XP: Help me with my holiday party menu!

misscastle

We're hosting a holiday cocktail party next weekend for about 40 people. We did NOT think this many people would RSVP -- we invited a lot of people from Delaware and the Eastern Shore, and did not think they would make the drive! -- so I'm a little panicked!

I'm trying to do a simple, elegant, impressive, yet not-too-expensive hors d'oeurves menu. Easy, right? HA! I'm also trying to do a fairly varied menu of meat, seafood, and veggie dishes. My friend also pointed out my original menu had a lot of cheese (that's a problem?), so I tried to scale back on that.

Here's what I have so far... I need more, but I'm having issues coming up with ideas.

Cocktails:
- Cranberry margaritas (in a beverage dispenser)
- Red & white wine
- Beer
- Warm apple cider (with spiced rum separately, for spiking) 

- Sparkling cider, lemonade, and soda for non-drinkers

Meat dishes
- Meatballs in the crockpot
- Proscuitto-wrapped pears
- (Added) Buffalo chicken cups

Seafood dishes
- Bacon-wrapped shrimp
- Crab Dip

 Veggie Dishes
- (Edited due to suggestions) Cheese plate - goat, brie, and cheddar cheese with apple slices and grapes
- Crudites with hummus
- (re-added) Caprese toothpicks 

 Desserts
- Individual pumpkin cheesecakes (in freezer from Thanksgiving)
- Mini cupcakes (ditto)
- Christmas Cookies 

My original menu includes buffalo chicken dip (not so elegant), and cheese and apple tarts (maybe a lot of work, but I like the idea of it...)

Please help!

6fsn

On drinks I'd have water and coffee.  My family is coffee drinkers though.

I do not think the caprese skewers would be too much cheese and I do think they would be a nice addition.  I am not a fan of the buffalo chicken dip in general, but I do think you could use some sort of chicken item.  If you want the flavors, maybe you could make the dip and serve it in phyllo cups with a little celery stick and blue cheese crumbled on top?

misscastle

Love the idea of the buffalo chicken cups. Thanks!

TarHeels&Rebels

Hi   Welcome over here.  Looks pretty good!

I think you have plenty of drinks and could probably cut something out if you wanted to.

There are two items for me that just don't fit the elegant thing you're going for: namely meatballs and buffalo dip. [But I am completely prejudiced against meatballs and pigs in a blanket.  I know they're popular, but I...just...can't.  I actually had a nightmare before I got married of MIL having tuxedo'd waiters passing pigs in a blanket on silver trays.  I woke up FREAKED and called then-FI right that second to make sure his mom wouldn't do anything like that behind my back LOL.]

Instead of the meatballs, consider beef crostini.  Get good roast beef sliced thinly at the deli counter.  Take cocktail bread, brush it with butter and garlic, toast it for a minute or two, add the roast beef and sprinkle on some shredded Swiss and cracked pepper, toast another minute or two. (Based on this if you like to see real sources of things.)

I made a blue cheese apple tart once that didn't turn out.  I was super disappointed, so I hope yours does turn out.  I made it the same night I made these that were out of this world. (I used store-bought fig jam - no way I was fussing with boiling down my own figs! lol)

I think you'd be ok to cut back on the varieties of cheese and maybe sub in a frozen spinach spiral from the grocery store.

misscastle

I kind of agree with you on the meatballs. But they're so easy with the crockpot and filling that I'm inclined to just keep them. 

I'm thinking maybe only 3 types of cheese -- cheddar, goat, and brie -- with grapes and apple slices arranged artfully among them.