Antipasto platter is always easy to prepare, at room temp and also good...an assortment of cheeses, crackers, olive oils, salami, and other fun stuff like marinated mushrooms.

This has been a BIG hit at every party I've served it, or taken it to. I like to get pita crackers from TJ's to go with.

Edited to fix link to recipe. Also, I do not use dill, as I don't really like it with these ingredients. I used basil instead. Sometimes I add chopped tomato, too.

5-layer-greek-dip

I would not serve anything as heavy as meatballs at that hour of the day. Small sandwiches (we get little bakery rolls and fill them with shaved Boar's head ham or roast beef and a little mayo and mustard mixed already on it), cheese and crackers with grapes on the serving board, veg assortment with an interesting dip or sauce, and slices of cake already cut and arranged on a platter or little pick up desserts like lemon bars, pecan bars, cream cheese brownies, etc., cut in quarters so they are small and one-bite. I would not have anything hot.

Or, you could have all desserts---cookies, brownies, cake, etc., with coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

Bacon wrapped medjool dates, stuffed with smoked almonds. A brown sugar, soy glaze. These are inhaled at all times of the day.

All recipes has a recipe I use, I'll go look for it.

I like this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/215385/devils-on-horseback/

I cut the bacon in thirds ( half is way too much), use bowls to mix everything after toothpicks, and place on foil lined cookie sheets on racks. For big dates I use two almonds.

All desserts is a good idea too...cookies, small cakes, scones, fruit skewers...serve with coffee tea water and lemonade.

I made a fig and olive tapenade for a recent party, served over sliced chevre and garnished with walnuts and rosemary. Here's the recipe (the recipe calls for cream cheese, but I used chevre--cuts into nice circles).

I make garlic green beans for nibbles (served at room temperature). Blanche the beans, let them cool to room temp, dry them thoroughly then dress them with oil, crushed garlic, and coarse salt. You can cook the beans in advance and refrigerate them, but if you salt them when they are cold the salt tends to dissolve from condensation.

A friend of mine used to have an annual open house and, among other things, served an egg salad and caviar appetizer that was to die for. When I asked for the recipe, she told me it was on the back of the jars of caviar you can buy at the grocery store (lots of versions online as well).

Deviled eggs are also a winner (speaking of eggs).

I love the salmon mousse recipe from the Silver Palate cookbook. I make it with fresh poached salmon ( I've never made it with canned so can't speak for that. ) and chill it in a fish shaped mold. I serve it over watercress or tender greens along with Bremner Wafers or Pepperidge Farm cocktail bread. It's very light so you don't want a heavy cracker.

http://www.silverpalate.com/recipe/store-favorites/salmon-mousse

Shrimp Cocktail always disappears.

I second the Antipasta platter or charcuterie platter from a good Italian market.

All pre made ideas:

Sandwich tray

Veggies with dip or hummus

Fruit tray

Cheese plate

Chips with dip

Dessert platter

Nuts

Antipasto platter

This black bean dip is always a hit. The original recipe calls for it to be spread over a softened block of cream cheese, and that's very good, but it's also good in a bowl as a simple dip (w/o the cream cheese). Serve with tortilla chips. It can be made ahead and keeps very well.

Coyote Caviar (black bean dip)

1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (4 oz) chopped ripe olives, drained

1 small onion, chopped

1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies

1 clove garlic, minced

4 Tb cilantro, chopped

2 Tb vegetable or olive oil

2 Tb lime juice

2 tap chili powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp cumin

1 tsp pepper

Mix above ingredients and refrigerate 2 (or more) hours. Spread an 8 oz block of softened cream cheese on a serving plate and cover with mixture. Serve with tortilla chips.

As nice and sophisticated as most of the recipes are above, it would take forever to fix, do clean up, & clean the house, unless you have help.

At the end of the day, most people are starving. No matter what other dishes are served with meatballs, I've noticed they are the first to be devoured.

I also like Amy's list. Tuna and/or egg salad finger sandwiches are always a hit.

Thanks, everyone, for all your suggestions and recipes. They all look fantastic! I will read everything through again and then figure out what we will do. We can't use them all for this particular party, but I think all these suggestions will go on my "to try" list.

