A Buffet Of Party Nibbles

 This is the season to party. It's time to welcome back guests with festive and delicious bites for a festive and delicious times. What to serve? There's a guide that will help you.

Regular contributor Ali Slagle wropte up a great guide with all sorts of recipes in yesterday's New York Times Food section.She offers several different categories , from dips and spreads to cocktail snack mixes and one bite wonders. There's also boards and bowls that are great if you have hungry guests or ones with big appetites, along with crackers and chips.Pick one or two from each category for a varied and flavorful party menu. The dips are wonderful combinations of something creamy mixed in with salty or sweet. Forget the traditional onion and sour cream. Try molten feta with nuts. This is a dreamy mix of oven warmed feta covered with such nuts as hazelnuts, walnuts or almonds. Olive oil and honey is also drizzled on top along with thyme.serve this with charred pita wedges. A stand out and unusual dip os the one made with  charred tangerines.It's  first taking  olive oil, honey, thyme and pepper flakes and simmering them together. The tangerine slices are added and cooked until charred. They're then stirred in the oil and served on baguettes with ricotta cheese. Of course there have to be party nibbles The  easily made crunchy ove roasted chickpeas with za'atar sounds like a great nibble along with the caci e pepe popcorn. This is just tossing warm popcorn with Parmesan and black pepper.

There also the one bite wonders that woudl even make a great appetizer to a Christmas dinner. Stuff olives with havily herbed raisins. You can also try them with blue ro goat cheese , anchovies , almonds or garlic cloves. A perfect antepasto is pear wedges with prosciutto for a take on the classic dish with melon. A really lush nibble is caviar potaot chips with lemon cream. This is a contribution from another Food section writer , Melissa Clark, This is stirring lemon zest into creme fraiche and then layering it and caviar on potato chips.Boards are very popular and you can easily go with the classic charcuterie one. Add pate, smoked fish such as salmon, along with such new additions as dates  and guava paste. If you want simple then copy one of Manhattan's oldest bars. McSorley's first founded in the 1880's Put out a plate of sliced white Cheddar with Saltines, spicy brown mustard and sliced white onion. You could fry the crackers in butter like Gabrielle Hamilton. Every party should have a bowl of chips. Try the latest Korean craze honey butter potato chips. Mix butter with honey and then top a chip with it. You could also melt it and dip the chips in the m Bake them at 300 degrees Farenheit for ten minutes. You could also do the same wirh Italian cold cuts like prosciutto, pepperoni or pepperoni.

The perfect party should have the perfect nibbles. Try any of these or other mentioned in the guide. They're fun bites for you and your guests.