25 Crowd-Pleasing Party Food Ideas

These crowd-pleasing party food ideas will be a hit at any celebration! They include tempting cheese boards, finger foods, delicious dips, and more.

The best party food ideas are fun. Not too fussy, not too formal. Not bland or boring. They catch your eye and draw you in, making you think, “I want to try THAT!” And when you do try it, good party food doesn’t disappoint. Even if it’s a tiny, one-bite finger food, it packs a punch of flavor. You’ll find my best party food ideas in the post below. They include impressive platters, tasty finger foods, delicious dips, and more. They’re the recipes I make time and time again for holiday parties, cookouts, and birthday celebrations, and each one is…

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Healthy Caesar Dressing

This healthy Caesar dressing recipe has a Greek yogurt base. Creamy, tangy, and easy to make, it's SO much better than any store-bought salad dressing!

This healthy Caesar dressing recipe is just as creamy and tangy as a traditional Caesar dressing, but it’s higher in protein and not quite as rich. The trick is that I make it with Greek yogurt in place of the classic raw egg yolks and oil (or mayonnaise). This healthy Caesar dressing is also anchovy-free. I add finely chopped capers instead. The capers make this dressing entirely vegetarian but still add the salty, briny flavor I crave in anything Caesar. This dressing is easy to make with 7 simple ingredients. You don’t need to haul out the food processor or blender…

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Mushroom, Leek, and Cauliflower Soup

This mushroom, cauliflower, and leek soup is rich, creamy, and deeply savory. Pair it with crusty bread for a comforting winter meal!

This mushroom, leek, and cauliflower soup is one of my favorite dishes to make on cold nights. The mushrooms and leeks create its savory, umami base, and blended cauliflower gives it a wonderful creamy texture. It’s SO comforting, but also healthy and fresh. Thanks to the cauliflower, this soup doesn’t require any heavy cream or other dairy. It’s rich and flavorful…and made almost entirely of veggies. I hope you love it as much as I do! What’s In This Soup Recipe This soup isn’t creamy because it contains cream. Instead, blended cauliflower creates its luscious texture. When you puree the soup, the cauliflower…

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Garlic Butter

Learn how to make garlic butter with just 4 ingredients! Creamy, savory, and rich, it's a delicious topping for potatoes, dinner rolls, noodles, and more.

cooking basics

What’s better than regular butter? Garlic butter! This spread is rich and, well, buttery, brimming with savory garlic flavor. It’s quick to stir together, and it lasts for days in the fridge. Keep it on hand for slathering onto bagels and toast, tossing with noodles, dotting onto baked potatoes, and more. It’s such an easy way to amp up the flavor in simple, everyday meals. How to Make Garlic Butter This homemade garlic butter recipe has to be one of the simplest on the blog. It only calls for 4 basic ingredients: Unsalted butter, garlic, finely chopped fresh parsley or…

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Stuffed Shells

These stuffed shells are saucy, cheesy comfort food at its best! They're filled with a creamy, flavorful mix of fresh spinach, lemon zest, and ricotta cheese.

pasta / dinner

These stuffed shells are saucy, cheesy comfort food at its best. I love the contrast of the chewy pasta with the creamy ricotta filling, and marinara – store-bought or homemade – is the perfect tangy accent for both. After I eat one helping, I always find myself back in the kitchen, unable to resist the allure of seconds. These stuffed shells are just that good! This stuffed shells recipe is easy to make (and make ahead!), and it’s great for serving a group. If you’re hosting a dinner party or get-together this season, it would be a fantastic dish to…

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15 Best Vegan Cookie Recipes

These delicious vegan cookie recipes include peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate chip, and more. You won't miss the butter or eggs one bit!

vegan / desserts

You don’t need eggs or butter to make delicious cookies, and these vegan cookie recipes are here to prove it. They include all the classics – peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread, and chocolate chip – as well as fun, out-of-the-box vegan cookie recipes for anyone looking to try something new. Whether you’re gearing up for holiday baking or just in the mood for an easy sweet treat, I hope you find some vegan cookie recipes you love! Vegan Spice Cookies These vegan cookie recipes are especially perfect for the holidays, but if you’re tempted to make them at another…

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Minestrone Soup

This minestrone soup recipe is a delicious version of the classic Italian vegetable soup. Serve it with crusty bread for an easy vegetarian meal!

soups

Today, I have two goals: to bake a batch of Christmas cookies and to make a pot of minestrone soup. To me, the two go hand-in-hand. After I spend an afternoon baking (and eating!) something sweet, I want nothing more than a warming, nourishing pot of soup for dinner at night. I love this minestrone soup recipe in particular because it’s so satisfying, but still light and fresh. Onions, carrots, and celery add depth of flavor to its herb-flecked tomato broth, and starchy beans and pasta make it nice and thick. I toss in green beans for texture, and, as…

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Mexican Wedding Cookies

These Mexican wedding cookies are tender, delicate, and full of rich, buttery pecan flavor. Dusted in powdered sugar, they're a perfect holiday treat.

winter

Mexican wedding cookies are one of my favorite holiday treats. They have a rich, nutty flavor and a texture so delicate that they practically melt in your mouth. This recipe makes a decent batch – about 40 cookies – but I still wouldn’t expect it to last long. The last time I made these Mexican wedding cookies, they all vanished in two days flat! Mexican Wedding Cookies Recipe Ingredients Mexican wedding cookies go by many different names: snowballs, Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cakes, polvorones, and more. I did some digging on their history while I was working on this…

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Homemade Hot Chocolate

Learn how to make the BEST homemade hot chocolate! Rich, creamy, and deeply chocolatey, it's the perfect cozy treat for a cold winter night.

winter / beverage

When the weather outside is frightful, there’s no better way to warm up than with a rich, creamy cup of homemade hot chocolate. Really, take it from us – last winter was a particularly snowy one here in Chicago, and we did a lot of shoveling. When our fingers and toes would start to tingle from the cold, I’d come inside and make this hot chocolate recipe. It’s thick and comforting, the perfect fortifying treat on a chilly winter day. With the holidays right around the corner, I thought it would be a great time to share this recipe with…

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25 Best Dutch Oven Recipes

These easy Dutch oven recipes show off the versatility of everyone's favorite cast-iron pot. Use yours to make bread, stew, pasta, risotto, and more!

fall / winter

‘Tis the season of cozy soups, comforting stews…and holiday shopping. If you’re thinking about treating yourself or a loved one to a new piece of kitchen equipment, let me recommend a Dutch oven! This type of heavy-duty pot might seem like a specialty item, but if you cook often, I promise, you’ll use it daily. In fact, I always have one perched on my stovetop, ready and waiting for the next time I cook a soup, pasta, sauce, or whatever other Dutch oven recipes I might have up my sleeve on a given day. Speaking of Dutch oven recipes, I’ve…

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How to Make A Cheese Board

Learn how to make a perfect cheese board for entertaining! Filled with a fun variety of cheeses, fruits, and spreads, it offers something for everyone.

fall / appetizers

Whether I’m hosting a dinner party, a happy hour, or a holiday get-together, a cheese board is always my go-to appetizer. It’s my #1 choice for so many reasons – it offers a little something for everyone, it looks so pretty and festive, and it’s easy to put together (no cooking required!). Now, if you’ve never made a cheese board before, it might not seem so easy. What cheeses do you pick? What do you pair with them? I promise that the process really is simple, and to get you started, I’m sharing my favorite way to assemble a cheese…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.