I agree, Oakley, it will take forever to clean and prepare. I enjoy entertaining, but the prep work is killer. I do not have help, other than a friend who has offered to come over that afternoon to get things ready, which is why I'm trying to get as much done as possible in advance.

Trader Joe's and Costco have really excellent frozen appetizers: spanikopita, cheese tarts, baked brie with apricot, bacon-wrapped scallops, even mac and cheese puffs. Add some yummy small desserts, a crock pot of meatballs, veggies and fruit and maybe a dip, and you've got yourself an open house!

Excellent, indygo. I am going to Costco this morning and will take a look at what they have. Will probably get to TJs later this week.

Question about veggies.... do people really eat them? I always do, but I see most veggie trays go uneaten.

If you are serving something substantial, pork tenderloin sliders are really easy and good. I make mine with carmelized onions and provolone or good baby swiss on Hawaiian butter rolls but any good roll will do. You can make ahead and pop in the oven to warm at the last minute. Serve with a champagne mustard or other favorite mustard. One tenderloin, sliced, makes about 12 servings.

If that's too much, you can do chicken salad in small phyllo cups. Easy peasy and nice to serve with fruit and veggie accompaniments for that time of day.

My experiences with serving veggie patters has been varied and somewhat unpredictable, but overall fruit gets eaten more than vegetables IME. I have recently pared down my vegetable platters to just carrots and celery because they seem to be most consistently eaten and because I can recycle them into my kids' lunch boxes if they don't get eaten.

One thing I do in general is try to make sure there is a non-pork option and a vegetarian option for people. I have some Jewish friends/acquaintances who do not keep kosher but also do not eat pork. And we have more than one family we know with some vegetarian members. A cheese board covers all of that for a non-meal event.

And I definitely hear you on the prep work. I have tried to cut way back on that. I find people like food that tastes good and it's okay if it isn't Pinterest pretty.

I think whether a veggie platter gets eaten depends on your audience, and the quality, dips, presentation, and ease of eating them. If you have a foodie audience, I think they are usually appreciated; esp. a distaff foodie audience. But IMHO they go over much better if the quality and selection is very good (blanched veggies are so gorgeous), you have good homemade dips, and you serve it in such a way that it is not a pain to eat.

I don't know, maybe I am not most people, but I wouldn't be eating meatballs and sliders an hour or two before dinner. I would do a nice cheese plate, fruit tray, maybe shrimp. Chips and dip or salsa. Honestly I'd put more effort into some fun drink, with or without alcohol, cause not everyone would want that at a 4 pm work thing either.

Frittata or Spanish Tortilla.

Savory quiche.

MtnRdRedux, how would you serve veggies so they are not a pain to eat? The only way I've ever seen them, raw or blanched, is on a tray or in a bowl, with a nearby dip, so I'm all ears if there are new ideas!

Butternut, I agree. I probably wouldn't eat meatballs or sliders myself in the time between work and dinner. My guess is probably that some people will and some people won't, so I will probably have one item that is a little heavier.

I think the problem I see with veggie platters is that most people seem to pick them up from costco or a supermarket and they are gross. Those little carrots that taste like they've gotten slimy in plastic, then dry and crusty (and weren't that great to begin with) old, hard raw broccoli and cauliflower, pale celery with no flavor and out of season hard cherry tomatoes. If people take the time to select the freshest, best veggies they can find (and blanch some that need it, as mtn suggests), people do eat them. Our TJ's has rainbow carrots that are really delicious (taste like real garden carrots) and are beautiful when sliced (purple, yellow, orange, etc). I slice in elongated, angled rounds, so they are easy to eat and also to dip. If you can source peas in pods that taste good, people really seem to go for those, too. But the ones on premade platters always taste moldy to me, with no sweetness. Same with red pepper slices. They are beautiful and tasty if you do them yourself.

I cut up my own vegetables which does add to the prep work. The most successful veggie platter I ever did was for one of dd's birthday parties. Her theme that year was rainbow so I did a rainbow platter of fruit and vegetables in rows in the order of the rainbow colors. It was very pretty and I think that made it more interesting to people. Anyway I fixed two big platters for that party and one was totally gone and the other nearly so.

