I should not be hanging around the 'puter in Gala week, but I saw the inquiry and couldn't resist chiming in.
We are in the midst of apps taste trials for the Gala. The menu has been set for a month, but turning the menu into recipes is another matter. LOL. Apps you might use do come to mind from what we are doing.
The boursin stuffed cukes are turning out well. 1 1/2 cuke slices (skin scored), with a 1 inch melon baller center cut out and filled with boursin cheese. Oddly enough the stuffed celery sticks are amazingly good. They went on the menu almost in protest because of the "something normal" request from our pastor, LOL. Thus far we have a really good Asiago/parm/mozz/roasted pepper with a cream cheese binder topped with basil, a jap/pineapple/bell/cream cheese and a kalamata hummus going on. We plan to use a few pieces on each tray almost as a garnish. We will line up the whole trimmed celery sticks on a half sheet, covered with a damp paper towel and plastic wrap, put the fillings in zip locks, and at the right time cut a corner from the bags, fill the sticks, and cut the stuffed sticks into 1 inch bites.
This isn't a TNT true yet, but the trials have been yummy, quirky, and satisfying.
Last year for the same party I am working on now, we did a riff on "shrimp and grits" for an app. We made up the grits, spread them thin, chilled them, then fried whole sheets(as big as we could flip on the flat top), cut out 1 1/2" circles and topped with hot cajun seasoned shrimp. We stuck the shrimp to the cake with a dollop of fresh mayo, but to the life of me I don't remember what flavor we used, though we stared with a generally available cajun seasoning and fiddled - best guess more thyme or sage - those are our "go to" flavor solutions. I do know that for 350 folks, we served just over a thousand.