Entertaining, one bite at a time
While living in Charleston, we hosted an annual scientific meeting for a number of years. One highlight of the meeting was an hors d'oeuvres party at our home on the last night of the meeting. In order to provide enough food for the expected hundred or so attendees, we worked out a formula of 10 "bites" per person, per hour. As we made the appetizers to put in the freezer, we kept a record of each dish that was made, and the number of servings. While the thought of several thousand bites of assorted appetizers seems daunting, as you work through the recipes, doubling them where appropriate, it is very manageable. In many instances, there were no instructions for freezing recipes we wanted to use, so we made a "batch" of the appetizer, froze a couple of pieces separately and then reheated the test pieces to see if they would lend themselves to freezing and re-heating. Anything that worked as expected was made in a larger quantity.
Not all appetizers lend themselves to advance preparation so a limited number of things were made a few days prior to the party. One year the most visually impressive dish of the evening was a wheel of Brie coated in a gelatin and wine mixture and decorated with herbs and edible flowers such as pansies and nasturtiums. Finding the right flowers year-round is not always possible, so we located another recipe for Brie that, while not as spectacular, is even more appealing. The onions can be caramelized in advance, and the Brie is baked just prior to serving. We've never seen Brie disappear more quickly than it does when using this recipe.
