[2] A caramel pecan sundae atop a caramel pecan bar (photo courtesy Go Bold With Butter).

[3] Hot fudge with blondie crumbs and raspberries (photo courtesy Elegant Affairs Caterers).

[4] Strawberry sundae with cookie crumbles (photo courtesy McConnell’s Ice Cream).

We love to entertain with DIY food bars, a.k.a. party bars, because that’s the way we like to eat.

Give us a table of ingredients and let us pick and choose what we want on top of the base food (burgers, ice cream, mac and cheese, whatever). We couldn’t be happier.

The difference between a party bar and a buffet is that a buffet sets out ready-to-eat dishes, while a DIY bar sets out the main food plus toppings, so everyone can customize their plates.

You can tell how much we like this concept, from the number of party bar concepts we’ve shared over the years (most of them are listed below).

For Super Bowl Sunday, among other favorite foods, we’re having a DIY Nachos Bar (shrimp nachos, anyone? blue and feta cheeses in addition to cheddar and jack?) and a DIY Guacamole Bar.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll start planning for Valentine’s Day. We’ll pick some of the ideas below, and conclude with the sundae bar.

New this year: a DIY Red Cocktails Bar.

To pull together your own sundae bar for Valentine’s Day, start with the Ice Cream Bar ingredients. Add some Valentine’s Day touches: Red Hots, message hearts and other Valentine candy, plus heart-shaped cookies.
 
 
DIY PARTY BARS