My parties still always include little kids and I just can't stomach dip under those circumstances (they all forget and double dip). One clever thing I have seen to deal with that is short platisic cups with dip in the bottom. Then people can pick up the veggies they want and dip them into their individual cup.

Exactly my thoughts, Oly, exactly. I didn't want to offend but you are dead on. So often people do a very perfunctory veggie platter. Veggies need a little marketing!

Before I go off on that tangent, though, I confess I was not paying attention to the time. Is this a reception and not a meal? If it is not dinner, maybe it should be just dessert and fruits, or cheese and crackers and fruit? What is the purpose?

I totally agree with you on the vegetable situation - I would definitely prepare my own, so thanks for the additional ideas on that. I will market the veggies.

Mtn, this is just an open house, not a meal. People stopping by after work for a little bit. Like a happy hour, but at our house.

I like to blanche the veggies. It makes the colors brighter, and makes them just a wee bit softer and so easier to eat. I love the way they look arranged in a natural wicker basket (you may need a false bottom to raise them up) and sometimes with herbs for extra height, color. Everything should be bite-sized. Dips should be homemade and at least two kinds. Next to the dip I put a small basket of those tiny pleated paper cups you sometimes see used for condiments.

Some nice example here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=basket+of+crudites&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPuoeuraLKAhUHyj4KHQW6DREQ_AUIBygB&biw=1659&bih=976

While the basket of veggies looks nice, there's something that skeeves me out unless the basket is lined with napkin or parchment or something...I don't like the food right up against the basket itself with all the stain on the woven fibers and nooks and crannies potentially full of stuff in the weave.

Thanks, Mtn. Those look really nice. Annie, most of those examples show lettuce leaves lining the basket and at least one had a cloth napkin/towel instead. I'm with you, I wouldn't put veggies right up against the basket!

That's what I meant by a false bottom. You can hide it w lettuce leaves, cabbage, herbs.

I am so hungry after reading this.

I agree that too many of those PREpared veggie / crudités platters are ugly-dry and mildew tasting.

Big budget? Little-modest budget?

Picky eaters who go for Kraft Mac Cheese, or more "sophisticated" people with adventurous palates?

Booze? Tea? Punch?

I like those California and or "inside out" rolls (veggie sushi and you can buy them or make them ahead yourself (easy for me to say). You slice them (keep the slicer knife wet/clean).

OR, if just simple gnoshing with busy hostess and on the run people stopping buy to chat and socialize for 50 minutes, keep it very simple. Suggestions about for maybe tiny meatballs, or cheese platter, fruit.

And then there is this -- freshly popped corn tossed to coat with a mix of dill weed (dried fine), bit of fine sea salt, and nutritional yeast. Serve in a large bowl with a nice scoop and make up some cones or have some little bowls/plates (you'll already have cocktail plates and napkins). Sounds crazy, but this is so good, light and addictive.

Those frozen phyllo pastry spinach (spanakopita) triangles sold at some of the club grocery stores are very good. They are small, so not too much.

Veda and Oly, I'd like to be on the invite list for your parties.

Pat Conroy's Pickled Shrimp. Make ahead, but remove from marinade after 24 hours so the shrimp doesn't get tough. If at all possible do not use pre-cooked shrimp; it doesn't absorb the flavors of the marinade very well.

Have you ever made couscous salad? It is delicious!!! If you need the recipe let me know. Everytime my husband makes it ppl demand the recipe and eat every bite!

Also good for vegetarians.

Ak, please share it. I am always looking for vegetarian options:)

Here you go!

Couscous Salad

1 ½
cup chicken or vegetable broth (to cook the couscous in)

1 cup couscous

1 can chickpeas rinsed (they have a skin
on them that you should remove by soaking in water and hand removing the skins)

3 green onions chopped

1 pepper – green, red, orange or red (I
usually put one of each in there)

1/3 cup of dried raisin, or dates or dried
cranberry

½ cup of almonds (crushed up)

dressing

½ cup olive oil

¼ lemon juice

½ teaspoon of curry

Boil the broth, add the couscous remove
from the stove and let stand with the cover.
When the broth is absorbed, mix with the other ingredients and add the
dressing

It is delicious!!!

Thanks! I have made similar things. I'm not familiar with curry though. Would you recommend any brand in particular?

