Almost-No-Cooking Party Menu

This second week of summer was busy! Lots going on, plus getting the house ready to leave town, laundry ready to pack our bags, AND have a little going away party for friends. Since I love to cook, and I'm known for cooking, I can stress myself out about what to make when we have guests. But with the pace of this week I realized that I wasn't going to have time to do much preparation, plus, I didn't want to have a big kitchen mess to clean up. I ditched my original menu. At first I considered ordering pizzas and appetizers from our local go-to for that sort of thing, Big John's. Instead, I decided to see what inspiration I could find at GFS, Key West's answer to Costco. Mini hot dogs in puff pastry, check. A frozen Buffalo Chicken dip that could be placed in the oven frozen and baked in just 35 minutes. Tortilla chips (regular corn and blue corn) and a jar of fresh salsa from the cooler. I also found a nice sized wheel of brie. Off to Publix for the remaining ingredients - watermelon chunks, water crackers to serve with the brie and some macadamia nuts to top it. I found a Toasted Coconut sheet cake in the freezer there. The bakery lady wrote on it for me, and assured me it would be thawed perfectly in about 45 minutes. (It was!) When I got home, I turned on the oven and added the still frozen dip. I put the wheel of brie on a baking sheet, topping it with chopped fresh mango, brown sugar, and chopped macadamia nuts. I made a pitcher of margaritas, and had the watermelon, salsa, chips and salted cashews on the table when guests started arriving. I put the brie in the oven with the dip, giving it about 15 minutes at 375 to melt a bit. Both were big hits, and I would definitely purchase the dip again. Eventually I baked the hot dogs in puff pastry.....those always go in about two minutes! And the guests (most of whom I didn't know....co-workers of the guest of honor) brought some yummy additions - fried chicken, Caprese salad on crackers, chili con queso, extra chips, apples and caramel dip, beer and wine. We sliced the cake and I brought out chocolate cup cakes for the kids, also from Publix. It was a really fun party - casual, comfortable, fun and delicious. I need to stop stressing about entertaining and just do it more often!