I agree that you need three stations, use the island for the buffet , set desserts up in your dining room and have a third station for nibblies and drinks. This way you reduce congestion and people can mingle. I am a firm believer in only doing a plated type meal if you can offer everyone a proper seat. If people are going to have to eat with plates on their laps then I suggest all foods be fork friendly. ie they either are bite size or can be cut just with a fork. I did a Greek themes buffet for a goup of about 40 last year and it was great. I served a greek salad. greek meatballs, roasted veggies and chiken souvlaki but I took the meat off the skewers. As ilovepink mentions, Lasagna works well. So you could do an Italian theme with salad, lasagna, meatballs etc. You should have some drinks and nibblies ready for your guests and allow them to mingle a bit before dinner. An hour is good. I would suggest three , maybe four choices of appetizers. Cheese selection , shrimps and sauce and a hot finger food as an example. Tips to remember Plan your menu out two weeks before, include appetizers, main buffet, desserts, beverages Make a detailed list of everything you need and from that complete a shopping list. Buy all non perishibles a week before Buy perishibles a day or two before. Make or prep as much as you can the two days before the party. By prep I mean chop, cut, partially cook...as much as you can Set out the glasses , dishes , napkins , cutlery ,serving dishes, a day or two before. Do not leave any house cleaning for the day of the party. Make a detailed list of every thing you have to make or do the day of and sort the list by time. This will force you to make sure you have thought of everything and will help you understand if you have left your self enough time. 8:00 empty dishwasher 8:30 Prepare casserole 9:00 ...... 3:30 casserole in the oven 4:30 casserole out of the oven Don't be rushed at the last minute. Leave at least 2 hours before your guests arrive take a bath, and get yourself ready, have a glass of wine in the tub. Most important be relaxed and enjoy yourself. Your guest will remember you more than your food. Oh and don't forget music! Best tip....when you think you know sorta what you want to do then post your menu here, even if it;s a rough cut, we'll help with additiong deletions, tips....and recipes. Entertaining can be very easy if you are well prepared and relaxed.

well alison--perhaps my DH wasn't as far off the mark as i had assumed all these years :) and thank you pranjal--i had meant to get back to this earlier but got lost somehwere along the line this week. i don't have a recipe for the slub gum. i tried pan-frying the thickly sliced eggplant but found i was happier with the texture if i steamed it a little bit. while it was cooling off, i'd pan fry some ground beef and onions and gave the whole pan a decent coating of fresh clopped parsley and then turned off the heat to let the mix sort of absorb some of the parsley flavor. then just add a large can of chopped tomatoes in their juice and the eggplant and salt and pepper and let it simmer for awhile. if it wasn't our main course, i didn't add beef--just used it as a side dish instead. but i wanted to tell you how good the chicken was! i'd forgotten what a good tenderizer yogurt was and i wasn't sure how ted would like it, but it was a great change of pace for us. my cinnamon sticks were older than i thought and i didn't use all the cumin called for, but we'll be playing around with that recipe again. i had monday off and went to the oriental market i mentioned to see what things i could find and they were closed for veterans' day! but i really appreciated the push to try something new!

I am right there with you Kat. I am very much a purist when it comes to snack foods. Actually many foods. I can't stand seasoned chips,crackers or popcorn. I also don't like things glopped together. Yes I will eat cake and ice cream but on separate plates. I don't like my food swimming in things. I am a dipper whether it is salad dressing,most gravy or pancake syrup. Even though I am purist I am an adventurous diner. I love ethnic foods, organ meats and seafood. Just don't prepare in a slimey, mush-like or a creamy, goopy, wet casserole concoction. When you start adding things like chocolate chips to muffins they are no longer muffins. Those are cupcakes. There are only two kinds of bagels...plain and egg. If they haven't been boiled they are NOT bagels. They are donut shaped rolls. Sprinkling of seeds can be tolerable. There is no such thing as a whole wheat English Muffin. Vegetable are delicious. they don't need fake cheese sauce or be covered in grease. If you need to put sauce on a steak it's time to learn to choose or serve a better cut of meat. If you eat steak without pink ... you don't like red meat. Leave that nice ribeye for someone who appreciates it. Put ketchup on it and I want to kill you. Mayo is EVIL. Rant over. Thank you.

MSN news had a slide show this morning of what might trigger psoriasis: blood-pressure medications !! It's the binder/filler ingredients in pills, such as magnesium stearate which is the culprit. With my 3-years hand rash I finally found the culprit besides my hard-well water: It's magnesium stearate coating on pills, also a component in Nature-Made magnesium pills, and a component in Nature-Made vitamin D tablets. An amazon customer reported that magnesium stearate in Align probiotic pill caused bad rash, so I stopped my magnesium pills ... and no more rash !! I'm taking magnesium oxide powder, which doesn't have the magnesium stearate coating .. so far zero problems, zero rash with magnesium oxide. That's why a few Amazon customers complained about magnesium stearate as the coating/binder ingredient in pills. See excerpt from below link: http://www.listmyfive.com/d1a158f6/The-Top-Five-Red-Flags-of-a-Magnesium-Stearate-Allergy "Magnesium Stearate is a waxy filler made from animal fat or pesticide laden vegetable oils like cottonseed oil. Manufacturers use it in the making of the majority of medical pills, vitamins and supplements today. Mild to severe cases of hives for short and long periods can be due to magnesium stearate. Unexplained itching with small red bumps to big red blotches have been reported from people who have allergic reactions to this unhealthy filler. This can go on for years until the culprit is discovered and eliminated from the diet. Magnesium stearate kills cells when too much is in the body and it can dry out the skin and eyes. Workers that manufacture this useless stearate have to wear protective gear when handling it due to the toxicity of it to the skin." http://www.listmyfive.com/d1a158f6/The-Top-Five-Red-Flags-of-a-Magnesium-Stearate-Allergy