canapes

Smoked salmon and cream cheese blinis.

Honestly, canapés are easy. Anything you fancy, just small. Small pieces of chicken on a toothpick, with a little dip = canapé. A falafel on a toothpick, with a little dip = canapé. A circle of bruschetta with a piece of goats cheese, a smear of pesto and a sundried tomato = canapé.

Agree on the smoked salmon blinis. They go down a treat!

I get a tub of Philly and I stir in some creme fraiche to make it a bit softer. I like to add some horseradish - I just add it a half tsp at a time until I think it tastes right. Not everyone likes it so maybe leave that out if you think they might not like horseradish.

You pop the blini's in the oven for a few mins, take them out and when they are cool, top with the philly, and put some little pieces of smoked salmon on the top. I then top it with a tiny sprig of dill to make it fancy.

For salmon pinwheels, get sandwich salmon - the stuff already cut into squares, top it with the philly creme fraiche mix like you are making a swiss roll, and roll it. Then slice it into slices about 7mm - 1 cm thick.

My MIL diagonally cuts celery and fills it with philly - that is nice. She does them about 2- 3cm long. She also gets salami slices, blobs philly in the middle and rolls them into cigars.

You can also get either melba toasts and cut in half, or small biscuits of some kind, top with a small piece of brie and put a grape on top.

Get packs of chilli marinated prawns from Marks & Spencers and put one on a little stick. You can use toothpicks or buy tiny little bamboo skewers which look quite posh.

You could make mini greek salads by taking a square of feta, half a cherry tom, and an olive or piece of cucumber on a skewer?