Desperate Non-Housewife

[cjsmith]

How did I get myself into this?

In two and a half weeks I'm hosting anywhere from thirty to sixty people (RSVP percentage is still low). There will be a lot of "walk around and talk to people" going on as I do not own anywhere near that many chairs. The start time is advertised as 7pm. I have NOT specified pot luck, and it's a bit late to change my tune. There will be wine. That much I know how to do.

WHAT DO I FEED THESE PEOPLE?

I do not "cook". I can make a basic meal, but it ain't party food, and in general it will impress no one. Plus I'd like to be able to enjoy myself; last time I "cooked" for guests I spent all day and evening in the kitchen and merely heard rumors later that others had had a good time. So I'm looking for something requiring no or little or simple preparation, and something that can be fully prepared well ahead of time.

- They'll be mingling and carrying both food and drink. Finger foods?
- Some may arrive as early as 7. Something substantial?
- It'll go on all evening. Foods not requiring heat or chilling?
- There are a LOT of people. Foods I can distribute over several tables throughout the place?

Any ideas meeting these basic criteria are very welcome. :)

edit: Likely closer to 30 people. If all our maybes and nonresponders show, we get 40; if our nonresponders all bring guests, 50 tops.
edit2: The party was billed as an "informal gathering", holiday, no gifts.

Comments

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

Nothing to add except next time, maybe you could make it potluck.

I just did a dinner (actually luncheon) party which was so not worth it, for the reasons you mentioned in your original post. It was small but still it took a whole day just to shop for the hard-to-get ingredients and I was fussing with kitchen stuff the whole time and most of my recipes didn't quite work. As Peg Bracken would say, I don't make the effort often enough to have done my homework and know how to pull it off when the occasion comes. People would have been happier and certainly I would have been happier with wine and light munchies and maybe some ravs (Chinese groceries have them frozen, even here).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Peg Bracken is so right: I too don't do this often enough to be smooth at it when the time comes. Well, this time we're buying supplies (several boxes of wine glasses at least, perhaps more stuff I haven't thought of yet) so we may well create more opportunities!

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

She actually said it about clothes - that if you are generally happy-go-lucky about dress but then need to dress up, you'll be caught short - but it applies to oh so many things.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

The main reason I was resisting making it a potluck is that I hate potlucks myself. I have weird eating requirements, so I can't eat what anyone else brings. I hate having to bring stuff myself when I can't partake in the group eating. Based on this single data point, which is not likely to be anyone else's opinion, I hate making other people "pay" for attending the party by bringing food. A classic example of projecting my own problems on everyone else :-)

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

I do know what you mean about hating to make people pay [1]. In my circles of friends here, many people automatically bring stuff which makes every event a potluck. I mean, they say "what can I bring that will go with the main food?" or they just do it, so it's not a matter of asking them, and also not a big deal if some don't do it. If they bring people they are even more likely to bring food. It's partly bound up in control - making sure that there's definitely something they can eat, maybe showing off skills, introducing people to new things, a way for people who may not have a party space of their own to participate in entertaining [2] - but/and I think it's constructive for all that, and it works to make sure you don't have to worry about underestimating the amount of food. I'm not sure how we ended up with this practice but it's pretty consistent across the groups of contemporaries I socialize with. And that's the kind of potluck I had in mind.

[1] In Finland, sometimes people charge you for coming to their PhD graduation parties, which are usually held in a restaurant or catering hall and are quite formal, definitely not bring-a-covered-dish affairs. I mean, you are a good friend of the graduate or you've helped with the PhD and you get an invitation that lists an account number and an amount to be transferred by a certain deadline if you plan to come. Now that, to me, is tacky, although it's quite accepted in some departments (not mine, I'm happy to say) because grad students aren't rich and people would rather go to something fancy than go to something free. I felt tacky enough for sending people to the cash bar at my party instead of picking up the bar tab which with a bunch of Finns drinking highly taxed Finnish alcohol and it being my annus horribilis of finances and the place not taking credit cards I felt I could not risk.

[2] Finnish apartments are generally tiny, like Japanese apartments.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Potlucks here come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them exercise so much control that they want you to register what type of dish you're bringing ahead of time. Or local block party says things like "last name A-F, main dish; G-P, appetizer; Q-Z, desert". I end up avoiding the block party as a result. Other potlucks are more like what you're describing - show off something you're good at cooking, bring whatever you want, etc. I usually bring chips & salsa from Trader Joe's :-)

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that sort of thing is totally irritating. From each according to their inclination, to each according to their needs, and it will all come out in the wash. Trader Joe's dips are awesome.