Expert: Teri Davis Newman - 6/3/2008

Question
Having approx. 50 people at an open house 5:30 to 9 p.m. - All adults and am thinking of the following items: Spinach dip in those sourdough bread bowls with bread pieces for dipping; Humus and bagel chips; warm crab,artichoke, cheese dip with triscits; veggie tray; cheese tray; pinwheel sandwiches; chicken skewers with choice of honey mustard dipping sauce or sweet/sour sauce; meatballs in bbque or italian sauce; watermelon bowl with fresh fruit; DESSERT -- of course a cake of some sort and probably key lime pies with maybe a couple cheesecakes.
How does this sound to you?  AND, how much do I need to serve 50 people, knowing it is an open house with folks coming hungry and/or after their dinner.  Also, we are serving beer, soft drinks, and water - how much do I need of these items?
Thank you SO SO MUCH!!

Answer
Just reading what you are planning to serve I know that you are planning WAY too much food.  Granted you are having people during their dinner hour but unless you want a TON of leftovers, you need to scale back on the number of dishes you are serving. If you made 1 batch of each dish you would have twice as much food as you need.
The rule of thumb is that you need 6-8 appetizer bites per person if you are serving dinner and 14-16 bites per person if you are not. I would calculate it this way if I were doing it:
1 skewer of chicken per person, so 50 skewers--1 sauce-sweet and sour
2-3 meatballs per person depending on size so 100-150 meatballs again, just 1 sauce--barbeque will offset the sweet and sour.
1 oz of cheese per person= 3.5 lbs of cheese
1 oz of cold dip (spinach) per person=3.5 lbs of spinach dip
2 oz of dippers so 7 pounds of whatever you are dipping into the spinach dip and the crab dip
3 bites of pinwheel sandwiches
1 oz of hot crab dip so 3.5 pounds of hot artichoke crab dip
Lose the cheese tray--it's overkill.
2 oz of veggies per person so 7 pounds of veggies and 2 lbs of ranch dip for the veggies.
Forget the watermelon bowl--it's too juicy and messy.
You will need 50 dessert servings, so 25 each of key lime pie (which being a 5th generation native, I have an excellent authentic and easy recipe I will share and go to Sam's or Costco and buy 3 of the Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes--they are delicious, dirt cheap (less than $11 per--and they are 4 lbs each) and presliced.  I always have one at my dinner parties and they are delicious.
You will need 16 oz of non-alcoholic beverages for your guests, and I don't know how much they drink but liquor and beer don't go bad so 4 cases of beer and 4 boxes of wine (doesn't go bad and box wine is MUCH better than it used to be)and 1 bottle each of vodka, rum, tequila, scotch, whiskey and bourbon with mixers.
Let me know if you'd like the Key Lime pie recipe!