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get swanky how to throw a swingin' cocktail party: part II, planning food and drink by Yee-Fan Sun | 1 2 3 4

You’ve got the word out about your cocktail party, a few ideas for transforming your place into a swank lounge for an evening, and a fabulous getup that you can’t wait to wear (see part I of this two-part article). What’s left to plan? Time to start thinking about the all-important edibles and potables, of course … 

food for thought
A frazzled host isn’t a fun host, so when it comes to food, making it up ahead-of-time is crucial to retaining your sanity. The less last-minute cooking required the better, giving you more time to relax and actually have a good time at your own party.

Think small, think portable – you don’t want to be fussing around with food that needs to be sliced and portioned-out, or requires utensils (other than a toothpick) for guests to eat. To that end, a mini muffin pan will prove highly useful. Mini quiches and mini cheesecakes look adorable and taste so good that they’ll probably disappear before you, the poor host/ess, even gets a chance to eat one yourself. As an added bonus, you can make them weeks ahead of time and then freeze them up. Cheesecakes just need to be moved to the fridge the morning of the party or the night before, to give them time to defrost. Hot hors d’oeuvres like mini quiches can be popped straight from the freezer into a 350F oven for about 15 minutes or so, then served piping hot. I reheat the hot stuff in small batches, and slide more in the oven as needed, to avoid ending up with a big platter of unappetizing room temperature “hot” hors d’ouevres. If you’re feeling like a super-host/ess, you can also load them up on a platter after they come out of the oven, then walk around offering them to guests.

shuffle on over this way please

---------------------------> lounge . nourish . host . laze . home .