The Best Home-Cooked Foods To Take To A Party
If you have been invited to a party, and you are asked to bring some food along, you are probably keen to impress. You want everyone to find your food delicious, and you don’t want to have to skip out and take along some shop-bought food instead.
But it can be challenging to know what you should cook and whether it is suitable. Part of this is about planning for the specific occasion itself, of course, and knowing where your own skills lie in the kitchen. But there are a number of dishes you can cook for pretty much any party, and which are relatively simple too, and those are what we are going to look at in this article.
Hummus
There are few things which taste more heavenly than homemade hummus – and yet it is so amazingly easy to make that you will find it to be a really good choice. To create some incredibly delicious hummus for your party, simply take some chickpeas and some tahini – mashed up sesame seeds – and blitz them together. If you like, you can add some special flavoring, and there are many options here for you to choose between. A particular favorite is caramelized onion (a simple case of cooking onions down very slowly and adding a little sugar until browned) or you could choose to add some beetroot for a kick in both color and flavor.
Cookies
Perhaps you want to take something sweet instead. If so, cookies are always a good way to go, as they are quick and easy and yet are almost always going to be delicious. There is nothing better than creating those kinds of cookies that people simply struggle not to eat and disappear in a moment. There are many cookies to try, so you might want to branch out and try something you might not have cooked before like this amazing alfajores recipe. Providing a different kind of cookie will mean that people are pleasantly surprised when they bite into them.
Coleslaw
It’s a staple at many kinds of parties, often going along with the salad, and especially necessary at something like a picnic or a BBQ. if you haven’t made coleslaw before, you will be pleased to know that it is actually incredibly simple to make. All you need to do is take a red cabbage and slice it up nice and fine into matchstick sized slices. Then you take some carrots and grate them finely too. Mix those all together and add some mayo, and perhaps a little mustard for a kick, or honey mustard sauce. Season, mix again, and keep chilled until it’s time to go to the party. This is even something that you can make on the spot when you arrive, it’s so fast – and yet so delicious too.
Stuffed Mushrooms
Who doesn’t love mushrooms? Again, for a particularly easy cook that will still mean you are providing something absolutely delicious, you might want to think about doing a stuffed mushroom collection. There are so many things you can stuff a mushroom with and it will be delicious, so this is really an opportunity for you to get a little creative. There are some favorite tried and tested recipes, however, such as feta and rocket, or chorizo and olive oil. Get creative and see what you can come up with here – you might even be able to produce something entirely new which no fungal lover has had before.
Bread
Few things in the world are as delightful as home-baked bread, and if you manage to bring some of this to a party you are bound to be appreciated and invited back, especially if it looks the part too. If you’re not that experienced with baking bread, don’t worry, it really is easier than people tend to think. First up, you need to get a hold of a good quality strong bread flour, either white or brown depending on taste. Then you need some dry active yeast powder, to help it rise. Add your flour, yeast, a little salt and enough room-temperature water to just about bring it all together, and knead on a floured surface for about fifteen minutes. Then it’s time to shape it into whatever you want – a loaf, plait or cob are all great for a party look – and leave to rise. After a couple of hours, you can bake it for half an hour or so until golden on top and it sounds hollow on the bottom.
