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

Oh my gosh, MCM...

The food looks absolutely fantastic. Gorgeous presentaions and food looks so tempting. I especially loved your antipasto presentation and your gladiolas in the glass hurricane vases are stunning! I am totally impressed with your menu and your presentations. Well done Missy!

 
Wow, now we know why no one wanted to leave the table. I'm getting a lot of ideas here.

 
One of the main faults with the presentation was that I forgot...

to bring everything with me from home such as blocks to raise up some things, tools to really make nice garnishes, etc. And it started pouring as I was loading up so I took only the dishes I thought I needed and some other dishes would have worked better when I started laying it out.

So one big tip is to make sure you have some blocks of good styrofoam or wood and plenty of napkins or fabric so you can get some additional heights going.

 
It's hard to describe but a totally different flavor and texture....

but I just serve them straight out of the can - they are salted - they aren't greasy but I know they have been toasted but it's not like the typical roasted or dry roasted. Very good. If you don't have a Costco near you, let me know and I'll send you some.

 
Definitely - and I go from course to fine grind to get a nice variety of

textures and such and I use slightly more pepper than the recipe calls for and I like to use kosher salt - again for some texture - either that or a medium grain sea salt.

 
sounds so wonderful, and I

think all the planning and analysis you're doing now will really pay off later. One suggestion, I don't quite have an idea of the space, but you mentioned gettting people out to the pool area, have you considered setting the bar up in that area? That will definitely get people flowing that direction.

The food sounds wonderful. You never know what a crowd will do, but all of your planning and testing will certainly help anticipate the unexpected.

 
That was the original plan until it stormed then once he set up the bar in the bar area

he didn't want to go through with moving it all outside. And his bar area is just a little pass through between the two rooms right at the end of the table where the poppy seed ham rolls and shrimp were sitting.

Saturday we walked through the house discussing set up of future parties. If weather is good - bar goes outside at the pool end of the house. If the weather is bad - we came up with two alternate locations - the living room at the front of the house and opposite the dining room off the foyer and the 'den' which is 'behind' the living room and off the back end of the foyer towards the door to the garden.

I'll have to get pix of this house - it's great with wonderful areas but they are so poorly connected that it makes circulation a big problem for everything.

 
I'll look for them! I'm one of the lucky ones... a Costco AND a Trader Joes smileys/smile.gif Thanks!

 
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