I'm having a meet-the-candidate event for a local candidate for judge this afternoon. This, of course, means I have to have party food. Thought you might be interested in what I'm serving, though not all of it is low carb. I've invited somewhere around 100 people (not expecting anywhere near all of them, of course!,) so I can't hardly expect them all to be low carb. And this being a college town, I can count on there being a bunch of vegetarians in the crowd. So I'm serving:

* Hummus and pita -- cheap, easy, good for any vegans in the crowd, and a lot of people like it.

* Deviled eggs -- everyone loves 'em, they're easy to make in great quantity, and they're way low carb, so I can eat as many as I want!

* Smoked salmon mousse, which I intend to pipe onto cocktail pumpernickel. Could just as easily go in celery sticks or -- if you wanted to be really spiffy -- leaves of Belgian endive. Although right now it's in the fridge, chilling. If it doesn't set up a bit, it won't be pipe-able, and I'll serve it as dip or spread, instead.

It was easy. I started by heating 1/2 cup of clam juice (you can get this in bottles at most grocery stores) in a teeny saucepan, and sprinkling a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin over it. Stirred it in, and left it to dissolve.

In the meanwhile I ran 8 ounces of cream cheese and 8 ounces of smoked salmon through the food processor, using the S-blade. Added the clam juice/gelatin mixture, 2 tablespoons sour cream, 3 scallions (just the white part) and a couple of tablespoons of parsley. Ran the processor till the scallions and parsley were finely chopped and well-dispersed -- had to scrape down the sides of the container once or twice. Scraped the whole thing into a snap-top container; I'll give it an hour or two before I try to put it in a pastry bag!

* Crudites (raw veggies,) with curry dip. Think I'll make some pesto dip, too; I have a bunch of pesto in the freezer. How hard could it be to run some through the food processor with a little cream cheese and sour cream?

* Red-cooked Chicken Bites -- I diced up a couple of pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast into bite-sized pieces. Threw 'em in the slow cooker and added 2 cups water, a cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup dry sherry, a star anise, a few slices ginger, and 2 1/2 tablespoons Sucanat (dried, ground sugar cane juice.) Splenda works fine here, too; I just know that a bunch of my guests will be anti-artificial sweetener people, and this much Sucanat will add a teeny fraction of a gram of carb to a serving, especially since most of the sauce will be drained off.

I'm letting them cook a couple of hours in the slow cooker. Then I'll drain 'em, stick 'em on tooth picks, and dip one side of each bite in toasted sesame seeds, and the other side in mince cilantro and scallion. Yum.

* Spinach-Artichoke-Cheese stuffed mushrooms. Didn't measure on these, but the filling is approximately:

10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped pretty fine
1 cup mayo, regular or light
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 shredded Monterey Jack
About a 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
A few dashes of Tabasco
Teeny pinch nutmeg

Mixed it all up. It'll get stuffed into mushroom caps and baked; I'll probably sprinkle some more Parmesan on top before baking, to make 'em look pretty.

* Popcorn with Garlic butter and Parmesan. Popcorn's cheap and everyone likes it.

* Pickles -- just because I have several jars on hand

* Seriously evil but easy cookies I made last night, and haven't had even one of, I'll have you know. (I have dozens of people coming! Last thing I need is the sugar-shakes.) I'm not giving you the recipe, because I don't want you to use it. So there.

* Cheap light beer, wine, iced tea, soda (blech!), water

So that's my party, and I hope it gets my candidate some votes. Have to run; I have to devil my eggs!