sure everyone gets a satisfying amount of food. A fully cooked ham requires only warming, while a marinated pork loin roast or roast beef can be set in a slow cooker in the morning, ready to slice and serve at party time. Unless you have a large crowd, you'll have leftovers for tomorrow night's family meal.
Now, the rest of this lavish lineup relies on our easy finger food recipes. With a couple of boxes of fancy cocktail toothpicks, you're all set.
A veggie plate, with an assortment of healthy veggies, are tempting choices for those vegans, dieters and health-conscious guests. Thinly sliced broccoli and cauliflower florets, baby carrots, boiled pearl onions, white mushrooms and julienned red bell peppers make a colorful presentation. Serve a few dressings or dips on the side, so your guests can indulge, or not, as they choose.
If you haven't tried Kalamata olives, now is the time. You can pick up these flavor rich gems at the deli, present them on a plate lined with a few leaves of hearts of Romaine, skewer the olives and you're done. This is undoubtedly one of the easiest finger food recipes you'll find.
Jalapeno chili poppers are a perennial party food favorite. Available at the deli or in the frozen food aisle, both mild and spicy, you simply bake and serve.
Stuffed mushroom caps are an easy and quick finger food. Clean the mushrooms, pop off the stems and dice them. Saute the diced stems briefly in butter, add minced garlic (available in a handy jar) and finely diced parsley. Fill the stems with this mixture, sprinkle the grated cheese of your choice over each cap and broil until the cheese is melted. If you prepare the filling as a do-ahead, this finger food recipe is a ten-minute wonder.
A combination plate of cooked prawns and broiled bay scallops, skewered with sprigs of cilantro or dill makes an elegant but quick finger food recipe.
Petit fours can be made with a whole grain bread (cut into four triangular pieces) and filled with simple, but tasty fillings, such as chicken, tuna, ham or egg salad. These fillings are excellent do-ahead candidates you can make the night before your party. Zip them up with diced onion, celery, chopped chives, sliced black olives or fresh or dried basil, according to the meat you're using.
If your budget allows, slices of smoked salmon, rolled and wrapped with a blade of chives, is a show stopper. Pickled herring, diced into bite-sized chunks is much more affordable and quite the delicious and easy finger food recipe, when served with sour cream on the side.
Chicken wings, basted with a spicy Tabasco sauce are another winner at the buffet table. Again, these are easy enough to make, but time is of the essence when creating your party spread. So go ahead and take advantage of those two or three pound bags in the freezer section. Bake, skewer and serve.
Each of these finger food recipes provide a richly flavored mouthful which your guests will savor with delight. So rich, in fact, that a couple of loaves of artisan bread, sliced, brushed with a bit of garlic spread and broiled, completes your feast perfectly.
Your party won't soon be forgotten. Hope you'll invite me! Bon Appetit!
