Help ! Planning small buffet birthday party for 17, NEVER done anything like this ? !

Cat72

Hi! My OH father is wanting a small suprise party for his wifes 60th. There will be 17 including us but I love the idea but have never cooked for more than 2 ( gulp). Iwas thinking a buffet thing- something a bit different would be nice- but I am ok at cooking but there will only be me able to get the done. The rest will not help so thats that. I am trying to keep cost reasonable- he said he would pay but he is retired plus we wil help but dont have a lot of money- personally I would rather skip on the wine ( i am sure they could bring this ) and spend more on food.I dont have a CLUE how much food I should have for this amount of people and certainly dont want to be wasteful.I though maybe wraps would be a good idea and quite easy. Im also a vegetarian so not that great at cooking meat but willing to try ( especailly as I am the only vegetarain although his mother likes vegetarina food ). As for the cake I thought it would be too large for me to make so might buy a plain one and decorate it - im quite good at decorating cake. Apart from that couscous and then IM stuck ? Your help would be really appreciated - I have a breadmaker and slow cooker ( part in parcel of reading these boards ) although I am very much a novice with these ,( only on my 2nd chewy loaf ! ).

CFC

Choose a good group of things you can get done the day before - all your veggie salads will fall into this category, except the green ones. Cheese straws can also be made the day before and put into an airtight canister, or rewarmed to serve.

It all depends on how posh you want to be. Personally, I'd be going for the easy stuff. I think that wraps might be a bit too filling, I would go for dainty triangle sandwiches, preferably with the crusts cut off. Normal things like egg mayo or ham and tomato etc. Maybe tuna and mayo as well. Coronation chicken is usually popular too.
If you want to be really advanced, why not try a Swedish celebration sandwich cake? This is a work of art which always impresses. If you're interested let me know, it will take an age to type out the instructions so only want to do it if you fancy it.

If I were trying to feed 17 people inexpensively at a surprise party with buffet party type food, I'd go for something like this, because the food won't be the focus, the surprise will be:

Sandwiches
Sausage rolls
Hardboiled eggs - and stuff them preferably to make them fancier (ie cut in half, take out yolk, mix with something interesting and some mayo or soft cream cheese or similar - suggestions, bit of curry paste, or anchovies, or whatever you fancy really and then pile into yolk space)
Cheese straws
The old fashioned cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks is likely to be appreciated by older people too. Use a strong cheddar.
Chips/crisps/crudites and dips
Garlic bread
Small onion bhajis or mixed bhajis
Salted Peanuts
Ritz type crackers with a cheese assortment
Assorted interesting salads, perhaps 3 types (cous cous, rice, pasta etc)
Very finely chopped green/tomato salad with french dressing

I'm sure you get the picture. All finger or fork type food. Then maybe a trifle and a birthday cake. If you want to be fancy go for profiteroles, but I have to say I always buy them, not make them. If you want to be healthy, do a fruit salad as most people have no objection to that, and a lot really like it.

With this kind of snacking buffet, people will often keep coming back to it as they go on drinking through the evening.

Quantities - as a rough guide, based on my consumers LOL - per person: 0.75 rounds of sandwiches, 1 piece of garlic bread, 1.25 egg halves, 1 sausage roll or 2 if they are party size, 3 cheese straws, 1.25 cheese and pinapple, 2 crackers, 1.25 onion bhajis,handful of peanuts, a munchful of crisps and 2 tablespoons of all salads. If you have extremely hungry or non hungry relatives, adjust accordingly!

Lillibet_2

If you've got a bread maker does it have a dough setting? If so use this to make dough then make into rolls & bake in the oven, you can top some of them with blue cheese, olives, sundried tomatoes etc to make look more impressive & a little of these sorts fo toppings goes a long way. I also use the dough setting on mine to make garlic bread, just shape into long loaves like cibatta & add garlic & herbs then slice & butter after oven baking. Depending on how big you make the rolls then you will need 1 to 2 per person. The garlic bread I'd say 2 slices per person so 2-3 loaves should do it. All can be made in advance & frozen.

I posted a recipie for a salmon plait on here a couple of weeks ago, I'll try to find the link to it. It is very easy & economical to make & looks impressive on a buffet table. I served it at my sons birthday tea.

Edit : Here is the link http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=243372

And here is the inital list of food which I served at my sons birthday picnic which turned into a buffet tea : http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=238634

Personally I shudder at the thought of anything 70's at a buffet (sorry CFC:o) so would avoid anything on sticks, vol-au-vonts, filled hard boiled eggs & the like:o

I find even older people like things like cold samosas & onion bajhies (Tescos have these on 3 for 2 in the frozen section at the mo;)) I'd say 3 of these per person or 3 boxes. in total A cheeseboard is always easy & popular. Go for a large medium chedder, a brie & a blue, 2 boxes of crakers should be enough for 17.

