I'd have another "main dish" besides the apple tart....how about a rhubarb pie or cobbler....or even a chocolate cake.
And a dessert wine would go nicely as well....could be champagne or a pro-secco or sherry or port or a sauterne.
If I were doing it I would skip the spiced nuts and skip dipping the straw berries in chocolate and just have berries maybe with a sweetened sour cream with vanilla for dipping.
It would be apple tart, rhubarb pie or chocolate cake
Cookies, fruit and ice cream...and wine and coffee and tea.
Just a thought...I went to an afternoon coffee and the hostess had set up a couple of big coffee pots with really strong coffee and de caf, and assorted tea bags and a kettle of water on a hot plate....and then had all sorts of add on's...like orange zest, lemon slices, shaved chocolate cinnamon sticks, cloves whipped cream and a chalk board with suggestions for what to add to make what kind of coffee...Oh and there were also liquors in appropriate flavors, like Kahlua, creme de cocoa, ouzo, brandy, cuantro...raspberry...
And cookies. It was a lovely party.
Linda C

I would make cream puffs. They are easy to make and always impressive. Just bake the puffs, fill whatever your want (easiest is whipped cream) into the puffs, drizzle a bit of melted chocolate and a dust of powdered sugar on top. Voila, you have a pretty treat to impress your friends. Works for me every time! :-)

Al

Sounds lovely, what's not to love about desserts.

Just a thought. Where are you going on your travels? A few years back I had a get together for a group of us heading out on vacation. I used our destination as a theme for the nibblies. It was great fun.

Perhaps you could put together a selection of treats that your destination is known for. Get everyone in the mood!

Thank you for the great suggestions!

Chase, our destination is Colorado. :-) I plan to incorporate that somehow, but the food...?

Well Maybe Lee has some ideas but right off the top of my head......

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado! So Rocky Mountain Brownies ( the legal type) and Rocky Mountain Ice Cream comes to mind.

Would that be Rocky Road ice cream, Sharon?

Yeah, skip the nuts and chocolate strawberries and make Rocky Road brownies. If you're going to have ice cream, must have brownies! Also then just fresh fruit to go with the ice cream. And also maybe another type of fruit pie then to have "a la mode." Or a nut tart.

LOL, I wish I could be more help about Colorado signature desserts, but I can't think of any that this state is known for. Rocky Road ice cream at least has one word right.

Enstrom's Almond Toffee is wonderful and has been a family owned business that began in the early 1960s and has expanded from Grand Junction to Denver. If you wanted to have a little chocolate to serve, it would be perfect. They are most well known for the toffee but have a wide variety of very good chocolates. They ship everywhere.

Whatever you serve, I'm sure your your party will be filled with fun and anticipation of a great vacation.

Lee

Here is a link that might be useful: Colorado chocolates

Perhaps some dessert cheeses for those who don't want sugar? That would pair well with the fresh fruit you're serving?

I think a cake of some sort would be a nice addition, perhaps that lemon bundt cake recently posted.
I second the cheese idea.

I would make:
summer torte with whatever fruit is ripe,
shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate (SharonCB's recipe)
a simple cheescake with strawberries
raspberry thumbprint cookies.

Covers plain (torte) to rich (cheesecake) some chocolate (dipped cookies) and then the raspberry thumbprints will simply look pretty next to the cheesecake.

Jo

MMmmmmm, thank you for your wonderful suggestions.

I forgot to include brownies in my initial list.

The apple tart I mentioned is a recipe I got from a cooking class I recently took; the crust had crushed almonds, it was served a la mode with fresh strawberries, and was to-die-for.

I also thought of something lemon... little lemon tarts or lemon sorbet... or that lemon bundt cake with fresh raspberries.

This won't be the last planning party, so I can save some ideas for the others.

jenn, I think the apple tart with vanilla ice cream sounds delicious, I might even like a little caramel topping just to gild the lily!

Brownies would be a good addition for those who wanted a little chocolate with their ice cream.

I love chocolate dipped strawberries, but if you make brownies it's probably not necessary to dip them, or just provide some fruit dip kind of thing.

It all sounds delicious and fun.

Annie

I would make a mile-high cake -- like dobos torte or some other multi-layer cake.

My SIL makes a wonderful Mile High Apple Pie. She lives in Denver. (Though I prefer a tart with less apples.)

How about dessert shooters? I made some for a family celebration this weekend. I bought little shot glasses from Bed Bath and Beyond and put in Chocolate mousse in some and cheesecake in others. I think anything layered (trifle?) would look really good and the quantity is really good for sampling.

Thank you for the additional suggestions.