Engagement Party Food

katini

My fiance and I are having a small engagement party at our house tomorrow night (eek!). Due to illness his mother and brother are no longer going to be coming down to stay with us so everything has sort of fallen on me to do. We managed to get free wine from the USwitch offer so thusfar haven't spent any money and I am going to go out and get a banner and some balloons but the thing I am most worried about is what to provide for food.

We had planned to buy frozen stuff from Iceland and put it out as a buffet but have been told by a family friend that most people won't eat that! He suggested doing a big load of chilli con carne and a big load of something with chicken in and then providing rice to go with it. I've got three people bringing a pudding each plus the family friend is making a cake so dessert is sorted.

What would you go for? I think the chilli/chicken idea is probably a cheaper one but the issue with that is that we only have one big saucepan and I can see it turning into a total nightmare!!

I wish I hadn't left it til the last minute but have spent all week sorting out the house after a two week swift redecoration!!

Any help/ideas will be really appreciated.

Bluespirit

We had a big chilli at our engagement doo and it went down really well. We just did the one dish, kept it plain and let people add their own spice and everyone was happy. If you want to do the 2 dishes can you ask anyone else to make one? Or even to borrow another couple of pots from them? Or how about doing one hot dish plus some salad, cold meats and cheese?

VICXEN83

As its freezing i would probably go for loads of jacket potatoes with an assortment of fillings for people.

LEJC

Whats wrong with the buffet food?
Iwent to an engagement party last week and it went down very well...chicken drumsticks...selection of sandwiches...crisps...sausage rolls ...quiche....then there were a few desserts for after....you could always serve the sausage rolls and pastry thing hot to get around the "cold buffet" impression remember its your party,so prepare what you want...if the person who says they dont like buffet food doesnt like it then they can eat before they get there!
Have a wonderful evening whatever you choose

hellokitty08

I wouldnt mind either if I was offered, any type of free food is good to me! hehehehe

Do you know anyone with a big slow cooker? You could throw all the stuff in there in the morning and forget about it all day until dinner time then.

shellsuit

Get the Iceland food, just because one person says nobody will eat it doesn't mean nobody will!

Apricot

I love buffet food and would much prefer to have that to chilli con carne - especially if I was wearing a nice dress and having to eat of paper plates.

LEJC

Having chilli or chicken may mean you then need to do something seperate if there are any vegetarians unless you were to make a vegetable chilli...how many people do you hope to have at the party?..that may be a factor over the type of food you do...as someone else has said they wouldnt want to spill it on their dress so do you have room for everyone to sit down to eat it...
Personally I would still go for a buffet...its a lot less hassle IMO!...

katini

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions!

I think I am going to go with the chilli idea, but do some buffet stuff on the side for the people who don't like chilli/are vegetarians. The person who said about not doing the buffet food is a chef and also my mother's partner so I do have to take his advice!!

sammy_wheeler

nothing wrong with buffett food- im having that for my wedding
i would defo rather that because can pick what you want and like- and its not messy

shellsuit

katini wrote: »

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions!

I think I am going to go with the chilli idea, but do some buffet stuff on the side for the people who don't like chilli/are vegetarians. The person who said about not doing the buffet food is a chef and also my mother's partner so I do have to take his advice!!

You don't have to do anything. If he's a chef, why doesn't he whip some food up for it?