Holiday Chocolate Gift Ideas

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Party Food

You can have a party at any time of the year. To make your party memorable, you need good food. One of the biggest obstacles when party planning is knowing how much food is necessary. There are some rules of thumb to follow so you do not run out of food too early.

Are you going to do a sit down dinner or just provide appetizers? This will make a difference in your calculations. If you are planning a full-blown meal, figure that you will need about a pound and a half of food per person. If you are doing appetizers, you will need about one pound per person. Of course, you may need to adjust this a bit, if you know your friends and family are big eaters.

When you serve appetizers, guests tend to eat about 5 pieces per hour for the first two hours they are at a party. They tend to consume a bit less, about three per hour for every hour after that. So, for a three-hour party for ten people, you should plan for around 130 individual appetizers. Of course, if you are planning on feeding them a meal, you do not need to provide so many snacks.

If you like fondue, you are in luck. Fondue pots are again becoming popular. Serving fondue at a party will require a minimum of approximately 20 cubes of bread per person. This is about half a loaf of French bread. Depending on what you are dipping, each person could eat 6 to 8 ounces of fruit, veggies, or meat, 4 to 6 ounces of cheese, 6 ounces of seafood, or four cookies. It is always better form to provide more than you need than not enough.

All that food will make people thirsty. About one gallon of punch can serve ten people. This calculation figures each person will have three 4-ounce servings. You may want to make more if you think you will need it. If you are planning on a cocktail party, you will want to figure that each guest will average two drinks per person per hour for the first two hours of your party, then one drink per hour for the rest of the party.

Do not forget the ice! Plan on 1 pound of ice per person if you are serving iced drinks. In the summer weather, you will need to increase your amount of ice per person to keep them cool and refreshed. Do not skimp on the napkins or small appetizer plates.

So plan on at least a few quick easy appetizers to start things off. Your guests will love having a little nibble when they first get there. Most appetizers can be made a day or two ahead of time. Planning and preparation should begin early for your party to run as smoothly as possible.

If your party is more spur of the moment, you can always keep a few easy appetizer recipes on hand with some basic ingredients. You will be able to whip some up quickly as everyone arrives.

When you are looking for hot appetizer recipes think about what you need to do to prepare them. Will it be easy or will you end up frustrated because you are still making the meal? Something simple like Swedish meatballs can be put to cook in a crockpot and take care of itself.