When possible, try to keep the theme of your party in mind when choosing the
food and drinks. Theme parties based on a certain time period can include the
popular food and drink of that era. You can also change the names of your foods
to suit your theme. You can serve “Freedom Fries” or “Couch Potato Salad”. Ask
friends for help with catchy names for your menu. They may even offer to bring a
dish!
After you have decided on what foods will be served, make up a menu list that
includes:
Hors d’oeuvres
Drinks
Appetizers
Salads
Entrees
Vegetables
Bread
Desserts
Condiments
Next to your choices, be sure to include information on where you can locate
recipes for each dish, if needed. From this main list you can then plan your
shopping list. You can also decide if you can prepare some dishes ahead of time
and freeze them.
Think of fun ways to decorate the food itself. Stick flags into food at a
golf theme party, or shape a cheese ball into a football design. Marshmallows
can be turned into snowmen, and you can create a caterpillar design by using
snowball cupcakes.
Arrange them in a snake-like fashion on a platter, and add
licorice pieces for the legs, gumdrops for the eyes, and make a mouth by adding
a bended pipe cleaner into shape. You can also use pipe cleaners for antennae,
with gum drops on top of them.
When serving food, try to think of items that are relevant to your theme that
you can use in a different way. You can make chocolate pudding and top it off
with chocolate cookie crumbs with gummy worms "crawling" out of it. Serve it in
a new, and washed out, plastic children’s bucket using a plastic shovel to dish
it out.
Empty coconut shells can be used as bowls, and plastic batting or football
helmets can be lined with plastic as serving bowls. You can use flowerpots, tea
cups, cowboy hats, anything that will add a fun touch to your banquet table.
Wheel barrels can be filled with ice to hold canned beverages, and canning jars
can be used as glasses at a country-theme barbeque.