Romescu! It was delicious. It also caused the waitress to ask us, very seriously, if we were allergic to nuts -- which was a good call, since I wouldn't have known there were nuts in the romescu, either before ordering it or before eating it.

Starfruit slices, apricot halves, and cherries were a big hit at the last party I threw.

I also swear by cucumber slices on sundried tomato bread. And homemade mini-pizzas (pita bread topped with Classico tomato & basil or roasted garlic pasta sauce, parmesan cheese, and crumbled feta cheese).

The goal is lots of finger food-ish stuff, largely vegetarian but with both some vegan and some meat.

The last convention I attended had marinated skewers of dried tomato, mozzarella cheese balls, artichoke hearts, and olives. So very yum.

eta: there was fresh basil in there too!

skewers of dried tomato, mozzarella cheese balls, artichoke hearts, and olives. So very yum.

Hmmm. I was planning all these components in different ways, but on skewers... handy and fun!

(continuing to mark all the party foods!)

Oh yeah, my mother does something similar -- cheese tortellini, artichoke hearts, cheese, maybe pepperoncini, I forget what else. Antipasto skewers. Delish!

The last party I went to (apart from the F2F), they had bacon. Just bacon, on a plate, on the table with the chips and whatnot.

They said they'd seen it at a party, and damned if it didn't get eaten real quick, so they thought they'd try it, and it all got eaten quickly.

Antipasto skewers.

Exactly! Because I always, always, always want antipasto (not just for parties, really. name your meal.), but it ends up being either a fork and plate thing, or an everyone-gets-their-fingers-in-everything thing even if you try to do things on toothpicks. The skewers are brilliant.

bacon

Mmmm. bacon.

Now I'm thinking of Parties I Have Known. Typical family holiday things are shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, ooh and one time my aunt made this delicious dip that was like a Reuben sandwich.

My parents' Christmas party has those skewers, veg and dip, sometimes fruit and this ginger dip (no one seems to like that but us), sometimes a spiral cut ham with rolls... We've done hot passed hors d'oeuvres, but I can only think of Pesto Pinwheels, due to an incident when I was in high school and we forgot to put them out, so they were the afterschool snack all winter. What else? I know there's more, but I can't think of what.

For easy, my friends and I often do a platter with meats and cheeses and then hummus and carrots.

I love snack foods/hors d'oeuvres/etc., and most especially dip.

Edit: Depending on your crowd, this might be a little much, but I made a ridiculous buffalo chicken dip recently....

Now I'm thinking of Parties I Have Known.

Parties I go to usually have a fantastic assortment of cheeses (including triple-cream Brie with homemade quince paste), lots of fruit, chips and homemade salsa, and my mom's artichoke dip. (Which I get to have on Friday, yaaaay!)

Ooh! Brie en croute! Maybe not for summer, but a parents' party classic. Another thing way easier than it looks, if you buy the frozen puff pastry. Throw some apricot jam on top, and bake. YUM.