"Kitchen Sink" pasta salad.....cook up a box of any kind of pasta, add a small bag of shredded cheddar, canned olives (drained), any kind of raw veggies in small pieces, a jar of bacon bits and whatever else sounds good, then pour about 2/3 bottle of zesty Italian dressing over it all....make it a day or two ahead and then stir in the last of the dressing at serving time. Different every time but good no matter what you do it it.

Easy Cobbler....in a 9 x 13 pan, spread two cans of cobbler fruit filling. Sprinkle a box of dry cake mix over it all, breaking up large lumps with your fingers. Slice two sticks of butter over it all and arrange evenly. Bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes or until browned and all cake mix is moistened. Use the cake/fruit flavors that you like.....ours are butter cake with blueberry, apple or peach with spice cake and cherry with devil's food cake. I usually make two or three of these at a time for parties, in different flavors.

Salsa (buy different flavors, different levels of heat) and tortilla chips. Good old potato chips and onion dip. Go easy on sides with mayo, especially if food will be unrefrigerated for over 1 hour, you can get sick (I know, we all survived...:)). Make it easy on yourself, chips now come in different flavors, buy a variety. Veggie chips/sticks are very good, too. You can make easy nachos by spreading tortilla chips on a baking dish, cover with refried beans (canned), sliced olives, shredded cheddar cheese. Bake until cheese melts (happens very quickly). Top with sour cream (or put on side), chopped fresh tomatoes and chopped cilantro. (Kids really like these). If you feel ambitious, you can also use "taco" flavored meat in addition to or instead of the beans. Hope these tips help. Enjoy the party! Oh, one more thing....use plastic ware and then toss them out when used - who wants to clean-up???:)

Just had a Graduation Party on Sunday for one from College and two from High School'ers=so we had allot of people. Approx. 150 people. The hit with everyone was the crock pot Mac & Cheese-- I lined all the crock pots (borrowed from everyone)pre made pulled pork & baked beans (in Crock pots) then also had party trays of panni's, wraps and hoieges. The guys grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and kielbasa.

Here is the Crock Mac & Cheese recipe (boiled the macaroni the day before and just put in crock the morning of party).

http://whiskandaprayer.blogspot.com/...baked-mac.html

Have Fun and Good luck,
Helen

My daughter just had a college grad party. The biggest hit was the taco salad. I put the taco meat in a crockpot and everything else in bowls. Lots of chips and salsa. The kids chose to leave out the lettuce and were calling at nachos. No meat left over but lots of lettuce left over.lol Also ate lots of fruit and vegies but the cupcakes didn't get eaten like I thought they would. She also elected to grill the hotdogs and hamburgers ahead of time and put them in a crockpot. That way no one has to be slave to the grill while everyone else is having fun and no accidents with a hot grill. We had some small children there too.

had two partys in May:
Black bean/mango/corn salad...lots of recipes look them up
three bean salad = one can each, green beans (not french cut), yellow wax beans, chick peas or kidney beans, blanch carrots, celery and onion briefly. rinse beans, drain veggies toss together with italian dressing....easy peasy

I don't know what you are serving, but as a "standby side dish", get bread, cut w cookie cutters, put pimento cheese, tuna or egg salad on them.or all three, can decorate them too. and no cooking!! um except boiling the eggs. and don't know how many people you will have.

make a fruit bowl, cut the fruit up , place in a bowl and go on with it.

veggie bowl, the broccoli, cauliflower, carrots,cut them up, then have a dip along with that.

chips & dip would work, even salsa.

pop corn!!! use garlic salt instead of regular salt
chex mix, rice mix, pretzels, mix with nuts, pour in a bowl and you got it.

This is our favorite --- but I use almond extract instead of vanilla

Oh you guys - thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to post all these great ideas! Normally I would love planning all this, but I am so overloaded (and besides cleaning, cooking, working, swim practice for ds, errands, I have to pack to leave for a week right after all this) so this helps tremendously!!!
I was thinking of having Italian sausage and chicken on the grill, but that was a good idea to cook ahead of time and put in the crock pot.... if we have time. Pulled pork sounds good too though. Will have to see if we can get some on sale tonight - that would be easier. I can still do some sausage easy enough, but chicken always seems to get dry, so pork would be a good idea. I'm making him a cake so I don't need to worry about dessert (just getting the cake done! lol!) I totally forgot about chips and dip (duh - see how bad I am!) There will only be about 20 or so here, so not too bad. I feel a little bit of pressure though - I've built up a reputation for serving really good food (it's not me - it's just the good recipes!) and I'm just feeling so blank - so if you were all here you'd be getting hugs! :)

Ridiculously simple, but a pot of salt potatoes seems to go over well. Couple of years ago, I brought out a "Watergate" salad that was popular in the 70's. Lots of time has passed and many people never had it and just loved it (pistachio pudding, cook whip, drained pineapple, etc.) Those that did remember, enjoyed the retro dish once again.

Broccoli salad - chop up some broc, rinse and place it in a casserole dish. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and bacon bits, (and raisins optional). Mix 1 cup of mayo, 1/2 cup sugar and sprinkle with red wine vinegar (about 1/4 cup), mix it up and put in frig until ready to serve. then pour over broc and eat. yummy.