Premade For Parties

Premade for Parties. The longer version of this title would go something like this: If you are planning a large party, with a large number of people no where near what you are used to feeding on a daily basis, and you are working out of your home kitchen, which likely has limited oven, stove, and fridge space, you do not need to make everything from scratch. Potlucks are always a good option, or even if you just get a few contributed dishes or ask people to bring rolls, vegetable trays or chips. If potluck is not your style of choice, and you prefer to cook yourself, please follow this advice.

Do not try to make every single little thing from scratch yourself. You are likely working with a standard house-sized oven, stove, refrigerator, and freezer. You likely do not have an entire team of sous chefs at your service to help you, and if you did, you probably would not have enough room in your kitchen. You probably have other things to do to prepare for the party as well, such as cleaning, decorating, set-up, etc. You likely want to join the party, not spend the duration of it in your kitchen. And finally, you likely want to serve fresh food, not old stale food made too far in advance because you didn't have enough time to do everything the day of or day before. I am not against preparing in advance here, but you can only do so much early when it comes to food. 

For our party, we are skipping homemade appetizers and focusing on main courses. This allows us to offer a wider variety of foods at the actual meal, and ensures guests will save room for the meal and dessert. We will be serving some chips, crackers, and fruit and vegetables. However, we are not wasting time making homemade crackers, when we need the time and oven space for the meatballs. Likewise, we are purchasing rolls, not making them. Usually I am all for homemade  but you can only do so much yourself, and I admit part of one of the desserts begins with a purchased item. Also, do not bother with fancy silverware and plates - go paper or plastic! Maybe a little environmentally unfriendly, but buy biodegradable plates and napkins and save water by using plastic cutlery. It will save a lot of clean-up, as you'll likely have enough with all of the dishes to wash!

Graduation Party Planning

For the past few weeks our family has been in the midst of planning a graduation party for my brother. We have been thinking about it for over months now, but in the past week or so we have begun to finalize details and really plan everything out. The majority of the planning is, of course, food. We are planning to have quite the crowd here which requires quite the amount of food. And since it is a party we are hosting, we did not think potluck was the way to go in this case, although several of the guests are planning on bringing a dish to serve as well. When planning a menu for an event like this, many variables need to be taken into consideration. These include number of guests, oven space, fridge space, season, dietary needs, preparation time, etc. We have already made several changes to the menu, but we think we have it pretty well finalized. My mother put me in charge of three desserts, as well as one vegetarian main course. Instead of making a bunch of fancy appetizers, we are simply serving some snack items from the store, so attention can be focused on the mains and the desserts. We are trying to do as much ahead as we can, but many things do need to be completed at the last minute. so far, here is the menu we have come up with.

Appetizers: Fresh fruit, crackers, chips, chocolates. 
Main Courses: Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Pineapple Chicken, Baked Ham, Deluxe Rotini and Cheese, Vegetable Quiche.
Side Dishes: White Rice, Macaroni Salad, Rolls.
Desserts: Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Brownie Bites, Cherry Coconut Squares, Shortbread Cookies.
Contributed Dishes: Salad, Vegetable Tray Egg Rolls, Appetizer Assortment.

I don't want to give too much away by giving away details of the dishes (especially the desserts) but over the next two weeks or so, I will be featuring every one of these dishes that has not already been featured before, so check back for all of the details and pictures!