Cocktail Party Menu Tips

Offer an assortment of appetizers (about eight appetizers per person)

Select food and drinks that have broad appeal

Keep it simple

Select a few dishes that can be prepared ahead of time

Offer an assortment of meat, poultry, fish, cheese, vegetables or fruits

Decide which food will taste good together (consider rich, highly flavored food, simple, fresh, etc,)

Offer a variety of hot and cold foods

Serve party-friendly food (foods that are not messy or greasy)

Offer some food items for guest with diet restrictions such as vegetarian, sugar-free, low-sodium, etc.)

Avoid repeating flavors

Offer drink choices (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)

Always end with coffee and dessert

Avoid dishes that require painstaking serving techniques or last-minute preparation (unless you have plenty of help)

Don't try new recipes unless you are completely satisfied with them

Cocktails parties should last no longer than 3 hours (if longer, the host should serve dinner)

Munchables

Wild Mushrooms And
Fontina Flatbread Appetizers

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 6-inch pita flatbread
1 3-ounce package assorted wild
mushrooms (portobello,
shitake, chanterelle or porcini)
1/2 medium sweet onion, sliced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh
rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried
rosemary
1/2 cup grated Fontina cheese

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Lightly brush each flatbread with
olive oil and place on baking sheet.
Place in oven until lightly brown,
about 5 to 7 minutes; set aside.
Heat remaining olive oil in skillet
over medium-high heat until hot.
Add the mushrooms, onion, garlic
and rosemary. Cook and stir until
mushrooms are tender, about 3 to
5 minutes. Arrange mushroom mixture
over the top of each flatbread.
Sprinkle each with Fontina
cheese. Bake in oven until the cheese
melts, about 5 minutes. Cut each
flatbread into eight wedges.



Smoked Salmon And
HerbedCheese Spread

1 5.2-ounce package light cream
cheese with garlic and fine herbs
1/4 cup chopped, smoked salmon
2 tablespoons thinly sliced
green onion






Combine ingredients in small bowl until well-combined.
Serve as a spread on crackers. Also try stuffing
or topping for vegetables such as cherry tomatoes,
new potato halves, pea pods, cucumber slices, etc.

Yields about 1/2 cup spread

CALORIES 48, TOTAL FAT 3G, CHOLESTEROL 11MG, CARBOHYDRATE 1G, PROTEIN 36, SODIUM 137MG

Asparagus With Prosciutto And
Honey Mustard Sauce

1  bunch fresh asparagus spears,
trimmed
1  3.53-ounce package prosciutto
or smoked salmon
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
1/3 cup honey
Hot pepper sauce to taste

Blanch asparagus in a large saucepan
of boiling salted water for one
minute. Transfer to a colander and rinse
under cold running water to stop cooking.
Drain well and pat dry. Cut prosciutto
strips. Wrap strips of prosciutto
around each asparagus spear. Mix
mustard, honey and hot pepper sauce
to taste in small bowl until well-combined.
Serve with asparagus wrapped
in prosciutto. Spoon about 1 tablespoon
of the honey mustard sauce in
the bottom of six brandy glasses. If
desired, place two to three wrapped
asparagus spears in glass to serve.

Yields about 6 to 8 appetizers

CALORIES 38, TOTAL FAT 1G, CHOLESTEROL 4MG, CARBOHYDRATE 6G, PROTEIN, SODIUM 231MG.

No better way to start than with...

COCKTAILS!!!!

Pomegranate Ginger Cosmopolitan

1 1/4 ounces lemon vodka
1/2 ounce triple sec
1 ounce pomegranate juice
2 thin ginger slices

Combine all ingredients in a shaker
filled with ice. And shake. Strain into
a chilled martini glass. If desired,
garnish with fresh pomegranate seeds.

Yields 1 serving



Kilimanjaro

2 ounces Amarula Cream Liqueur
1/2 ounce of Peppermint liqueur

Layer the ingredients in cock tail glass. (The Kilimanjaro
won best new cocktail in the world a few years ago in
South A frica.)

Yields 1 se rving

Skinny White Russian

2 ounces Kahlua
1 ounce vodka
Skim milk or soymilk

Pour Kahlua, vodka and milk into a rock glass
over ice and mix.

Yields 1 serving

Flavored Tequila Sunrise

1.5 ounces Cuervo flavored tequila
(citrico, oranjo and tropina)
4 ounces orange juice
A splash of cranberry juice

Mix tequila and orange juice over ice in a highball
glass and float with cranberry juice.

Yields 1 serving


Strawberry Bellini

1/2 ounce strawberry puree
1/2 ounce rose syrup
4 ounces Martini & Rossi Asti
Strawberry

Pour puree and rose syrup into
champagne flute and mix with a
stir stick; add the Martini & Rossi
Asti. Garnish with a strawberry.

Yields 1 serving

Peach Or
Mango Bellini

1 ounce Peach or mango puree
4 ounces Martini & Rossi Asti
Mint leaf

Pour puree into champagne
flute; add Martini & Rossi Asti.