The Party Appetizer Faux Pas Ina Garten Just Can't Stand

Imagine that you're at an intimate soirée right now. You look fantastic, everyone laughs at your jokes, and the hors d'oeuvres are terrific. Soon, you are introduced to a charming stranger who reaches out to take your hand. But you're already negotiating a glass of Sancerre and a little plastic cup of ceviche with a tiny spoon. Before you can find a place to put something, anything down, the potential new friend — or more — has been twirled in another direction. None of this would have happened if Ina Garten was in charge.

In her book, "Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics," the former gourmet store proprietor, enduring food world star, and repeat author Ina Garten names "appetizers that take two hands" as No. 1 on her list of 10 things never to serve at a dinner party. Although that ceviche from our star-crossed scenario may have seemed terrific to taste, it's actually just the kind of two-hander that Garten would have swapped for something more convenient. The prosciutto-wrapped figs and the Gorgonzola-stuffed endive leaves that appear elsewhere in the book, instead, are solidly one-handers because, not only can you hold them solo, they are not accompanied by any cumbersome hardware, either.

However many guests you're hosting and in whatever fashion, your job is to make things easy. Glasses must be refilled early and often, napkins must be in close, frequent reach, and the food and drinks must be manageable to handle. Unless it's served during a seated portion of the evening, most things requiring plates or cutlery should be off the table. Toothpicks, instead, should be about as complicated as things get for your snackier items.

In addition to Ina Garten's "Back to Basics" apps, festive vintage cocktail meatballs, retro pigs in a blanket, and most crudités are things that your pals can polish off in a bite or two, keeping their hands free for meet-cutes. Dips, of course, also fit the bill, as does anything you can assemble on toast in advance, as Garten has been known to do with things like fruit and goat cheese. Just don't go crazy over nuts, which seem like they'll be an easy solution to the one hand rule. Garten puts them at No. 4 on her list of things not to serve due to their divisiveness and their potential allergenicity. Simply avoiding them is probably the easiest way you can impress Ina Garten at your next dinner party.