Offer guests holiday finger foods
Finger foods are a no-muss, no-fuss way to feed guests at your holiday party or event. Most finger foods don't require hours of preparation and can be made quickly for guests and partiers. Holiday finger foods should be elegant-looking, simple to make and delicious to taste. You can make them ahead of time and cook them right before it's time to serve. Plate your food offerings on attractive holiday inspired trays and platters. Does this Spark an idea?
Holiday Sandwiches
Holiday sandwiches are a snap to prepare. Use colorful specialty breads to give your sandwiches extra eye appeal. For Easter you could use pastel-colored breads, and at Christmas, breads in red and green. Bakeries provide colored breads during holidays, or you could prepare some yourself by adding food coloring to your bread recipes. Or use food coloring and holiday stencils to 'paint' a picture onto toasted breads. Make delicious sandwich fillings using ingredients like cream cheese, nuts and grapes. Thinly sliced cucumbers and radishes make good sandwich fillers too. Cut the crusts off the sandwiches and cut them into triangles with a sharp knife. You can use a sharp cookie cutter to cut sandwiches into shapes. Stack the sandwiches on doily-covered trays. For an appetizer, prepare six sandwiches per person.
Fill and Bake Cups
Fill-and-bake cups are versatile for any type of finger food. Mini pie shells and phyllo shells make great edible dishes to fill with holiday foods. Load little pies with pecan, pumpkin or apple pie filling. Make mini mince meat pies for Christmas events. These sweet, tasty foods are easy for guests to pop into their mouths. Try filling phyllo shells with a mixture of crab meat and cheeses. Or make mini quiches of egg, spinach and Parmesan. Prepare these ready-to-serve cups ahead of time and place them on your buffet table right before party time. Transfer hot cups from the stove to trays using a spatula. Always warn your guests about any extremely hot foods.
Sushi
Sushi rolls are not difficult to make and give your guests wonderful variety for the holidays. For summer holiday events, stuff sushi rolls with summer vegetables like avocados, cucumbers and green onions. For elegant Christmas affairs stuff rolls with crab meat and cheeses. Make fruit-flavored sushi by using fruit roll ups, instead of rice paper; instead of steamed rice, use crisped rice. Replace wasabi with cream cheese. Roll up fresh fruit such as strawberries, pineapple and apples and slice them into bite size pieces.
Tags: ahead time, crab meat, crab meat cheeses, cream cheese, finger foods, food coloring, give your