A Party Menu

We hosted an engagement party for friends of ours who got engaged over the weekend. We I was in cahoots with the future groom to get the party planned out before he even proposed. Her family was in from out of town, so we wanted to have a celebration with family and friends while they were all in town!

Since I always have trouble coming up with interesting hors d'oeuvres for parties, and figuring out when to make each item so I'm not a hot mess crazy woman the day of the party, I thought I'd share with you the menu I served and how I pulled it off!

To start, we knew that the future Mr. and Mrs. would be going out to eat with their immediate families before the party, so we decided to invite the guests to come around 8:00 pm. This meant that I would only be preparing appetizers and desserts for guests to nibble on. We invited about 30 people, but being Memorial Day Weekend, many were unable to make it. In total we had about 20 people in attendance.

Here's the menu I put together:

Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles
Sweet Onion Relish
Pickled Radishes
Blazin' Buffalo Style Chicken Piadinis
Caprese Skewers
Green Goddess Dip with Crudites
Santa Fe Wraps
Spicy Eggplant Dip with Parmesan Toasts

Knock You Naked Brownies
Orange Chiffon Layer Cake

I chose this menu because it offers a wide-range of snacks for all tastes, and it is also a mixture of prep-ahead and same day recipes. The following is my cooking schedule for a Saturday evening party (if you remember correctly, I already made the Radish Pickles, so that is one less thing to do!):

Tuesday
Make Sweet Onion Relish
Make Bread and Butter Pickles

Thursday
Grocery shop

Friday
Make Eggplant Dip
Make Brownies
Make Cake

Saturday Morning
Make Green Goddess Dip

Saturday Afternoon
Assemble Caprese Skewers
Prep Buffalo Chicken Piadinis

Saturday Evening
Put Piadinis in oven
Pour cocktails and enjoy the party!

As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done, but in the end, it is very feasible to host guests for cocktails and hors d'oeuvre and still enjoy the party!