Easy Entertaining Recipes 

… and ideas if you need to pull a quick switch from brunch to evening apps because you’ve double booked yourself with hosting event 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️

Ah Saturdays. Aren’t those supposed to be relaxing “breaks” from the week? I thought so, until I found myself there one Saturday with 2 big events to host. On the same day. What.

I stressed at first, but then made a plan.

The plan went pretty well, the menu was doable, the dishes were nice, small and elegant, so I thought I’d share what I did here and a bit of my timeline! Hopefully it helps someone out there in the same or a similar predicament. Or maybe just gives you some fun things to pin or try for your next entertaining gig 🤷🏻‍♀️

Here was our brunch menu:

1. Mini blueberry and banana nut muffins
2. Mini egg casseroles
3. Mini smoked salmon toasts
4. Mini Yogurt Parfaits
5. DIY mimosas

Evening Menu:

1. Fruit and cheese board
2. Meat and crackers
3. Chips + salsa
4. Beer+wine

Ahead of time… and by that I mean the day before, I bought muffin mix. The Krusteaz brand. All the sugar. All the gluten. All the goodness. The brand is reliable and tastes good, and it’s easy to prepare ahead of time and have on hand when you need more muffins.

But I digress. The day before I bought at the grocery (AM menu): 

• 2 kinds of muffin mix (blueberry and banana nut) 
• eggs 
• Deli sliced ham (½#)
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Colored peppers
• 2 pkgs smoked salmon 
• Capers
• 1 red onion
• 2 bags Bagel Chips (you could get away with 1, but might have to use broken bits and my OCD can’t stand that) 
• 1 pkg whipped cream cheese (spreads WAY easier)
• Plastic snack cups
• Disposable plates
• 2 containers of yogurt
• 1 big container of blueberries
• 1 small container raspberries

PM menu:

• Grapes
• Crackers
• A couple different cheeses (not super fancy, and ones that were pre-cut)
• Salami
• Carrots
• Strawberries
• Chips
• salsa

And at the Dollar Store I bought:

• Little sliver spoons
• Faux (so much better when you say faux instead of fake) silver serving platters

Brunch started at 11am, so at about 10am after I worked out, showered and got ready, I prepped. I made the first batch of mini muffins, filled the muffin cups and pre heated the oven. I immediately made another batch in a bowl and stuck it in the fridge for later. Then I made the mini egg casseroles. The egg casserole recipe is a family favorite and I’ve done it a zillion times, so I just made it and put the filling into mini muffin cups instead of a big dish. I’ll write the recipe below right meow. Definitely chop all of your pieces small because remember, the batter is going into mini egg cups.

Mini Egg Casseroles

• 6 eggs
• 1/4c milk
• ¼ pound deli ham, chopped into bite sized pieces
• Handful (about 5) mini colored peppers, diced
• ½ c cheese

Directions:

1. Simply crack the eggs into a bowl. Add your milk and mix well.
2. Add your ham, peppers and cheese. Mix again.
3. Pour into mini muffin cups
4. Bake for about 30 min @350

Once I made the mini muffin cups and egg casseroles I threw both in the oven and started on the salmon toasts. These are a little tedious, but I really enjoy this type of thing and I promise it goes quickly! The recipe below made the two trays you see in the picture, but I bought double ingredients on the grocery list because I made more later in the day for our second event. 

Salmon Toasts:

• 1 pkg smoked salmon
• Roughly 3/4c cream cheese (depending on how heavy handed you are with it)
• 2 tbsp chopped red onion
• 2 tbsp capers
• 1 pkg bagel thins

Directions:

1. Place bagel thins neatly on 2 “silver” platters
2. Spread evenly with cream cheese
3. Break up and place smoked salmon neatly on top
4. Top with red onions and capers
5. Boom. Done

1. 

After I made the salmon toasts, I made the yogurt cups by simply spooning bits of yogurt into the snack cups and topped them with a tiny bit of granola and a couple blueberries and stuck a cute little plastic spoon in there. 

After the yogurt cups were done I “prepped the mimosa station” by setting out the champaign, and OJ.

By this time it was about 10:45 and I took out the first batch of muffins. They were small and cooked more quickly than the egg casseroles did. Anyhow, I plated them real quick on my marble slabs and covered them with a warm towel so they’d be warm. After that I quickly re-filled my mini muffin cups with the muffin mix in the fridge and set them aside. By this time the egg casseroles were done, so I took them out and plated them on another marble slab.

Then I just used a mix of the silver platters and marble slabs I had and set them on the table.

Be mindful if your oven is still on cooking the second batches of muffins and egg casseroles and re-fill as needed.

When the food was finished, I quickly wiped the platters clean and busted out a couple wood ones for the charceuterie and cheese and wine platters!

I accidentally deleted those pictures somehow, but they weren’t great, TBH, and I will add a more helpful video here tomorrow!

Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask questions if you have them. It makes me smile to know the info is valued ❤️