Tuesday, July 21, 2009

We Need Your Help

So you may or may not know that the Mrs. and I are throwing a small night before Halloween soirée. Were looking at 20-25 adults for a costumed cocktail party. We've been struggling with what kind of food to have. It's not a dinner party, so were thinking appetizers and finger foods. We don't want anything messy because everyone will be dressed up. Also we don't want to be continually cooking throughout the evening. We've come up with the following so far;
Meatballs
Sandwiches cut in Halloween shapes
Crudites
Chips and dips
Spinach and artichoke dip
Assorted sweets
Two punches one with alcoholic one without


So here's the part where we need your help. Does anybody have a delicious appetizer or finger food that isn't messy or needs to be tended to all night. Something I can make and just put out, that won't cause food poisoning from sitting out. It doesn't have to be Halloween themed, but it can be. We've looked at way to many websites and recipes! Thanks in advance everybody!

9 comments:

Steve and Jillian said...

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sausage-Balls-2/Detail.aspx << sausage balls. Ridiculously easy, can be made in advance, so yummy, disappear quickly :)

Diane said...

i dont cook so i'm no help! but i wish i was invited! and i love that little girl!! :)

hope you have a fun time. the menu so far sounds good!

Carrie Mae said...

I must ponder this. I don't throw many cocktail parties, but since it's something I would like to do more of, I'd be happy to think it through to help you out. :)

Carrie Mae said...

Soooo... I make something very similar to the bat wings on the following links, but with a little honey (no ginger or red pepper) - they are always quite good... I do them as "boneless chicken wings" (i.e. big chicken nuggets) - serve with toothpicks and they won't be so messy:

http://www.bhg.com/videos/m/21883054/bat-wings.htm

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/holiday-recipes/halloween_appetizer_recipes.html

I really recommend a pumpkin-shaped cheeseball (or just a cheeseball with crackers in general):
http://www.divinedinnerparty.com/easy-halloween-recipes.html

This girl has some tasty looking tapas recipes, including one or two Halloweeny ones:
http://canarygirl.com/?cat=10

Also, I generally approve of anything Hostess Blog or Martha Stewart do.

What do you think of spiderweb eggs? Eggs or deviled eggs would keep for the evening, as long as it's not too hot inside.

Finally, just some ideas I've pondered in the past: http://creepycupcakes.blogspot.com/2008/10/8-days-until-halloween-vampire-shindig.html

PumpkinBrain said...

We always cook some hot dog sausage wrapped in bacon for christmas parties. This is very simple, take one sausage cut it in four, wrap 1 bacon strip around and use a toothpick to keep everything together. Put in the oven until the bacon is crispy and you're done.

The Captain said...

Whoa! Thanks for all the quick responses!

Thanks J, I've had those somewhere before and I remember them being really tasty.

Thank you PumpkinBrain, everything is better with bacon!

And my dear internet friend Carrie Mae, Holy shit thats a lot of great ideas, Thank you! You were even able to slip Martha in there too. I was thinking about you today while I was driving home, only 100 days to go! Well I'm off to look through all the links!

Thank you all

Carrie Mae said...

Appetizers are hard! We always cook full meals and serve salsa + hummus + wine while we finish cooking (our kitchen is set up so that people can talk to us while we cook, without actually being in the way)... omg salsa! I have the best-ever homemade salsa recipe... not that you'd want to make your own salsa. I'll try to find it for you when I get home if you're interested (though I'd rather send it to an e-mail address, if you'd be willing, rather than posting it all willy-nilly)

Mr. Macabre said...

I've done fondue with great success. A big pot of cheese with bamboo skewers to dip with is easy and quick to put together and looks spiffy to boot.

The Captain said...

Alcohol and sharp wooden sticks in peoples mouths, sounds delicious! I love fondue, the Mrs. and I do a fondue night every once and a while. We do a beer and cheese fondue w/green apples and bread. Then I have a hot oil fondue pot to fry meats and or shrimp. I'll added fondue to the short list of potential choices.

Yummmmm Homemade Salsa, yes