The Art of Entertaining: Pantry Essentials for Easy Entertaining

Image from Emerson Made Farm via Design Sponge.

Ever get a last minute call from out of town friends, your parent's swinging by, or decide to have happy hour at your place and need to entertain guests with almost no prep or planning time?  If your pantry is stocked with these entertaining essentials, you won't have to stress about having nothing to offer guests.  See below for some of my favorite pantry essentials to keep stocked for your next impromptu get together.

Cheese: Gruyere, Manchego, St. Andre | Truffle Honey | Bubbly | Cocktail Napkins | Bamboo Skewers | Chocolate: With Chili, With Sea Salt | Fig Chutney | Pepper Jelly | Club Soda | Tonic Water | Marcona Almonds | Carr's Water Crackers | Roasted Red Peppers | Olives: Garlic Stuffed, Kalamata | Charcuterie 

Some of these are self explanatory, but I'd like to elaborate on a few of them.

Cheese: Keep several cheeses stocked including a soft cheese, like a St. Andre or Brie, as well as semi-soft cheese like Manchego and harder cheeses like Gruyere or Parmesan.
Olives: Fresh olives from a help yourself olive bar are great, but I find having a few jars of Kalamata or garlic stuffed olives in the cupboard helps me out when I forget to pick up fresh ones.
Truffle Honey: This might not seem like a necessity to most, but once you have tried it you will understand.  It makes any cracker/ cheese combo DIVINE! It is definitely worth every penny.
Bubbly: It doesn't have to be Champagne as it can be expensive.  Try Cava or Prosecco or even a dry sparkling wine. Trader Joe's offers some great, low priced options of all of these.
Accessories: I'll go into this more with a separate post, but always have cute cocktail napkins on hand as well as bamboo skewers so guests can easily use your cheese platter.
Tonic & Club Soda: These will basically help you make any highball, especially when paired with lemon or lime and a dash of bitters... voila fancy cocktail at your fingertips. I'll also do a separate post on bar essentials so stay tuned for that.

What are some of your pantry essentials for easy entertaining in a pinch?