Hellobee Boards

1) chips and guac!
2) Veggie platter with dip and/or fruit platter with cheese
3) cupcakes
4) Cold pasta salad

A super easy dip for tortilla chips is a 1:1:1 ratio of canned refried beans, jar of salsa, block of cream cheese. You just melt it all together in a pot on the stove and it's done! Pretty sure it would last in a serving bowl while you're at church!

We just hosted DD's first birthday and we had fruit kabobs and veggie cups with hummus ready to go. They were super easy and didn't need to be refridgerated forever. You could also do meat and cheese tray (or kabobs... Mrs Pen did them for Cobi's b-day, check out the blog post on it), salted meats and hard cheeses don't need to be fridged forever either. Would you have access to a plug for a slow cooker? I went to a baby shower and she had a soup and sandwich bar set up, it was delightful. Hot crock of soup, bread, condiments and sliced veggies, meats and cheeses. Something for everyone and easy peasy to set up

Hawaiian meatballs! Everyone raves about this recipe. You can make the sauce, freeze it with the meatballs, then just throw it all together in the crockpot to keep it all warm.

2 lb family style meatballs
2 TB cornstarch
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 can pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapples
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 TB soy sauce
Chopped onions+peppers (optional, but we like them)

Heat and stir until smooth, let boil until thicken, pour over meatballs, done. It's sweet and tangy

OH speaking of tortilla appetizer type roll ups, my mom used to just spread tortillas with that onion and chive flavored cream cheese, put sliced deli turkey meat over it, roll them up, then slice them.

What about making a pot of soup and just thawing it out and throwing a ladle in it?

pesto pasta salad, YUM

@blackbird: I was totally going to suggest meatballs!

@MrsBrewer: I love tortilla roll ups! A suuuper easy one is to mix cream cheese with crushed pineapple, roll, and slice.

@Sea_Bass: You could also do a block of cream cheese covered in a jar of cocktail sauce with thawed mini salad shrimp on top, with crackers. It may sound a little strange, but it tastes ahhh-may-zing!

@sea_bass: Hummus is also an option.

@MsLipGloss: Yum!!! Cream cheese and pineapple sounds really good!!! I wouldn't have thought to try a sweet one like that!

snacks: chips & salsa/guac, veggies & dip/hummus, cheese & crackers (keep the cheese plate in the fridge til you get home), nuts. lunch: cold cuts (have them all laid out ready to make sandwiches), pulled pork in the crock pot, cold chicken salad, pasta salad, fruit salad.

I hosted DS's baptism at 2 months old but I took the easy way out and got the lunch catered! I had bowls of chex mix and M&M's out before we left for church, the cheese and fruit platters were in the fridge ready to go, and for things like chips & dip, I had the chips out and dip in the fridge. I also had all drinks set out, wine & beer chilled, and the coffee maker ready to be turned on. We made cookies ahead of time and froze them until the day before, and my father in law made the cake.

With that many people you could do a double buffrt line with the same treats on both sides of the table.

My Go-To Make Ahead Mediteranean Pasta Salad

Penne, Farfalle or Orzo pasta
Tomatoes (halved cherry or chunky dice larger variety)
Cucumber (remove skin if you like, chunky dice, remove seeds for drier salad)
Red onion, thin sliced
Kalamat olives, pitted (halve or whole)
Scallions, chunky dice
Annie's Organic Caesar dressing
Balsamic Vinaigerette dressing
Feta cheese crumbles
*sometimes I add in sliced sun dried tomatoes (drain oil, rinse)

I really love this dip - it's so yummy and I usually don't have leftovers.

http://www.franksredhot.com/recipes/franks-redhot-buffalo-chicken-dip-RE1242

Monkey bread is also super easy and quick to make:
http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/grands-monkey-bread/7a1e41b1-4708-4028-8ce6-fcb5baebbc19/

@BabyBoecksMom: that dip is delish!!

@Sea_bass, worst case scenario, you send DH to the store

(PS i'm throwing my DH's 30th birthday party 1 month after the baby is here. I've been told it's pretty feasible as long as I have it catered or buy the food and have someone pick up the cake and ice for the beer. Reminds me, I need to buy beer...)

@sea_bass: And even if you want to make cookies, you can make those a month or so ahead and freeze them. Pull em out the day before and they'll be ready the next day.

@sea_bass: make em and bake em a month ahead. We had a dessert bar at our wedding and my mom made a ton of the cookies a month before... then we pulled them out the night before. It was perfect.

@sea_bass: I am totally subscribing to this. It will come in handy some day!!

Oh yeah i totally made cookie dough a couple weekends ago, used my round scooper and dropped them into a plastic bag and froze them. Break and bake style!