Budget Scrumptious Party Spread

How can you have a lavish party spread when you are on a tight budget?

If you know most of the guests are on a diet, are there to socialize and not
there to stuff their faces with food, you could create a lavish feast for the
eyes, with lots of creativity.

Serve tiny bite size portions that allow your guests to taste everything at
the table. 

Serve everything on beautiful plates and bowls. Food looks more expensive
when served in dishes and bowls that look expensive. Sure, they can use
disposable plates and cups so you wouldn't have too much washing up to do, but
the food on the table should look beautiful.

Spread out the food. Halve the fish balls and sausages so they look more, yet
are in lighter, bite sized portions.

Here are some of my favourite party recipes.

Tuna Crisps

A can of tuna, a lemon, an apple and a box of Ritz biscuits or salty crackers
are needed for this recipe.

1. Remove all the salt water or oil from the can of tuna.


2. Squeeze the lemon for the juice.


3. Chop the apple into small bits.


4. Mix the tuna, apple and a teaspoon of lemon juice (More or less juice to
   your taste) to form a paste


5. Arrange the biscuits or crackers on a pretty dish..


6. Put half a teaspoon of the tuna paste on each biscuit.


7. The extra lemon juice can be mixed with other fruit juices and sodas to
   form a fruit punch.

Here is another version my friend invented. This is our preferred recipe.

you need a can of tuna, a box of ritz biscuits or salty crackers, a can of
campbells cream of chicken soup.

1. Mix that thick condensed soup with the drained tuna to make a mushy paste


2. Put half a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of this paste on each cracker or
   biscuit.

Pineapple Fried Rice

You don't want your guests to go home hungry right? Fried rice should fill
them up.

1. Slice the sausages


2. Peel and chop up the garlic.


3. Cut the pineapple lengthwise into 2 halves..


4. Scoop up all the fruit within the pineapple. Cut the fruit into cubes..
   Save the juice of the pineapple to add to your fruit punch.


5. Heat up the olive oil and fry the garlic.


6. Add the sausages and most of the pineapple. Save the prettier pineapple cubes for
   the cocktail sticks.


7. Add the boiled rice and stir thoroughly.


8. Add salt to taste.


9. Take the 2 empty halves of the pineapple.


10. Serve half the fried rice in each half of the pineapple.

Cocktails the toothpick

1. Wash and slice a cucumber thickly then quarter it. Do not remove the
   skin. Japanese cucumbers are best here. You might need 1 or 2 or even more
   cucumbers depending on how many guests you are inviting.


2. Wash some blueberries and strawberries. Cut some of the strawberries into
   slices and the rest of the strawberries into cubes, for variety.

Yellow pineapples, red strawberries, blue blueberries and green skinned
cucumbers provide your cocktail sticks with a pretty array of colors. Now you
need the meats.

Sliced canned sausages, halved fishballs,  fried prawns,
sweet meats, ham, cheese, cubes of spam, grilled mushrooms or whatever you fancy would
do nicely.

1. Get ready pretty plates to present your cocktail sticks in.


2. Poke the toothpick into a berry, a slice of tomato, a pineapple cube or a
   cucumber piece. 


3. Then poke the toothpick into

• a halved fishball,


• or a slice of sausage


• or a folded piece of ham


• or a slice of spam,


• or a grilled mushroom


• or a fried prawn


• or a sweet meat

Get creative. Make interesting things like sail boats with these sticks.

For a sailboat, the ham or a slice of cheese could be the sail, half a fishball, sausage or a
slice of strawberry could be the boat. A berry, pineapple or cucumber in between
adds color to that creation.

When you can, invest in a set of beautiful dinnerware. These can be used over
and over again and are a worthwhile investment if you entertain often. You might
want to consider floral
dinnerware for the feminine touch or crystal
dinnerware for the very classy elegant touch. Whatever you serve on
expensive looking dinnerware looks even more lavish.