Emergency entertaining

It’s inevitable. You need something quick and wonderful to serve this month to guests who will drop by on short notice. I recently asked Gourmet Girls caterer Kathy Mangham for advice on getting through the season without losing your cool, and she shared some personal tips for creating casual nibbles that look great, but are ridiculously easy to throw together.

“Sometimes, I’ll have friends come by after work, and I will have picked up ingredients for antipasto trays,” says Mangham. “Typically, I’ll do almonds, salami, olives, some cheeses, nice crackers, and I’ll garnish it with greenery. Satsumas from my tree are my favorite thing to garnish with right now. I use both leaves and the fruit. You can do the same with Meyer lemons or any citrus.”

Mangham adds you can’t go wrong with homemade cheese balls and nice crackers. She advises combining softened cream cheese with another favorite, like grated cheddar, bleu cheese or goat cheese, then rolling the ball in either toasted pecan pieces or dried cranberries. Old standbys like cream cheese topped with fig preserves or pepper jelly with nice crackers also perform well. There’s no sin to simplicity, especially when you take the time to garnish, says Mangham, also a visual artist. “You can press pansies or nasturtiums into the surface of a wheel of cheese and it looks great.”