Belated Party Report, the good, the bad and the ugly....looong

M

monj

Well-known member
First I am posting what I planned on serving, then what actually made it to the tables. smileys/frown.gif

A lot of lessons learned from this one!!

Cold

Fig tapenade with goat cheese: wildly popular

Seafood Salad: big hit

Requisite shrimp platter: of course it all went, 6 lbs worth!

Focaccia with marinated peppers: well………. See below

Greek salad bites: everyone loved these

Merry Tomatoes: too big a crowd to ‘splain” what to do (dipping, etc), so, not a hit

White Bean Crostini: I changed to White Bean and Artichoke Dip from Fine Cooking (not popular, thought it was rather bland, despite the “our test kitchen staff favorite” billing in the magazine, tried to jazz it with herbs, disappointing

Antipasto platter: most stuff went

Caponata on crostini: big hit

Endive spears with pears and gorgonzola: about half went (I liked it)

Assorted Cheese cube platter: boring, but a lot of takers late in the evening, guessing to stave off drunkenness!

Purchased Vegetable platter with hummus: as someone else said, it always goes

Last minute order: assorted mini Italian sandwiches on cool bread: mildly successful. Was more of a mental calmer in whew, ok, we have enough food!!

Thumbprint cookies with hot pepper jelly: forgot in freezer, then ran out of time to assemble

Hot:

Beef satays: the Number 1 seller of the night (not counting the onion dip, see below LOL)

Panko Chicken with Apricot Mustard dipping sauce: second in popularity

Jalapeno squares (didn’t get to them)

Ham and Spinach cheesecake (bailed on this (HAD to have a Honeybaked ham due to DH adamant insistence on HBH, it went over pretty well)

White Cheddar Scallion puffs: also forgot in freezer (note to self: make a list of everything you want to serve and keep handy smileys/smile.gif

Dips:

Cheddar Bacon: always a favorite

Spiced nuts

Rosemary nuts

Xmas nuts: huge hit

Desserts:

Coconut shortbread bars

Chocolate Chip bars

Toffee Peanut, Peanut Butter cookies

Cinnamon Biscotti and Pistachio Cranberry Biscotti (both really good)

++ (what folks brought)

The good, the bad and the ugly party review

First the good, the trimmed down menu worked pretty well, then stupidity kicked in and

of course I added a few things that had intrigued me to make, which proved to be my downfall. Advice: NEVER be intrigued within days or hours of a big party!! (aka, stay off FK site at least 72 hours in advance smileys/smile.gif Fashion the foil helmet and firmly affix to head.

Party Scary: the amount of ingredients I had bought for stuff I didn’t get to make!!

(including Barbadoes punch, Bloody Mary and Cosmopolitan pitchers, bummer I didn’t get to those!!) smoked salmon, just to name a few

Party Mistakes:

My biggest mistakes: not budgeting enough time to assemble platters etc. 3 ½ hours and didn’t finish. smileys/frown.gif Prepping and cooking the satays and panko last minute so they wouldn’t be dried out took some time too.

I had made sure the house was clean the night before, so I don’t have any good excuses for being occupied with other things. I did make a spinach gruyere strata on Saturday for our overnight guests to have on Sunday AM, probably should have opted for buying bagels, but that's not my style. Made the Beajolais coffee cake Sun AM too. The focaccia was a disaster. I was afraid it would be stale, so I wanted to make it the day of. It sounded easy…… I had used the KA Italian flour and decided to use the recipe that was on the bag. In trying to keep up with the mess, I put the bag away before reviewing the part where it says it has to rise again after forming it in the baking pan, so I wound up with some awesome “flatbread.” A happy accident, it was really good!! Not suited for peppers though. I cut it into chip size and had in a basket. It went. Sigh.

My brother loves that onion dip and Ruffles chips, and it’s just not a party for him without it, so I condescended to make it (snobbish, I know) and relegated it off on a cocktail table not to be seen near the good contemporary stuff (lol) Don’t you think that was the FIRST thing to go (and it wasn’t just him eating it) I was floored. NO matter how upscale you try to be, it never fails that the basics are still people’s faves. Sigh. There’s a valuable lesson in that. It’s all about knowing your audience and pleasing the guests and not indulging one’s own tastes entirely. (easier said than done smileys/smile.gif

We had many calls over the next few days saying what a nice time people had and how good everything was, so it was just like a play. As long as the show is good, you never know what goes on behind the scenes, (or what was left in the fridge!!) Live and learn, and be more prepared next time!! And listen to Joe. smileys/smile.gif

Thanks to all for your suggestions, and words of encouragement. smileys/smile.gif

 
LOL, listen to Joe: Onion dip with Ruffles is a classic. It is always the first thing to go,

especially if I'm around. You can add blue cheese and walnuts to it, but why?

Thanks for the report! It sounds like a fantastic party, despite the last minute challenges. Congratulations!

 
"listen to Joe"...I like that..... Just hope he doesn't recomend the cassoulet! Glad your party was

a success! I always have the same problem with having extra ingredients for dishes that I never had the time to make. My latest one is a box of butter flavored crisco. (I never purchase this!) It must have been for a christmas cookie recipe that I did not make, but for the life of me, I can't recall the recipe!

Sounds like a good time was had by all! You must have had 2 hours sleep max, to coordinate the breakfast the next day!

Thanks for sharing!

Regards,
Barb

 
So where are the directions to fashion a helmut and affix to head!?!? LOL Hope you had fun, too!

 
Yup, I spent 2 days making tres leches cake for Christmas (which was fabulous btw), but...

the purchased tray of baklava goodies went faster. I had half a cake left!

 
Get yourself some Barefoot bubbly and bake up those goodies in the freezer.

and have a few girlfriends over for a fun evening. I love the white cheddar puffs: especially nice and krispy out of the oven. Can be baked ahead, but do crisp them up before serving. so much better. I have a friend who grew up in France that requests these every month or so. A whole batch, just for her.

 
About extra ingredients: Many many years ago I had a Christmas party and I bought ingredients

for eggnog along with some last minute munchies, including green and red M&M's. When I got home I got all stressed and distracted and never even unpacked the grocery bags.

Halfway through the party I found a group of people in the kitchen dying "Christmas eggs." They had put the green and red M&M's in separate bowls with the rum, and they were soaking the eggs in it. What was cool was that none of them knew each other before that party, and they were having a ball.

 
Take that Barefoot bubbly, add a few scoops of lemon sorbet and a drizzle of limoncello ---ummmmm

My newest favorite drink!!!!!!

 
I was tempted by that one, but it was a little intimidating with all of the steps

Glad to hear it was good, maybe I will give it a try afterall. smileys/smile.gif

 
"Listen to Joe!" - this should be your blog!

Hey, do you have one already? I always find your advice spot on and humorous at the same time! Colleen

 
and substitute a bit of butter with it in cookies to make them stay softer, if you like soft cookies

and if you make pie dough with all butter, I find using some shortening makes the dough easier to handle.

 
I have some limoncello "brewing" as we speak!!

but now I have to wait a few more weeks to try this. wahhh.

 
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