So me being the big sap and having only child guilt over having lots of birthday parties from my childhood, it made up my mind that we would have a party for him at home. But that it would be a grown up party sans children. Including our own, who would be put to bed before the guests arrived.
Well that was the plan, I had to drag Grotbag to bed before he started to ask the guests to join him in break dancing! He was actually very good and went to bed and didn't get up again!
But I digress. Because this was essentially a grown up party I wanted grown up food. But I also didn't want it to be catered, to be slaving over a hot stove or stuck in the kitchen all night. So I set about finding some good canape recipes. My first stop is always Taste.com.au
I wanted canapes that could be prepared during the day and then quickly put together just before serving. I ended up doing 8 different canapes, 4 I made myself and 4 prepared by family & friends with spring rolls in the freezer as back-up food, which I didn't end up needing.
However, I have no photos of MY canapes as I was too busy making and serving them so I had to go back to Taste.com.au to find photos of the ones I took from their recipes. If you click on the photo's below it will take you to the recipe if you were so inclined.
The first one is Mini Prawn Cocktails which were lovely and went down a treat with the guests. Very easy to prepare (I made the sauce, cut the chives and peeled the prawns earlier in the day) and serve. I took the tails off my prawns for less mess for my guests but they looked pretty much the same as the picture.
Mini Prawn Cocktails
OK so the next ones the Smoked Salmon Blinis I cheated a bit. I bought the little Blinis but made the mascapone spread earlier in the day and then just put them together again just before serving. There was not one left at the end of the night!
Smoked Salmon Blini with Mascapone
My mum made a couple of dishes for me. One was some Lamb Kofta Meatballs with a tomato curry dip. Yum. And she also came to the rescue with these Arancini balls (photo below)which were one of the guests favourites from the night. They are a bit of a kerfuffle to make but re-heat really well in the oven. They only took 10 mins to re-heat and stay nice and crunchy on the outside with risotto and oozing cheese in the middle. Mmmmmm
AranciniThese Cheese, Apple & Walnut stacks were the easiest to make just before serving and were really different. It is basically a slice of apple with a slice of blue brie topped with some chopped walnuts. I ended up making two batches of these as they were so popular! I would definitely do these again or even add some salad leaves and appropriate dressing and serve as an entree. Divine!
Cheese, Apple & Walnut Stacks
A friend of my Mum's also made me some mini Satay Chicken Pies which were heaven and again only needed 10 mins in the oven to re-heat and also my Auntie Barb made me some home made sausage rolls which again were sooooo nice.
I also did a couple of cheese plates and placed some nuts, olives, salami's and sundried tomatoes for the guests to nibble on as they came in.
All in all the food was a great success and I was pleased (and so were my guest's it seems) with all of the dishes I had chosen to serve! It was also nice to do some grown up food rather than the normal 'chip & dip' for more casual affairs.
Now I wonder what Hubby will do in 3 years time for my 40th birthday.......
