How To Prepare A Last Minute Buffet

Have you ever had plans that fell through at the last minute, and you ended up with a house full of hungry people? If you can distract them with chips and dip, in less than 2 hours you can have a budget buffet ready to go!

On the Buffet:
Chips and dip
Vegetables and dip
Chicken in marinade
Sweet and sour meatballs
"Swedish" meatballs
Potato chunks
Beans
Rice
Noodles
Vegetables
French Bread
Butter
Recipes

Step 1
Inventory your supplies and recipes. No need to panic, you can do this! If necessary, send someone to the store with a list and cell phone for last minute "I need that" items.

Step 2
Put the frozen chicken in a microwave safe pan, cover with marinade, and put on "quick defrost".

Step 3
While the chicken is thawing, start the meatballs. Either divide frozen meatballs into two pots or make meatballs. Pour your favorite sweet and sour sauce over half of the meatballs.

Make a thin white sauce (recipe book!) and mix with a can or two of condensed cream of mushroom soup. Pour over the rest of the meatballs.

Start both pots simmering gently on the back of the stove. If you have crockpot(s), you can put the hot meatballs into them, set on "high", and put on the buffet table.

Step 4
Put a pot of water on the stove for noodles. Start the rice in the rice cooker.

Step 5
Back to the chicken. At this point you can bake it in the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes, put it on the grill, or sauté it on top of the stove. Assuming you're grilling or sautéing, once the chicken is about 80% done cooking, put it into an oven safe pan, add more marinade, cover with foil and put into the oven at 200 degrees.

Step 6
Put the noodles in the boiling water, cook according to package directions. Once it's done cooking, drain and toss with butter, put into a bowl, cover with foil. Put it on the buffet table and cover with a doubled bath towel to keep it warm.

Step 7
If you're fixing prepared canned beans, like brown sugar beans or chili, start them now. Add your own special embellishments, like chopped onions, more brown sugar, or green chiles. Simmer. Or you can make my California Style Black Eyed Peas (go to my articles at http://www.ehow.com/members/razzberry-jam-articles.html to find the recipe) using canned black eyed peas. Simmer while you're cooking the potatoes.

Step 8
Fix the potatoes. If you have small potatoes, just scrub and put them into a large pan. If you're using larger potatoes, scrub, cut into quarters (don't peel), put into pan with butter, garlic and onion powder, and rosemary. Cover and simmer until tender. Stir now and then. If you're baking the chicken, start the potatoes at Step 5, put into an oven safe pan, cover with foil and bake in the oven at the same time as the chicken.

Step 9
Once the potatoes are nearly finished, slice the French bread. Put it into a bowl and cover with a towel so it doesn't dry out.

Step 10
Cook the fresh or frozen vegetables. Toss with butter and put on the buffet table.

Step 11
Put plenty of plates, silverware and napkins on the table. Put all the rest of the food on the table.

Eat.

Step 12
Don't hesitate to recruit a clean up crew. You cooked for them all, they can help you clean up!


Things To Remember:

• Adjust this buffet according to the contents of your freezer, budget and tastes. There's nothing wrong with hamburgers and hot dogs!
• This is the budget buffet. You can make a faster (and more expensive) buffet by going to the store and getting potato salad, submarine sandwiches (slice them into thirds), cooked chicken wings and/or buckets of chicken, chips and dip, etc.
• There's lots of recipes right here on eHow, do a search of the website for quick and easy recipes.
• Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
• If you're using the marinade from the raw chicken, put it in a pan and bring it to a boil, keep it bubbling gently for 15 minutes. Now it's safe to put over the cooked chicken.