A Cocktail Party to Get back into the Social Whirl
Summer's over. Everybody's back to their regular hustle and bustle and the relaxed holiday tempo has become a faint, fond memory. You want to hold onto your new acquaintances and integrate them into your circle of friends, but organizing a dinner is just too time-consuming. Rediscover the cocktail party! Have everyone over for drinks and canapés. If filling and plentiful, these tasty tidbits can easily replace dinner.
Ensure your guests' enjoyment with a warm, relaxed atmosphere, some background music and a big bouquet of seasonal flowers. Old and new friends mingle, sharing anecdotes and showing snapshots, as they savour some deep-coloured enchanting elixir you discovered during your summer travels.
- A polished silver tray for the drinks, because the glasses and their contents will be reflected in it. Rim the glasses with fine salt or fruit sugar. Adding a little lemon juice or water helps make the sugar or salt stick.
- Choose big platters whose colours complement the savouries and canapés. In preparing your canapés, remember that cocktail food should be bite-sized. Put plenty of cocktail toothpicks on each platter. The whole point of a cocktail party is to encourage people to mingle, wandering from one group to another with glass in hand. But carrying a glass and plate around can be tiring, so arrange small tables in various parts of the room, where guests can set their glass or plate down if they wish.
- Have plenty of colourful cocktail napkins. They are musts when serving finger food. Place stacks of them within easy reach. When passing platters, offer a napkin at the same time.
- Beware of sweet tasting cocktails. They can pack quite a punch. Tequila, vodka, whisky, cognac, gin, rum, champagne or alcohol-free fruit punch made with grape juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice or apple juice. The choice is endless. Plan on a maximum of three different cocktails made with spirits and two alcohol-free punches. Have mineral and sparkling waters, white wine, sparkling wine or champagne, depending on your budget, for those who don't like mixes.
- Much of the food can be made ahead. That's what caterers do. So take a leaf from their book. Prepare the sushi up to eight hours beforehand or buy them readymade, taking careful note of their best before date. Cover uncooked brochettes made with shrimp, asparagus, red bell pepper, mushrooms, sausages... with plastic wrap and keep them in the refrigerator. Another possibility is cherry tomatoes stuffed with cream cheese, shrimp or tapenade. Consider phyllo pockets (look in the frozen food section of your local Metro) stuffed with Middle Eastern delicacies and tied with a strip of chive. Some foods can be baked at the last minute, such as crostinis, toasted slices of baguette with various toppings. Fruit (papaya, mango, fig, melon) can be rolled up in thin slices of ham or smoked duck (your Metro's fine foods department has excellent Quebec smoked duck). Finally, cheese requires no preparation and the many regions of Quebec offer a wondrous variety.