Ingredients:
-1oz -1.5oz Appleton Estate Rum (depending on taste preference)
1. Start With a Salty Snack
This is that little nibble that whets guests’ appetites and goes oh-so well with a cocktail or beer. It can be as simple as store-bought party mix, roasted nuts, or good olives. If you’re feeling ambitious, quickly make a salty-sweet snack, like these Rosemary-Honey Prosciutto Crisps. Your guests will be noshing happily from the moment they walk in the door!
Rosemary-Honey Prosciutto Crisps
ACTIVE TIME 10 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME 35 MINUTES
MAKES 20 CRISPS
PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Lay prosciutto slices flat on baking sheets in a single layer. Bake prosciutto, in batches if needed, until crisp, 12 to 15 minutes.
MEANWHILE, place rosemary in a small skillet and cover with honey. Bring to a boil over medium, stirring gently to move rosemary through honey once or twice. Reduce heat to low; simmer until fragrant, about 1 minute. Discard rosemary.
REMOVE prosciutto from oven and immediately brush lightly with warm honey. If honey thickens as it cools, rewarm over low. (Refrigerate leftover honey for up to 3 weeks.) Let prosciutto cool completely on baking sheets, about 10 minutes.
2. Add Some Cheese
Julia Child reportedly quipped, “A party without cake is just a meeting.” We think cheese is equally necessary. A lavish cheese board never disappoints. You could also assemble a retro-chic cheese ball or these adorable Mini Goat Cheese Balls. Serve them on toothpicks or sandwiched between crackers.
Mini Goat Cheese Balls
ACTIVE TIME 15 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME 15 MINUTES
MAKES 20 CHEESE BALLS
USE a spoon to mash together cheese, pepper, and salt in a medium bowl until well combined.
STIR together cherries, parsley, and sesame seeds in a shallow dish.
ROLL cheese mixture into 20 balls (about 2 teaspoons each). Roll balls in cherry mixture and press to coat.
3. Throw in a Dip
The options here are as endless as Law & Order spin-offs. There’s hummus, guacamole, salsa, and French onion dip, to name a few. Serve with an abundance of crunchy veggies and a sturdy carb, like crostini, rice crackers, or tortilla chips. Need some dip-spiration? This big-flavored Roasted Red Pepper Dip is similar to muhammara, a red-pepper-and-walnut dip that originated in Syria.
Roasted Red Pepper Dip
ACTIVE TIME 10 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME 20 MINUTES
SERVES 10
HEAT ¼ cup oil in a small skillet over medium. Add garlic; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add paprika and, if using, crushed red pepper; cook, stirring constantly, until spices are fragrant and slightly darker in color, about 30 seconds. Carefully stir in tomato paste; cook until evenly mixed and heated through (mixture won’t be completely smooth), about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.
PLACE cashews in a food processor. Process until fine, about 30 seconds. Add roasted peppers, vinegar, kosher salt, tomato paste mixture, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Process, scraping down sides of bowl once or twice, until mostly smooth, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
SPOON mixture into a bowl and garnish with flaky sea salt. Serve with crudités, pita triangles, and/or pita chips.
How Much to Serve
No host wants to run out of food, but you also don’t want to be swimming in leftovers. Elisa Marshall, co-owner and creative director of Maman, a New York City–based café that hosts more than 300 events a year, shares her strategies.
Know Your Audience
Are your friends enthusiastic eaters or more interested in cocktails and socializing? Keep this in mind when planning.
Do the Math
Figure that each guest will eat about five pieces of food per hour of the party. Heartier items, like small sandwiches, still count as one piece each. For things like dips, two tablespoons is a safe serving size. Just make sure you have enough total pieces. Multiply 5 by the number of guests by the number of party hours.
Have a Fallback
Stock up on extra nonperishables, like crackers, olives, nuts, bread, and olive oil, in case your crowd eats more than you anticipated.
Start Slowly
If you’re serving a dish whose leftovers won’t keep well after sitting out for a while, like queso, serve half and hold back the remainder. You can always replenish.
Plan the Drinks
For a two-to-three-hour event, aim for a half bottle of wine or up to four beers per person, depending on what your peeps prefer. If you’re serving cocktails, you should be safe with three per person. (Remember, some people will drink more and others less.) To figure out how much liquor to buy for a signature cocktail, tap that calculator app on your phone again. Multiply the amount of liquor in your recipe by the number of guests and then by 3. For a pitcher cocktail, just double or triple (or quadruple!) the recipe as needed so you have enough for three drinks for everyone.
