QUICK AND EASY BUFFET FOR NEW YEAR’S EVE

A buffet should have lots of fun, delicious foods and a wide variety to choose from and it shouldn’t keep you slaving away in the kitchen for hours on end.  It can all be pretty simple fare and most of it you can prepare the day or even days ahead of time.

You don’t need to get all that fancy but you need to be sure you have enough and that it is attractive and appealing to your guest.  You have plenty of time to get it all done between cleaning up the last of the Christmas clutter and when the first guest arrives on New Year’s Eve.  It is simple.  None of it is difficult to prepare and most of it can be prepared days ahead of time. 

Make up  Vegetable platters with a Ranch Dip:  Celery sticks, Baby carrots, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, cherry tomatoes and on a separate tray a variety of celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese; make some mixed with raisins, some with dried cranberry, some with chopped walnuts or pecans and some with peanut butter mixed with just a touch of honey or raisins.  You can make these trays the day before and cover it and refrigerate.

You can make your Fruit platter the day ahead too:  Make up you platter with fresh strawberries, fresh pineapple, cantaloupe and honeydew melon.  For a dip to go with your fruit take one brick of cream cheese softened, 1 Tbsp. honey, 1/2 cup Cool Whip* topping and 2 Tbsp. of the French Vanilla liquid Coffee creamer.  Whip it all together until it is light and fluffy.  Chill until ready to serve.  Cover and refrigerate the fruit until ready to serve. 

On a separate tray make up Grape Kabobs, you will need 12 grapes to a skewer, use both green and red seedless…These are blessing sticks and each person makes a wish for each grape they eat, a wish for something good in their New Year.   Arrange them attractively on a tray with a few twist of orange for a garnish.

Cold Meat Platters and these can be made ahead too:  Use roast beef and ham.  For the roast beef, top a thin slice of beef with provolone cheese and a green onion and roll it up.  Slice crosswise and place on the tray so the rounds show and do the same with the ham only use cheddar cheese.  These make very attractive pinwheels and you can garnish your tray with a few small sprigs of fresh parsley.  You have a very pretty and tasty meat tray and can serve it with a dijonaise (Dijon mustard mixed with mayonnaise) and brown spicy mustard on the side.

Make up a tray of Pizza Snackers.  These are so simple to make but these you will need to make fairly near time for serving.  They are made with crackers, those round snack crackers, the buttery kind.  Place them on a cookie sheet and top with pizza sauce, a bit of shredded pizza cheese and a slice of pepperoni or a little sun-dried tomato or other favorite toppings.  Try making some with Alfredo sauce, ham and pineapple too for a variety to choose from. Everyone loves pizza.

Speaking of crackers; make up a Tray of Canapés with a snack cracker base and your favorite toppings.  Include herring on cream cheese, baby shrimp on cream cheese, tuna salad with celery and onion topped with a grape tomato, sliced pepper-jack cheese with ripe olive, a slice of cheese with a stuffed mushroom cap. Mix cream cheese with finely chopped red and green pepper and use your cookie press to decorate the crackers into a tasty snack.  These should be made no more than two or three hours before your party.

Make up a platter of Deviled Eggs.  I hard boil my eggs, remove the shell and cut the long way of the oval.  Remove the yolk and mix it with mayonnaise, finely chopped onion, 1 tsp. prepared mustard, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of salt and pepper and whip it up until it is creamy.  Refill the egg white and garnish with paprika and an olive slice.  You will want to make these no earlier than the morning before your party.

Be sure you have dishes of mixed nuts including some that are candied sitting around and dishes of pickles and olives on the table, both the green and the ripe olives and you will want to include baby dill, sweet gherkin, pickled baby onions and beet pickles and dilly beans on your pickle tray.  You can prepare these trays the day ahead and just cover and refrigerate or they are quick to throw together just ahead of serving.

No buffet is complete without hot dishes so serve those you can prepare well ahead of time, even two or three days like Lasagna; Meatballs stuffed with cheese; Swedish Meatballs in a creamy mushroom sauce served with a combination of white, wild and black rice, (You’ll want to cook your rice the day of your party); Mongolian Beef with egg noodles; and little drummies,Chicken wings cooked in barbeque sauce, unless you are superstitious and if you are or your guest may be forgo the chicken wings. (Chicken, they say, is a bad omen if eaten on New Year’s Eve or Day.)  Sautéed Mushrooms with sweet onion and green, red and gold peppers.

Be sure to have a bread tray with mini-corn muffins, sweet breads and mini-croissant rolls with sides of butter, cream cheese and fruit preserves and a tray of hard cheese slices and apples quartered and cored and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

And if you want to, set a couple bowls of potato chips on the table.  Most everyone enjoys nibbling on chips.   

You’ll also want to include the sweets.  Among these should be fruit cake, thin sliced but loaded with fruits and nuts, mince and apple tarts, cream puffs, angel cake with chocolate fondue, spice cake glazed with cream cheese frosting, (I like velvet lunch cake because it is so moist, flavorful and cuts easily into squares like brownies.) and include a variety of cookies, brownies and other such sweet treats and small dishes of fudge and after dinner mints. These can all be made a couple of days ahead of time.  You can freeze the cream puffs and thaw them the morning of your party.

Here you have it, a buffet fit for a king or queen or your favorite guest and it is all easy to prepare; and most of it can be prepared well ahead of party time…And don’t forget the wine, the eggnog, the fruit punch and the hot apple cider.  You will probably want to be prepared to serve coffee before your guest leave as well.

Add some noise makers and some music and you have a party.  Happy New Year.