Appetizers

An appetizer should tempt the appetite, not destroy it.  As a starter for the meal it should be complement and contrast for the dishes which follow it and may run the gamut of hot or cold appetite-provoking foods including fruit cups, seafood cocktails, small salads, canapes and hors d'oeuvres. In french, hors d'oeuvre means any appetizer. Americans tend to limit it to a bit of food small enough to be eaten with the fingers--or if it is too greasy or hot, speared with a cocktail pick. Canape is culinary French for an individual appetizer on a bread or other edible base in a one-bite finger form. Canapes may be the same tasty concoctions as hors d'oeuvres, but they are not usually served at the table.

Parties, whether in the afternoon or evening, also call for canapes and hors d'oeuvres. How many they will be and in what variety depends on the type of party. If your party is to be an open-end affair that is likely to last for several hours, your guests will be craving substantial food, especially if it's a cocktail party that often spans the dinner hour.

In such cases the menu should be hearty enough to substitute for a meal. It should include four to six cold appetizers and two or three hot ones. Include some meat, cheese, relishes, a dip, a spread, a finger food--things that can be made in advance and refrigerated or popped into the oven just a few minutes before your guests arrive. Make choices from among appetizers that can be kept warm for several hours in a chafing dish or in a casserole over a candle warmer.

DIPS

Give your guests a bit of something crisp and a bowl of something spicy to dip it in and serving is simplified. Arrange a choice of dips on platters or trays large enough to hold an assortment of hors d'oeuvres and crackers as well as the containers holding the dips.

Nothing is better to dip than raw vegetables. Surround dips with a variety including celery, raw carrot, kohlrabi or turnips cut paper thin, cauliflower broken and sliced in flowerets, asparagus tips, slices of cucumber and zucchini, as well as green onions, crisp radishes and tiny cherry or plum tomatoes.