Late Summer French Appetizer Party

Several Days Ahead

• Make and freeze baked puffs for Chicken Puffs, using recipe’s Do-Ahead Tip.

The Day Before

• Make Poached Salmon with Honey-Mustard Sauce.

The Morning Of

• Arrange centerpiece and set table.
• Chill any wines or drinks that need chilling.
• Prepare veggies for Ratatouille Appetizer Pizza; store in separate containers in refrigerator.
• Thaw baked puffs for Chicken Puffs.
• Bake cookie crust and prep fruit for Mixed-Fruit Tart.
• Make 10-Minute White Chocolate Mousse; store in refrigerator.

Last-Minute Prep

• Make Ratatouille Appetizer Pizza; serve.
• Fill baked puffs for Chicken Puffs; serve.
• Make Cucumber Slices Provençal; serve.
• Make Three-Onion Spread; serve.
• Make Fireside Popovers with Brie, unless made following Do-Ahead Tip.
• Finish preparation of Mixed-Fruit Tart.
• Prepare coffee, if served.

Plan and Work Ahead

• Issue French- or cooking-inspired online invites with a link to the recipe each guest will prepare.

• Or, gather friends for coffee or over lunch at work. Divide the recipes among you.

• Find more French-inspired appetizers and other recipes giving you entertaining inspiration no matter the season.

• Remind guests bringing appetizers to have preparation completed as much possible before they arrive. Note ahead if refrigerator, oven or counter space will be needed.

Serve Buffet Style

• Mix-and-match neutral dinnerware and linens since people are bringing appetizers or desserts on their own serving plates. An arrangement of pots of herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme makes a fun neutral centerpiece. Or use sunflowers just like in a Claude Monet painting!

• For a buffet, all the food is set out in one place and guests take a plate and help themselves.

• Set up a drinks table outside the kitchen. Keep it simple.

Party Fun & Games

• Plan your party before a trip to see the movie Julie & Julia. Or watch selections of the original TV series The French Chef with Julia Child, now on DVD, with your friends.

• Everybody likes trivia. Search the Internet using search words ‘Julia Child’ and ‘trivia’ for plenty of help putting your own game together.

• Who of your friends can do the best Julia Child impersonation à la Dan Aykroyd? Who can tell the most entertaining story of their own experience preparing one of Julia’s recipes? Award prizes of a cooking gadget like a whisk.

• Use this appetizer menu when your book group reads one or both of the books that inspired the movie: Julie Powell’s Julie & Julia or Julia Child’s My Life in France written with her nephew Alex Prud'homme.

• Or, once ‘Julia fever’ has calmed down, treat your friends to an all-things-French gathering while discussing books like Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française or Sara Houghteling’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

• Watch a movie together, like one based on a book by the French writer Colette, such as the recent Chéri or the classic Gigi.