Final Menu, notes and Critique from last night's party....

Congratulations MCM-and some after-party thoughts

What an undertaking and you pulled it off in fine style! A great job. I love that you gave the critique- I always try to get into the psycology of what people do at a party and you gave great insight for me to chew on.

Remember what I said in a PM to you about cheese platters and antipasti platters? You saw it happen too. I'd add fruit and nuts to that mix too- people will go for what they consider "the good stuff" and leave what they consider as "fill stuff." They won't eat things that they know are "good for them" like fresh fruit (unless it is dipped or stuffed with ooey gooey things like your marscapone) or cucumbers. I bet you anything if you would have served the lobster salad on toasted bread slices or crackers of some sort, it would have disappeared. Another thing I also found in the past is that you don't mess with "standards"- people are so funny. The coconut mango sauce for the shrimp sounds delicious and the crowd might have eaten it if there was only one sauce offered but they knew what the cocktail sauce was so they went for it. Sigh.

You put a huge amount of energy and creative thought into this party and I send my admiration for a job well done.

 
Joe, just for fun, here is another bacon idea that goes over well

I love the sugar idea and thought you might like another- I've used this idea many times:

Spiral-twist bacon slices and thread them on bamboo skewers (one skewer to hold the tops of several slices of bacon, one on the bottom. Place on cookie sheets and "paint" with good honey then sprinkle with cracked pepper. Bake until almost crisp, remove the skewers and let sit for a few minutes to "set up" before serving- can be served room temp too.

 
After putting all my critiques here, we went over there last night for leftovers

and we ran through it over and over for several hours - think we are trying to figure it out for the next party and for their pending nuptials that they want to have in the garden area behind the house and then the food and such flow out onto the pool area to the side. They firmly believe that part of the problem is the layout of the house and isn't perfect but few of us have a perfect layout.

However, that being said, if we had reoriented things to the other end of the table closest to the foyer AND bar and started the food there when we saw the first guests hanging around in the foyer rather than moving to the outside pool area as we had planned, I think we would have had more takers on some of the 'lesser' things as people did pass through that side more and stood to that side of the table nibbling. The other side seemed to sort of be a traffic jam that didn't move much or permit much traffic.

The host said he wouldn't do away with the antipasto - just do a smaller tray because he thought the color of it added so much to the table even if a lot of it didn't get eaten.

I said I would probably opt for 'plainer' cheeses - a nice cheddar, a smoked gouda, and a pepper jack - boring but what this crowd is familiar and comfortable with.

I would bump the shrimp up from 4 pounds to 6 and that might leave a few but we didn't run out until the party was pretty much over and it was just the die hards still hanging around.

We already decided that the bar was a BIG problem and would put it on tables in the living room across the foyer from the dining room - it would make people move about the house more. Then the bowls of nuts placed there would probably go over better.

We did accomplish one goal of his fiance - to keep people from hanging out in the kitchen. We had VERY little of that even though I was in there 95% of the time. A few people that knew me would wander in to say hello and stay for a few mintues or folks that wanted to meet me would drop in and a couple of party crashers entered through the kitchen and wanted to stay there since they weren't OSU folks - just friends of the host who saw something was going on as they were taking a walk. This kitchen is a natural gathering place and at all the annual meetings we have had here the last 4 or 5 years, everyone congregated in the kitchen and she wanted to break that habit - so we did.

We'll probably have another test party just to test a few new theories before the wedding so any other ideas are welcome.

 
And how does one get invited to a test party? I can taste that tenderlloin as we speak....

Definitely separate the bar from the food--put them at opposite ends of the party. It forces people to move around. Could either or both be set up outside? If not, assuming the wedding won't be a sit-down event, could cocktail tables be set up around the pool?

Food stations (I hate that term); spreading the food out in several strategic spots, might help circulation.

As for cheeses, I alway serve Brie, Compte and Chevre, all very basic and familiar, plus one or two new things to round it out.

 
Remember, YOU can put things in the way of the flow, just until they learn

the food maze, little lab rats that we all are.

Feng shui the flow to your needs.

Remember, God invented 6-foot potted ficus plants--on rollers--for a reason.

 
Charlie posted this on Gail's several years ago...

and it is one of my classic - probably should post in T&T

Charlie: REC: Hot Brie Kisses...
Posted: Sep 11, 2003 12:17 PM

HOT BRIE KISSES Recipe By : Jane Snow 2/3 pound brie cheese 2 puff pastry sheets -- (One 17.3-ounce box) hot pepper jelly Thaw puff pastry at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Unfold pastry and roll lightly with a rolling pin to remove creases. Cut each sheet into fourths, then cut each fourth in half. Cut each piece in half again to produce 16 even squares of dough per pastry sheet. Lightly spray mini-muffin cups with vegetable oil. Fit a square of dough into each cup. The pointed edges of the dough should extend straight up. Cut brie into 1/2" squares. Place a piece of cheese into each dough-lined cup. Top with 1/4 tsp. pepper jelly. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until golden

Mel's Notes:
1) Roll puff pastry thinly enough to cut 24 circles from each sheet - I cut flutted rounds instead of the squares.
2) The weight of the cheese is not enough to keep the pastry from puffing up so I dock it well to help that situation.
3) For several reasons, I soften the brie and cream it all up rind and all and pipe it into the cups - it sticks to the shell better, you don't wind up with little pieces of the rind quite so visible, and you can fill the cups a little better so they bake out a little more even.
4) I like to bake a few minutes then spoon on the jelly after having microwaved it to make it more spoonable - this lessens the chances of it baking over into the tins, sticking and burning.
5) Favorite jellies to use: Foster's Seven Pepper Jelly is the #1 choice! Then several other nice ones are the hot pepper jellies from Rothschild Berry Farms - and their pineapple habanero if you dare! And I have used Harris Teeter's apricot pepper jelly/jam and a nice Southern pecan pepper jelly (just wish it had a little more heat but the pecans were a very nice touch).
6) Make ahead of time and put in the fridge covered. Pull out and pop straight into the oven. Puff pastry really puffs best after a slight chilling. (Minus the jelly)
7) Or make ahead (again minus the jelly) and freeze then pop out of the tins and put in ziplock bags. Presto - appetizers ready to go in minutes.

 
Marcona are a type of almond that I have been getting at Costco...

otherwise known as bitter almonds but only rarely do you get a bitter one and trust me, you WILL know when you got the really bitter ones - taste worse than any medicine I have ever tasted. But they are much cheaper there than most other places.

Only way I know to describe them is that they are sort of heart shaped and they remind me of a cross between and almond and a macadamia nut.

 
OH - can't believe I left off the pink peppercorn feta....

I had a block I had made for myself and vacuum sealed it and left it 'marinating' when I went to Austin so I added it to the table between the tenderloin/bacon tray and the desserts. It was fairly well received. The shocker was that my 15 year old daughter decided to try it even though she doesn't like feta and she LOVED it and had to take some of the leftover home. In fact, she made herself sick trying things that night. I couldn't believe it but she also tried the brie kisses after hearing everyone rave about them and loved them also. She's growning up in more ways than one.....

 
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