Easy Appetizer Menu–Perfect for Summer Entertaining

 

A few weeks ago, I posted {here} about the reception I held at my home for some very special volunteers in our battalion.  If you haven’t already, head over to take a look and to enter the awesome giveaway that the TIKI® brand folks are hosting (it runs through 6/30/14).  When I wrote that post, I promised that I’d share some of the delicious (and easy) recipes that we used for that day.  Today, I’m following up on that promise!

Here’s the menu:

I created the menu card itself using Pages (you could use Word if you’re a PC user).  The fonts are Great Vibes and Ecuyerdax, and I just alternated them, then printed it out and framed it.  You can also download the PDF of the file I used {here}.  Just make sure you set Page Scale to 100% in your printer dialogue box so it will print out on letter-sized paper.

Here are the links to the recipes, along with any additions or changes that I made.  We were serving 40, so obviously I adjusted my serving sizes accordingly.  We ate almost everything, but there were some leftovers, which was good, because I was NOT COOKING that night!

Make-Your-Own Champagne Cocktail Bar–read the post {here} and download a free printable for your champagne bar.

Lime Water–just ice water with sliced limes and mint

Iced Tea (sweet, of course–this is Georgia!) and coffee

Caprese Skewers with Balsamic Drizzle courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats.  Yum!  Recipe is {here}.

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs, courtesy of Shrinking Kitchen.  Recipe is {here}.

Stuffed Mushrooms.  These came from our caterer, but a similar recipe, courtesy of  The Sisters Cafe is {here}.

Chicken Salad with Yeast Rolls.  This also came from our caterer, but my favorite yeast roll recipe EVER is {here}.  The chicken salad had red grapes, onions, pecans, celery, and a yummy mustard-mayo dressing.

Tomato Bruschetta with Crostini.  Also our caterer’s recipe, but This Silly Girls Life has a very similar one here.  One tip is to use a mix of red and yellow tomatoes for visual interest.

Brie and Raspberry Tartlets courtesy of Pillsbury.  Recipe is {here}.

Fruit, Cheese, and Vegetable Display.  This also included crackers for the cheese and ranch dressing for the veggies.

For dessert, we had chocolate-dipped strawberries,

petit fours (purchased),

lemon-mousse tasting cups (whip one container of Cool-Whip and one jar of lemon curd and pipe into tasting cups, refrigerate until serving),

and meringues (purchased from Fresh Market–Trader Joe’s carries them, too).

The Lemon-Mousse Tasting cups were kind of my own idea, and they were SO GOOD and SO EASY.  I wanted to grate lemon zest on top, but I ran out of time!  Did you know that Dollar Tree sells the mini tasting cups and spoons for 24/$1?

You can also read the details of how I made these cute little menu frames {here}.

This was a great menu for an afternoon or evening reception–the appetizers were filling enough that I think everyone was satisfied, and everything was delicious but easy to make, which is huge when you’re entertaining.  I also gave the recipes to some of the ladies who were helping me host, and they brought them over ready to go on the day of.  That took so much pressure off of me!

If you have any easy, go-to hors d’oeuvres recipes, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by~