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Sample menus
Complete menus for dinner parties, luncheons, buffets and weddings at home, with quantities, prep timelines and swaps for different guests.
A good menu does most of the work of a party before anyone arrives. These sample menus cover small seated dinners, luncheons, holiday buffets, barbecues and weddings for up to about a hundred guests. Each one lists the food by course, then explains why it works, how much to make, what to do on which day and how to adjust it for vegetarians or guests with allergies.
Use them as they are or as a starting point. For the arithmetic behind the quantities see how much food per guest, and for passed bites the appetizers list.
- Appetizers List: Hors d'Oeuvres Ideas for Parties, by TypeA working list of hors d'oeuvres ideas grouped by type, with pieces per guest, which ones travel, which hold at room temperature, and three quick recipes.
- Outdoor October Wedding Dinner: Tent Menu, Stations and QuantitiesA tented October wedding menu with cheese stations, six passed bites, dinner stations and cake, plus how to keep food hot as the evening turns cold and dark.
- Light Summer Luncheon Menu for 20: A Country BuffetA light summer luncheon buffet for 20: watermelon gazpacho, basil ricotta chicken, four salads and lemon cake, with quantities, a prep plan and the layout.
- Fall Wedding Menu with Food Stations: Quantities and TimelineA fall wedding menu for 120: a New England cheese table, four passed bites, grill, salad and pasta stations set at once, a birch-bark cake and a timeline.
- Summer Vegetarian Dinner Party Menu for 12, with a Prep PlanAn easy summer vegetarian dinner party for 12: squash and sage soup, lentil salad, tomatoes, beets, corn and peach crisp, with quantities and a prep order.
- Winter Dinner Party for 26: Plated Menu, Oven Plan and PlatingA plated winter dinner for 26: three passed bites, a pear and goat cheese salad, veal scaloppine with wild rice, stuffed acorn squash, and an oven schedule.
- Dinner Party for 10: An Elegant Seated Menu and TimelineA seated dinner party menu for 10, from gazpacho shooters and seared scallops to chicken with red grapes and pavlovas, with a timeline one cook can manage.
- Fall Wedding Dinner Menu for 85, with Quantities and StaffingA plated fall wedding dinner for 85: cheese table, six passed bites, roasted pear salad, two main course choices and lemon cake, with quantities and staffing.
- Summer Barbecue Buffet for 85: Menu, Grill Math and Food SafetyA summer barbecue buffet for 85: sausages, hot dogs, apricot-glazed chicken, four salads and blueberry cobbler, with grill capacity math and hot-day food safety.
- Italian Christmas Dinner for 35: Buffet Menu and Make-Ahead PlanAn Italian-style Christmas buffet for 35: antipasto table, vegetarian lasagna, two salads, garlicky chard and ricotta pie, with pan counts and a 3-day plan.