Christening Buffet ideas?

mellyp

My son will be getting christened in October.

I wonder if any of you could give me some buffet food ideas.

I want to do a finger buffet, rather than have anything where a fork would be needed to eat it, as there will be quite a few small children there and i'm sure the parents would find it easier to eat a finger buffet, than faff around with forks etc.

I really want to get away with the usual boring sandwiches etc.

So, if any of you have ideas for something a bit different, but not too much hassle to make, i would really appreciate it.

Thanks


Also, as an aside to this, there will be children there ranging from baby to 13/14, we are holding the buffet in my local social club, but there is nothing there for the kiddies to do, can anyone think of ANYTHING i can provide to keep the youngsters happy, it will only be about 3 hours. I was thinking of buying a load of those little cheap bottles of bubbles for the kiddies to blow about, but i'm sure the older ones would not appreciate this. Am really stumped on this one.

Not asking much am i???

MrsB_2

What about Indian style finger snacks like samosas or bhajis? I'm sure you'll be able to find some easy recipes for these and they're popular with lots of people these days. Also, if you're making your own they can be as hot or as mild as you like.

Other good buffet food, hmm, what about:
Chicken legs
vegetable sticks and dips
sliced pizza
mini pork pies
sausages on sticks
slices of pie (corned beef and potato is very popular up here)

Not sure I can think of anything else yet.

With regard to the kids, why dont you ask each child laden family to bring something with them that would keep their child / children plus a couple of others entertained?? That way you'll end up with a good cross section of stuff for the relevant ages.

Pooky

I wouldn't go for the bubbles......you'll end up with spills galore and a very slippy floor. Why not grab a few packs of paper plates, some glue sticks - can get 10 for £1 at my local pounshop - an assortment of anything that they can stick on, magazines to cut up, felt pens etc and get them to all make masks........the older ones can be asked to cut eye holes and stick a strip of paper along the back in place of string.

As for food --- don't knock the sarnies, cheap and easy to make and most people love them.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

Hows about:

Quiches
Pasta mixed with chicken/ham/sweetcorn & mayo (chilli powder is nice)
Cheese & pineapple sticks
Fried Chicken
Chicken Nuggets
Pizza
Rice with meat or veggie option
Jacket Spuds
HM Coleslaw
HM Potatoe Salad
Potatoe wedges
HM Dips
HM Sausage Rolls
Pork Pies
HM Meatloaf/Veggie Loaf

Loads more I cant think of

Good Luck

Penny-Pincher!!
xxx

Mrsbojangles_2

Does anyone you know have a karoke machine you could borrow? You could let the older ones judge an X Factor type comptetion

For buffet

Pies
sausage rolls
Butterd slices of french sticks with pate
muffin pizzas (cut a muffin in half, toast one side, turn over spread tom sauce on add cheese, and choice of topping!

Hope this helps,

scuzz

Sarnies rock!! But if you want something different I agree with what the others have said.

You could always do a slant on sarnies, butter and jam a slice or put chocolate spread on it and roll it up so it's like a swiss roll.

Cheese and pineapple on sticks

HM Scotch eggs - can be cut in portions of upto six

Voluvants (sorry not sure how to spell that!)

Becles

Instead of traditional quiches, make mini ones in a bun tin. Cut the pastry with a scone cutter to line the tins, then chop your veg/meat finely and make as normal.

If you make your own pizza dough, you can do mini pizza's too.

Both are easier to manage than a traditional slice, especially for children.

If you have a punch bowl, fill it with chopped fruit and fruit juices. I did that at a childrens party and it went down well.

mellyp

Thanks everyone for all your ideas, have got a nice growing list of stuff now to think about.

Pooky - fantastic idea re: the masks. I have already mentioned it to my 13yr old niece who is more than happy to 'take charge' of the little ones on the day on the 'mask making table', poundshop - here i come

Thanks very much everyone :T

stockmarket-diva

I've recently held an 80th Birthday Party for my father in law and loved doing the buffet. One of the things I was most impressed with was the whole salmon I cooked. I was impressed by the price firstly, approx £8 - 10 and it was so easy to do. If you have a baking tin just put the salmon in there, propped up and add to it one glass of white wine and one glass of water plus some herbs. Cover very tightly in foil and cook at 180 degrees for about half an hour to 40 minutes. Leave it to cool and then move onto a large plate. Peel the skin off and decorate with cucumber slices and lemon quarters etc. It looks so impressive and takes so little work to prepare. Good luck.

p.s. I could impress you with my ice bowl which really impressed everyone else but not sure you would want to do that. If you do, let me know and I'll let you know the very simple instructions.

Bogof_Babe

If you think ordinary sandwiches are boring, how about making a platter of open sandwiches (i.e. no top layer of bread) and another one of club sandwiches (three slices of bread with two different fillings in between). If you garnish the platters with a bit of salady stuff and plonk a sprig of watercress on top, it would look really attractive.

Thinking about the open sandwiches - perhaps these would be better as halved rolls, so they don't flop about too much!

Re. entertainment - kids love those helium balloons, and a few ordinary balloons too, to "bat" (with their hands) around!

Chris25

I've seen a buffet centrepiece where a large melon or watermelon is cut into the shape of a pram or buggy and filled with fresh fruit salad. An oval shape works best and basically you put the melon on it's side so that the oval lays side-to-side and imagine a horizontal and a vertical line dividing the fruit into four.

Then out of the top left quarter of the fruit cut out 2 wedges, leaving between them, a band about an inch thick to represent the handle.

Then turn the melon so that the cuts are on the top as you look down. Take a small slice off bottom so it stands up, scoop out and fill. Take 4 orange slices and attach around the bottom with c*cktail sticks to look like pram wheels.

It's difficult for me to describe but if you like the idea you could practice with an apple first. If I find a picture and/or better instructions, I'll let you know.

You could make profiteroles or mini eclairs and they can be either sweet or savoury.

If you have a 'visitor's book' you could get some of the children to be in charge of getting the guests to sign it.:D