It always seems that I have uninvited guests showing up, whether it be relatives I’ve been ducking or drunken friends late night after the bar.  I’ve learned over the years not to sweat this and not fail at my host duties by keeping a few things on hand...

  I’ve found that a board of cheese and crackers and possibly some dried meat goes over great and the only work you have to do is a little slicing.  It’s got everything I want; cheese, meat and of course some bread like substance (possibly sandwich like) and it’s freaking portable. 

Now the amount of varieties of cheese depends on you and the experts say that the cheeses should compliment each other and I say mix it up and give the people options.  I usually go for the generic cheddar, Swiss, jack and possibly something that catches my eye.  You gotta get out there and eat some cheese.  Pick what you like there is a ton.

Next I go with some cured or smoked meats like salamis (of which there are many variations), pepperoni and maybe smoked kielbasa.  Again there is huge variety just give some a shot. 

I have time easy guest food:

I usually include the above mentioned cheese and meat but I add a few things if have some advance notice.  As I said in articles past that I love the sandwich and this is the easiest way to trick people into eating what I want.  I basically make a tray of vegetables, meats cheese and a basked of different sliced bread.  Thrown in some flavored oils like roasted garlic or chile and your nice.

Here are a couple of options:

Marinated artichokes

Sliced red onion

Roasted red peppers

Tomato

Chopped lettuce

Olives

Hot peppers

Cucumbers

Grilled eggplant, zucchini, squash

Cheese

Provolone

Cheddar

Swiss

Roquefort

Pepper jack

Parmesan

Brie

Muenster

Meat

Salami

Pepperoni

Cappi ham

Kielbasa

Turkey