Olychick, do you have the recipe for that 5 layer dip? I couldn't click through from the link.

I like to make caprese skewers. For New Years Day I bought mini puff pastry shells and made a few different fillings to appeal to the varied taste of the crowd. One was just Brie baked in the shell and topped with peach or apricot preserves. I did a pizza one with ricotta, pizza sauce and a topped with mozzerella and a third one with roasted butternut squash mixed with crumbled fried sage. Whatever you decide, I'm sure it will be a lovely event.

If you are going to Costco check into their party platters. I used to order them for parties at work. The rolled sandwiches were very popular and special bakery trays were delicious. They have to be ordered ahead of time. The prices were very reasonable. Much easier to pick up prepared platters and fill in with your own vegetables. ETA: Some people may eat at your house and not have dinner, especially single people. So having some sandwiches, etc. will be appreciated.

missouribound, sorry, that was a bad link. I fixed it, so you should be able to get to the recipe now. I'd just print it here but it's hard to copy because it has pictures between the text.

Another skewer idea is to alternate tortellini, salami, cheese, olives, tomatoes or whatever mix you like onto a toothpick. You could even marinate in an Italian dressing.

Over the holidays I made pimiento cheese and served it on cucumber rounds. It was a nice low carb option.

I also make a Mexican shrimp cocktail. I would use the smallest, already cooked shrimp mixed with finely diced onion, cilantro, cucumber, jalapenos, and avocado. This is suspended in either Clamato or crushed tomatoes. It is lovely served from a punch bowl or a soup tureen. It can be eaten with a spoon from a cup or tortilla chips.

I would also consider savory cream puffs made with cheese and perhaps a bit of cayenne. Some chopped nuts could be added as well. You could make the dough the day before and then bake closer to the time of the party. A cookie scoop would make doing the balls quick and easy.

i would think that most people would be pretty hungry at that time and would be interested in eating! if there is plenty of food, i would guess that many would almost have an early dinner...

i think shrimp cocktail is a great idea. wraps are also an easy thing to do ahead. even a big pot of chili or gumbo or a stew or something is easy for a crowd- you can keep it hot in a large crockpot/s and it is easy to eat while standing...

I guess it would depend on your budget and how much time you want to spend laboring over the whole thing. For me, just after the holidays, I would be less inclined to put my all into a bunch of homemade food and would like something light and versatile.

I would order a couple of sushi platters and also have a few other offerings like edamame, dumplings, some kind of noodle salad. The sushi could be a combination of cooked, raw and vegetarian. I probably wouldn't do raw fish just because it would be harder to keep cool. For dessert I would do some ginger snap cookies, coconut bars & macaroons.

At that time of day, what do I want? I want a cookie and a cup of tea or coffee. ;) From the timeframe, it looks like these people will be going home for dinner, I'd have coffee, tea, maybe a fruit/cheese plate, and 2 or 3 simple desserts (like cookies, biscotti, some little tarts?). If you want, maybe some nuts/dried fruit. I wouldn't go all out with the hot apps or even sandwiches, personally.

What day of the week is the open house?

Asking because by Friday afternoon many teachers (and office staff) are more then ready for happy hour and want to stay longer.

Another day of the week, the guests may drop by and not hang out. They need to get to their own home and get ready for the next day's work.

Thanks Olychick.

I like this appetizer because it takes two minutes and is very yum, Trader Joes smoked oysters chunky chopped with cream cheese and a bit of chopped green onion. There are other more complicated recipes with spices plus other ingredients but they are not better. Serve on whatever you like.

A gal brought over simply the most scrumptious chocolate mousse that I ever had. I asked her where it was from and she told me Aux Delices. So I went to their web site and lo and behold, in addition to a lovely catering menu, they also post recipes. How great is that? I had a lot of fun nosing around there and perhaps they can give you some ideas for your open house too. (I have no affiliation with these folks at all, other than to appreciate how delish that mousse was!)

Ellendi, we use red curry powder.

Maddielee, the open house is on a Thursday. Friday doesn't really work as there are school activities on Friday nights. On this particular Thursday, there are no events.

Thanks again for all the great ideas!! Annie, I will check out that catering menu. Great idea!