Catered Events for the Holidays

I only recently started to use caterers for my holiday parties. And what a difference it makes! If money is not an issue, go all out and have the event fully catered and staffed. Staffing is glorious when at the end of the party your kitchen is spotless and you have nothing to do but relax.

If keeping track of cost is important, then have the caterer bring 60% of the food. Let them take care of some of the more difficult dishes or ones that are not in your repertoire. Then you can fill in the blanks. One of my favorite low stress cocktail party offerings is a fruit and cheese board. I usually use three cheeses: a blue, a goat cheese and a hard cheese like cheddar or Parmesan. I place the cheeses on a wooden board and decorate the rest of the board with grapes and strawberries. Sometimes I'll use dried fruit or nuts in small bowls on the board. And of course water crackers complete the presentation. Everyone should have a large wooden cutting board for presentations like this.

Another low stress item is a smoked salmon tray. At the grocery store you can buy pre-sliced smoked salmon. Lay it out on a pretty tray along with a row of finely chopped onion, a row of capers, a row of chopped hard boiled egg (picked up from the salad bar at my grocery store) and a row of crackers. The presentation is lovely. I also like to have a small bowl of sour cream with prepared horseradish added for the right amount of heat. This makes a great addition to the total presentation.

You can put together these two items well in advance. Then an hour before your cocktail party starts, the caterer will drop off the rest of the food. They'll even come back the next day to pick up their serving dishes. This leaves so much more time for getting yourself ready for the party. Enjoy!