4. Pick a Fun Finger Food
This doesn’t have to be fancy—pigs in blankets are a classic crowd-pleaser—but it could be! Gougères, stuffed mushrooms, or mini quiches fit the bill, and so do California rolls you pick up from your local sushi joint. Another idea: Heat up a frozen appetizer, like your favorite Trader Joe’s nibble. Or make these French Onion Soup Bites, basically tiny flavor bombs.
French Onion Soup Bites
ACTIVE TIME 50 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME 1 HOUR, 10 MINUTES
MAKES 30 BITES
HEAT butter in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium. Add onions, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt; cook over medium, stirring often, until onions are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden brown and jammy, 25 to 35 minutes. Transfer onions to a bowl. (Cook and refrigerate onions up to 3 days in advance.)
PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Whisk cream, egg, nutmeg, and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt in a small liquidmeasuring cup.
LINE a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place phyllo shells on baking sheet. Spoon ½ teaspoon caramelized onions into each shell. Pour in cream mixture, filling each shell three-quarters of the way (about 2 teaspoons mixture per shell). Top with cheese.
BAKE until puffed and lightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Garnish with chives. Serve warm or at room temperature.
5. Whip up Some Sort of Sandwich
This is the workhorse of your party menu and almost guaranteed to vanish. To decide what to serve, think about the rest of your spread and how elevated the occasion is. Perhaps you put saucy meatballs in the slow cooker and let people build sandwiches on slider buns. Maybe you make finger sandwiches with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and cucumber slices. Or you could have pulled pork with biscuits and pickles on the buffet. Hearty topped flatbreads, pizzas, and open-faced sandwiches count too. Which brings us to these Butternut Tartines…
Butternut Tartines
ACTIVE TIME 20 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME 1 HOUR, 5 MINUTES
MAKES 30 PIECES
PREHEAT oven to 425°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
PEEL squash and cut where neck meets bulb. Slice neck into ¼-inch half-moons. Cut bulb in half lengthwise, discard seeds, and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices.
TOSS squash with crushed red pepper, 2 tablespoons oil, and 1 teaspoon salt. Arrange in a single layer on prepared baking sheets. Roast until tender and golden, about 30 minutes. Transfer parchment to counter to let squash cool.
REDUCE oven to 375°F. Line 1 baking sheet with fresh parchment paper and place bread on it. Drizzle bread with 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Bake, flipping bread halfway through, until toasted, about 15 minutes.
PLACE cheese, lemon zest, black pepper, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor. Process until smooth and well combined.
SPREAD cheese mixture on toasts; top with roasted squash slices. Top with pistachios and, if using, sumac. Cut each tartine into thirds.
Or start with 2 (20-ounce) packages of prechopped squash. Cut the squash into ½-inch cubes before roasting, then just tumble them onto the ricotta.
6. Set Out a Showstopping Sweet
An eye-catching dessert for guests to look forward to adds a level of excitement to a party. (“Have you seen that mountain of sugary goodness?!”) It can absolutely be store-bought. Got a friend who loves to bake? We have one word for you: “delegate.” You can go sophisticated with a dark chocolate mousse cake, homey with a croissant bread pudding, or playful with a tower of doughnuts. Have one main dessert and surround it with other treats, like cookies and candy.
7. Don’t Forget the Drinks
When planning beverages, consider your crowd—and your bandwidth. Assuming you’re serving alcohol, the only musts are beer, red and white wine, water, and sparkling water. Easy add-ons include sparkling wine, juices, and sodas. If you want to do more, make a signature cocktail or offer additional bottles of booze, like vodka, gin, Campari, and bourbon. If you know that a few of your guests don’t drink, consider providing some nonalcoholic spirits, such as Seedlip or Monday Zero Alcohol Gin.
Some Nice-to-Have Extras
Pad out your spread with some bonus store-bought stuff. These are some of our go-tos.
Antipasto
Cheese straws
Cured meats
Dried fruit
Fancy potato chips
Mini quiches
Pickled green beans or okra
Popcorn
Roasted chickpeas
Seasonal fruit
Spanakopitas, samosas, dumplings, or empanadas (from the freezer aisle)
Spiced nuts
Tinned oysters or mussels
Here's how to make the best mashed potatoes of your life
https://youtu.be/rXS7ZNmlrFs
Prep Time:15 mins
Roast Time:25 mins
Total Time:40 mins
Servings:8
Ingredients
Directions
Cook's Notes:
Serves 4
Notes
