Appetizers, hors d'oeuvres, and dips are just plain fun to eat. They quench perfectly that ravenous hunger that sometimes surfaces around dinnertime. At functions, dips and finger foods can cohabitate well with casual conversation — no fussing with knives and forks while sitting captive with the person at the next place setting. With cocktail parties, you can just walk, talk, and enjoy a tasty bite-sized morsel!
 | Planning for a dinner party involves a fair share of list-making and shopping not only for the main course but also for the pre-meal treats. For impromptu gatherings, keep a few canned or frozen foods among your kitchen stock so that you're not caught off guard when friends or family congregate at your house. Candles help set a pleasant mood for any occasion — planned or spontaneous — as they cast a nice glow on food and add a sparkly to an evening. Of course, consider basic safety when setting out a spread of hors d'oeuvres, appetizers, dips, or snacks. |
Consider these helpful hints as you put together a party with pizzazz:
- For the safety of those who are allergic, identify fish or shellfish dishes with a topping of shrimp, clam, crayfish, or lobster claw or a small sign in a holder. The garnish or sign warns those guests with allergies about the food's contents; food allergies can be quite serious, even deadly.
- For consideration of your guests who have problems with spicy foods, identify dishes that are peppery-hot by garnishing with a small, whole red pepper or adding a small sign. Also provide warnings for ultra-potent preparations, such as wasabi.
- Serve only the freshest of greens, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, and other vegetables. A limp or brown piece of produce can ruin the overall appearance — and palatability — of your samplings.
- To make them more attractive, lightly oil black and green olives to avoid them looking dry after about 10 minutes. Don't spray them with cooking spray because the spray gets bubbly or beady-looking on the olives.
- Use store-bought dips whenever you want, but "doctor them up" with attractive garnishes or thin them with lowfat or fatfree sour cream, yogurt, or mayonnaise. Look at the label's nutrition information to see what is already in the dip and add more of the primary ingredient, such as fresh chopped green onions and their tops to an onion dip. The increasingly popular dips marketed as hummus may benefit from additions of well-mashed garbanzo beans, fresh lemon juice or wedges of lemon, minced garlic, chopped onions, and a thin but noticeable swirl of fresh olive oil on top.
- Place small dishes of nuts and dried fruit on tables. Good mixtures include raisins and almonds, peanuts and dried blueberries, cashews and dried cranberries, dried cherries and filberts, and different kinds of nuts like pistachios.
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