Wedding finger food

[malinka]

Hi cooking fiends
I'm getting married (eek!) and am toying with the idea of my friends and I doing the food ourselves (double eek!) as I have a budget of about $2.50.
So, I'm thinking finger food, lots of things you can make in advance and freeze or marinate, and simple quick things.
Complicating factors; I'd like the majority to be vegetarian, and I want to avoid the finger food trap of all fried/deep fried/carby kinda things. I'm not anti-carb, but just want to lighten things with some fresh vegie stuff too. It'll be autumn.

Ideas so far:
Mushrooms marinated with dill and garlic
Buckwheat blinis with beetroot or mushroom-sour cream dip on top
Little Russian pies filled with cabbage, carrot or mushrooms
Olives
(yeah, obviously I haven't been thinking too hard yet!)
Any ideas of recipes would be warmly received and thanked for!

Taa

[Craft Forums]

[honeybee]

i don't have the recipes, but i just went to a wedding that had a big bowl of grilled toasts with little bowls of toppings-herb butter, hummous, and an incredible kalamata olive spread. soooo good. they also had these prosciutto (sp?)-wrapped artichoke hearts ina creamy parmesan sauce. i usuallt don't eat pork, but these were far too tasty to pass up, though probably not very cheap.

[topazdebutante]

I know some of these have probably been mentioned but:

different kinds of cheeses
fruit with maybe different kinds of dip, you could even make fruit and cheese kebobs
tea sandwiches
Cucumber and Tomato salad

I hope these help a little bit. I will look online to see if I can find more.

[sistasmell]

Congratulations!

Let's see, for my wedding, I made a TON of little quiches in muffin tins and froze them ahead of time. They just needed to be reheated. I did the same with little individual spanikopita.

We had a really good spiral-sliced smoked ham and had a variety of mustards and rolls and biscuits. That went over smashingly.

I also did a big layered cream cheese/pesto mold with pine nuts pressed all over the sides. That rocked.

Stuffed mushrooms are the bomb.

[juna]

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I love the idea of serving finger food! I was listening to NPR the other day and the food editor for the NY Times (?) was describing how she purposely served finger foods to break the ice between wedding guests who might not know one another at each table. It's hard to be stodgy when you are licking sauce off your fingers.

When I read your post I thought "Vietnamese spring rolls!" They are fresh (not fried) and inexpensive to prepare. You serve em cold, so you would not have to worry about keeping them at the proper temperature on the serving table. I'm not certain how they would hold up being prepared in advance, but because the sauce is used for dipping and not inside the rolls, I would think that they could be made the day before the wedding, though I would do a few practice runs to make sure the sog-factor wasn't too high after a night in the fridge.

Find rice wrappers at an Asian grocery store (or possibly even in your regular chain grocery store), fill with cooked thin rice noodles, shredded green lettuce, mint or cilantro or both, and green onion slices. You could add shrimp if you want to, or shredded fresh ginger. I like a peanut dipping sauce made from chunky natural style peanut butter, Hoisin sauce and spices.

Here is a well-rated recipe from Allrecipes.com

http://appetizer.allrecipes.com/az/V...SpringRlls.asp

Fun!

[malinka]

Thanks for these--excellent ideas!
The best thing is the that other people have done weddings or gone to ones where the food was self-catered, and not found it made the day was a disaster. I definitely know I have to be wary about taking on too much work for me and my close friends, but I reckon if we do it ourselves it will be not just cheaper but yummier than any catering company we could afford.
Sistasmell do you have a recipe for that mold, or do you just do what the recipe suggests? Sounds v good.
And there will definitely have to be prosciutto, or the groom will chuck a hissy fit...

[sistasmell]

Malinka, I did ALL the food for my wedding myself, and it wasn't bad at all. I took a couple of days off the get all the pre-prepared stuff ready, and had help on the actual day (reheating the quiches, minding the ham, etc.), and it was fine. Mind you, we only had about 40 guests. And yes, the food was to die for and people still talk about what a great, fun, and tasty wedding we had.

I do have a recipe for the mold.

1 lb. butter
1 lb. cream cheese

Cream these together and layer in an 8 cup mold that's been lined with damp cheesecloth (a clean flowerpot is pretty and tall and works well) with 2 cups of pesto (the kind that has the parmesan already in it). 6 layers of cheese and 5 of pesto is a good way. It's easier if you divide the cheese and pesto ahead of time. When you've done the last layer, fold the cheesecloth over the top and press firmly. refrigerate for 2 hours, or, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 5 days. Before serving, toast some pine nuts and arrange them on top with some fresh basil sprigs. Good with crackers, French bread, and raw veggies.

You know what else is so yummy?

Baked brie with caramelized onions
Serves 4-6

2 Tbsp. butter
4 lge. onions, sliced (8 cups)
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp. sugar
1 8” wheel of brie

Melt butter in frying pan over med. heat. Add onions, cook until tender. Add thyme, lower heat and cook until golden brown, 25 min. Add garlic, cook 2 min. add 1/4 cup wine, cook 2 min. Add sugar, cook 10 min. Add rest of wine, cook 2 min. Season with salt and pepper and cool.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut top rind off cheese and place cheese in small oven-safe casserole. Top with onions and bake 30 min., until completely melted.
Serve with French bread or crackers.

People will beg for this every time they see you.

Pepperoncini Rolls


3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 pepperoncini, topped and seeded


Blend all this in a food processor.

Spread all over flour tortillas and then roll up.
Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill until firm.

Cut into rounds.

Serve with salsa.

miss b’s tomato salsa
Makes a big bowl

6 tomatoes, 3 of them seeded
1 vidalia onion
1 bunch of cilantro

Rough chop all of this and add 3 minced garlic cloves to it.
Stir in 1/4 cup good vinegar
1/2 can tomato paste
Salt & pepper to taste.

Some good additions:
Corn kernals
A chopped jalepeno pepper

Serve with tortilla chips

I am noticing a cheese trend in my recipes....

[deborahthecraft]

Mini fruit or veggie kabobs(grilled with lime and tequila sauce)

[empressCrash]

The book Pad Parties has an awesome idea. Appitizers on a longish swizzle stick (modified kabobs) - that way people can walk around with a drink and their food and still have one hand free. Bonus, no dishes and people have to circulate more.

[lilian]

I definitely know I have to be wary about taking on too much work for me and my close friends, but I reckon if we do it ourselves it will be not just cheaper but yummier than any catering company we could afford.

You could maybe ask a few of your close friends to cook for you as a wedding gift, just give them the recipes and off they go...I'm not sure how you'd go about it without being tacky, but it would save both of you some headaches--you not having to cook and them not having to come up with a really good wedding gift idea.