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Being able to have friends or family over for good food and company is always amazing, but as the person whos responsible for feeding people it can be a lot of pressure. The last thing you want to do is mess up, and with a formal sit down dinner it’s definitely easy to do that. You have to consider prep and timings, and a lot of the time you’re stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is socialising. But there are ways you can feed a group without getting bogged down with things like steak timings and making desserts from scratch. Here are a few ways to go about it.
Pot luck party
A pot luck party is such a great way to enjoy food with friends. Hosting can be really expensive and time consuming, so having a pot luck where everyone brings a dish prevents both of those problems. It can be fun sampling each others cooking, and you can either designate a type of cuisine or let it be a surprise what gets brought. Another option is to assign people courses, appetisers, starters, mains and desserts so you know you’ll end up with a good mixture and no repeats.
Pizza party
Pizzas are an easy crowd pleaser, it doesnt matter if you’re hosting friends or your child’s birthday party, everyone will find something they like at a pizza party. You could create your own pizzas and set up a station for everyone to put on their own toppings, then oven cook them or use a pizza oven in the garden if you have one. Another alternative is to find a good local pizza place and order in, most places will have some kind of offer on especially if you’re ordering quite a few. You could add some sides like chicken wings, wedges and salads if you want to go all out.
Casual buffet
A buffet doesnt need to be catered by professionals to be good. It can actually be one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to feed a group. A few loaves of sandwich bread with basic fillings from ham and cheese to cucumber, salmon, tuna or egg always go down well. Prep a big bunch then put them onto a platter and wrap in cling film, you can make a couple of days ahead if you store them well. Buying a selection of different packs of sandwiches from a supermarket is another option, it does cost a bit more this way but you get some nicer fillings than you might be able to do yourself. Cut each sandwich in half and arrange on a platter and they’ll go a bit further and look professionally done. Make life easy- big bags of crisps emptied into serving bowls, premade cakes arranged on a cake stand, sausage rolls, scotch eggs and other savouries and you have plenty for people to eat with none of the prep. Think more old school ‘party rustic’ rather than ‘fancy afternoon tea’ and you’re on the right track.