Sausage rolls are easy & cheap to make, 25 should see you through. Cold sliced meat like a ham & a chicken (one of each) & a couple of good dishes of salad like a plain salad & a rice or cous-cous salad, plus a home made potato salad.

Cake for pudding;)

HTH & good luck;)

Dobble

The last buffet I went to that impressed me had the usual 'finger food' but they also had some healthy selections. This included sliced green, red and yellow pepper with little pots of salsa dip, sour cream etc.

Of course, the chocolate brownie bars with chunks of malteesers in them went down quite well too!!

FZwanab

This is what was at my Aunt's buffet some time ago, I took a note of it when I came home to give me ideas of what to serve if I ever had a buffet:

Vienna roll sliced and buttered.
Brown bread buttered
Cooked Ham hm sliced
Whole Salmon cooked and cooled
Lettuce leaves
Tomatoes quartered
Eggs hardboiled and quartered
Beetroot balls
Coleslaw
Wardorf Salad
Hot large Lasagne hm

Knives and forks wrapped in napkins
Proper plates laid out
Glass of wine of choice at the end.

Cake – Black forest Gateaux


I then had to do a buffet myself and one thing that went down well was mozzerela sp cheese sliced with a basil leaf then a slice of tomato in rows in that order. I got the cheese cheap in aldi or lidl. I also did a pasta pesto, basically pasta spirals with pesto sauce mixed with it.

Pink.

Hi Cat,

I would do a couple of hot dishes eg a lasagne and a sweet and sour pork or a chilli that can be prepared beforehand and will just need to be reheated. Then perhaps some cold meats and green salad. Fill it out with things like coleslaw, egg mayonaise, pasta salads, potato salad and garlic bread etc.

There are lots of ideas on these older threads:

Buffet Ideas

Christeing Buffet ideas?

Pink

piglet6

Personally I prefer the cold buffet ideas, but if you decide to go with hot food, a very easy thing to do is cook lots of pasta (penne works well) and serve in a large pot with various sauces served separately in bowls (we normally do a bolognese, a veggie/tomato one, and a cheesey one - with or without ham according to vegetarians going to be present) and then people help themselves and build up their own meal according to what they fancy. With a plate of garlic bread and a simple salad (lettuce/tomato/cucumber) as side dishes, this normally manages to please everyone and works out very cheaply per head.:D

Of course, this works only as long as everybody eats pasta...!;)

Piglet

Cat72

Thanks very much for your replys- I can stop panicing now.
I want it to be quite imple but one or two Wow pieces would be good to to boast my echo ! I have the panasonic so have the dough feature on the breadmaker. I should probably have mentioned that I will have to make the food at my house then take it to the party when the mum is away so hot food would not be a good idea and I will only have about an hour to set everything up.:rolleyes:
CFC thanks for the idea of quantities this is one of my biggest fears.
Lillibet thankd for the link for the recipe I will have a look.
Pink-winged I will just be having a cold buffet as in my reasons for above- transportation but thanks anyway. And many thanks for the links there great,
FZwanab your morzalle idea sounds interasting- is this on a skewer ? I also like the sound of the pesto pasta but might leave this for another time.
I think the idea of finger type food works best as I have been to a few family buffets where there has been heeps of food piled on collapsing plates and no one can actually get to talk and food is drippling everywhere !
I have just got a chocloate fountain reduced as I remebered his mum loves the idea of these- plus she will have had the exclusive of having the first family party with one, so she will like that. Someone sadi to use Lidls chocolate. All your contributions have been really helpfull , as always !! and hopefull will help some others too. :T Although I hope there is not a lot of novice people with panic buffets coming up !

FZwanab

The mozz. cheese, basil leaf and tomato slice are not on skewers, but are put on a plate in rows following the same pattern.

GardenMillie

Just a couple of more ideas for you.

Cocktail sausages coated in clear honey and whole-grain mustard, bake in a large tray (lined with foil) in the oven. Really easy and delicious cold, plus no problem to transport.

Large bowl of home made houmous, two cans of chickpeas, glug of olive oil, two fat cloves of garlic crushed and whiz with the hand blender. You can also make it a bit looser with some greek yoghurt. I would serve this with bread sticks, bagel chips (from Lidl) and carrot crudites.

Good luck, it's always a bit nerve wracking cooking for so many.:T

wendym

If you buy an uncut loaf, then slice it the 'wrong' way ie producing lengthways slices, you can treat it as a Swiss roll. Spread a sandwich filling, roll it, then if possible chill it before slicing it to make pinwheel sandwiches. Cream cheese works well, also roast and mashed red peppers look pretty. And if you can find smoked salmon ends and have a food processor, you can mix them with some of the cream cheese and lemon to make a pink filling.

I think I have made it sound more fiddly than it is!