Christening buffet - limited time

DigForVictory

The first Christening I was responsible for had much bought readymade & *still* saw my mother-in-law elbow me over so she could help butter rolls...
I learned. We went shopping together the day before the second Christening & she had my kitchen sorted as she wanted it whilst I made nice with relatives & changed nappies.
Do what you can, 'cheat' on the rest & if any relative shows an organising disposition & keeps everything spinning - remember them, bless them, make sure they get a card at Christmas & whenever else is suitable (wedding anniversaries?) and above all, ask them to help run the next one?!

Goldiegirl

missbiggles1 wrote: »

As the OP says she's "doing the food herself", is there any point telling her how she can buy stuff ready made?

I think it's very valid to suggest all the alternatives to the OP, as she may not have thought of them.

I'd go as far as suggesting that she also gets a couple of quotes from caterers, just to see how much they'd charge. It may be that the cost isn't as much as they thought, and they might feel it's worth spending that extra money to 'buy' time so they can concentrate on the baby, on a important day in the baby's life.

Pollycat

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I think it's very valid to suggest all the alternatives to the OP, as she may not have thought of them.

Me & OH did the majority of catering for my sister's evening 'do', Auntie's & Mum did the sandwiches & I went crazy.

4 different types of chicken drumsticks and I made the marinades myself.
I used shop bought quiche cases & made all the fillings myself.
Made from scratch coleslaw, redslaw, pasta & potato salads.
Even made my own dips.
Cooked mini sausage rolls, cheese rolls, cocktail sausages.
Grated pounds of cheese for the sandwich fillings (using my food processor).
:eek:

As I was maid of honour, it was a lot of stress but deeply satisfying.
But I'd do it differently next time.

Can you still buy platters of prawns and cold meats when it's not Christmas?

nuatha

Even buying in items that need baking off, can be a substantial time commitment, not so much on the morning of the event, but certainly on the two days prior.
I seem to regularly end up catering events for 100-150, having catered a friends wedding then our own and several other events since. My solution was to do a lot of baking in advance and have a substantial amount of freezer and fridge space. In my case a tall upright fridge and freezer that can be freed up for event catering.

If you're buying in items that need to be baked off, try to make sure that they will all go in the oven at the same temperature and the same length of time is helpful, as is having spare baking sheets and cooling racks.
Coleslaw, I shred the cabbage carrot and onion and put it in the serving bowl a day ahead. I make the mayonnaise at the same time and that goes in a bowl inside the serving bowl and they get cling filmed and fridged. Just before serving the mayo is mixed through the veg with a spatula and the finished coleslaw is put on the table with serving spoons. - this prevents the dressing going watery.
A decent size clear area of counter/worktop means you can do a whole loaf of sandwiches in one go. I use a "spreadable butter" (or a vegan marg, depending on fillings/audience) which I'll leave out of the fridge for an hour before making the sandwiches. Lay the bread out in pairs, so you have two rows with either the tops or bottoms touching, spread the butter with an angled spatula, add the filling (things like egg mayo I use an ice-cream scoop, and another spatula to spread) flip the tops over the bottoms and cut and arrange on serving platters. These can be done the night before, put dampened paper towels over the sandwiches then cling film before putting in the fridge.
Ask a local pizza shop if you can buy some of the plastic tripods they use - they help make your platters more stackable.

If the weather is likely to be unpredictable, borrow some slow cookers, pulled pork is economical, warming and easy to do in advance. chillies and bolognese also work well. People can serve themselves from the slow cookers, onto bread buns or baked potatoes.

Traybake cake recipes can be made earlier in the weeks and kept in the fridge, fruitcakes and gingerbreads are best being made in advance. Coconut pyramids are easy colourful and seem to be even more popular with adults than with kids.

The hardest part is trying to estimate quantities, I work on 10 items per person, 7 savoury and three sweet. Each item is around two bites big, so a sandwich made from two slices of bread makes 4 items, a mini veg spring roll is an item as is a square of a traybake. I generally have some stuff left over, but I don't want hungry or disapointed guests - I'm also catering over the time when people would normally expect to be eating a meal. If its a 2-4pm in the afternoon, I'd probably half the quantities as most guests will have had lunch and be having an evening meal.

Random but hopefully some of it is helpful. I do believe that you can do an event of this size from an ordinary fairly well equipped kitchen with some advance planning - it may not be cheaper than bring in commercial caterers, but general the quality will be better and there's a lot of job satisfaction to go with the stress.

AlwaysWorriedMummy

We did this a few weeks ago. I did a big Costco shop for lots of cheese & ham (whole Brie was very yummy & about £6... Got 2). Put it all out on IKEA trays (you may want to remember to bring sharp cheese knives too).

Enough bread rolls for one each, box of cheese biscuits; big bowls of salad cold couscous, a gluten free vegan vegetable stew. Big christening cake & lots of fruit (esp strawberries given time of year, but bananas a good option too).

Oh and 2 big quiches made by our local baker.

You'll probably want tea & coffee too (I didn't bother, it was too hot, really). And we had fizz with champagne glasses borrowed from our local supermarket.

Lovely!

Spendless

Been there with this one. I was doing my DD Christening buffet myself. I intended prepping it all the day before. Then some relatives came over for the weekend, staying at my ILs. They dropped their younger children off with us, whilst they went into town and came back several hours later than said. :mad: No food preparation happened that day. Fortunately my Mother on hearing the story turned up on the morning of the baptism and helped prep.

Having had that experience, personally I'd use food that you open up, place on a dish and people help themselves to. I'd be doing no (or very minimal) chopping, shredding, slicing, heating up, buttering of bread etc.

MandM90

Could you cook off a big ham, and put out some cheese, pickles, bread, salad. If you want something a bit more interesting shove some quiches, little cakes, falafels, hummus and scotch eggs in the freezer to defrost on the day.

I'd start hovering around waitrose/M and S at closing times. You could freeze yellow/red sticker stuff, which probably works out cheaper than making.

foolofbeans

suki1964 wrote: »

Sandwich fillings such as egg mayo, tuna, chilli chicken can be made the day before. You can also butter the bread the night before, putting it back into the bread bags, butter sides together, and re sealing. Sandwiches then take minutes to put together and cut on arrival

I second the buttering of the bread the night before and putting it back in the loaf bag until the next morning. I don't put the buttered sides together but the unbuttered side goes next to the buttered side. It sounds wrong but it stops the bread sticking together and keeps the bread fresh and as long as you spread on the butter and scrape off again it works well.
Sausage rolls, cocktail sausages and quiches can all be done the night before and served cold. You can also cook vol-au-vents the night before and make fillings ready to be added just at the start of the do. Mini indian and chinese snacks can also be cooked the night before and served cold. Garnish with salad and add desserts and you're good to go. Good luck.

nightsky224

I rudely have taken ages to reply to this but thank you so much for your great ideas.
I think hot food is a bit out of the question for us logistically and buying from M&S works out quite expensive so I think we are going for a ploughmans type lunch

Joint of ham, (need to look in to the best way of doing it)
Pate (Large one from costco)
3/4 Cheeses (Also from costco)
Falafals and sweet potato pakoras (from costco)
Quiches made by family (Hopefully)
2 salads (Also made by family hopefully)
Hummus & Crudites
Bread - Also need to figure out where to get these from
(There will be some extras like crisps, mustards, chutneys etc)

For dessert aside from a small christening cake we will have cookies, re velvet cake and victoria sponge and a fruit bowl.

Does that sound ok?

suki1964

All sounds lovely

Don't forget to allocate to family.

Hope you all have a lovely day xx