Shoes and Rainy or Snowy Weather

You’ve invited 30 guests over for an indoor party and it has been snowing all day. You’ve just cleaned the carpets and mopped the floors. Wet snow covered floors (from guests shoes) not only look dirty, but they can be dangerous causing slip hazards. What can you do?

We had a party like that a week ago. One family that arrived had the foresight to bring slippers to change into after arriving. They brought the comfort of home with them. Great idea!

We have been to parties like this before where some guests take off their shoes and walk around in socks, but others keep their shoes on. It’s no fun to step in a cold wet puddle of melted snow from the linoleum or tile in your socks, brrrr.

If you can afford to, you can even buy slippers in bulk and offer them as a party favor.

Keeping Cold Foods Cold in the Summer Heat

The good

The day of our graduation party was one of the hotter days of summer with very high humidity. We were fortunate to try out the inflatable salad bar my wife received as a birthday gift. What a great idea!

Just before the guests arrived we filled it with a few jumbo bags of ice and used it to keep the pasta salad, bottled water, ketchup, mustard, onions and cheddar cheese for the chili dogs cold.

The not as good

The food was served outside in our garage and we used steam pans to keep the chili, hot dogs, and pulled pork barbeque hot. The open flame from the sterno cans didn’t help keeping the garage at a comfortable temperature on that hot, humid day. We used a small fan to help keep air circulating, but in the future, I would consider using crock pots instead and having more than one fan running.

We had far too much beer left after the party which you will see came in handy at a friend’s party the following day.

Outdoor Summer Parties and Mosquitoes

We attended a fairly large graduation party(estimated 600-800 guests) for four high school graduates. The party was well planned and executed considering a violent thunderstorm  passed through half way through the party.

The party started at 6:00pm on a Friday evening. A police officer was directing traffic into a well marked grass parking area. A couple high schooler’s were directing the parking as you would experience at a rural summer or county fair. It removed any confusion from the parking process and left party-goers with a great first impression.

There was an ample supply of aerosol mosquito repellant located on tables throughout the outdoor area. Considering the balmy 86 degrees, high humidity, and close proximity to a heavily wooded area, mosquitoes could have proven to be a mass of unwelcome guests. The party planner’s attention to that detail was appreciated.

The party was a dry party (no alcohol), which was probably a smart decision considering the estimated number of attendees.

There were a lot of activities for the kids – basketball, “corn hole”, Frisbee, etc.

The main entree’s appeared to be catered with a few professionals doing the serving and refilling of the buffet. That took a substantial amount of burden off the parents so they could focus on the guests. If your party budget supports it, dedicated servers or helpers improve the party experience for everyone.

The party location had a large garage area with room for all the guests when the thunderstorm rolled though. The house was big enough to accommodate the group as well in the event of high winds or the threat of a tornado.

Highlights

• Mosquito repellent
• Catered with servers
• Parking assistance
• Large indoor and outdoor spaces

Summer Party Fun

Last weekend was the start of a long summer of parties beginning with Memorial Day - through a swarm of High School graduation parties, ending with a Fish Fry fresh from the clear waters of Canada.

We attended an annual Memorial Day party, two planned get togethers with friends, and one spontaneous get together following one of the other planned get togethers.

The Memorial Day party had three distinct nice to haves:

1. Kegerator which made it easy to refill satellite tables of socializing with one hand and minimal disruption via a pitcher.
2. A semi-professional photographer was capturing moments for posterity including a large group photo.
3. Someone thought to have a cheese platter and other nibbles for later in the evening - long after our lunch pig-out subsided

One of the planned get-togethers was after going out to eat with the same group at a local restaraunt. Prior to dinner our hosts had a fire in their fire pit that they let burn down. When we arrived, they simply dropped a few logs on the smoldering embers and it blazed right up into a nice campfire with no effort. I'm not sure if that was planned, but it was definately effective. I will add that to my list of deliberate preparation plans for an outdoor party.

Chorizo Quesadilla Cone Failure

A story about three botched attempts at a hot appetizer using Chorizo (Mexican, not Spanish Chorizo – yes there is a difference).

Background

A long time ago at a Whirlpool training center in Brandywine Creek, Michigan, the five star chef served some kind of quesadilla in a fried cone. It was so delicious, I have been on a quest to create my own version. Before this year I had been making a version I call Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla Cones - which have a story of their own.

This year I wanted to try something different with Chorizo and Chihuahua cheese. The cones work best with small tortillas so the filling to shell ratio is acceptable. At the store, I just picked up the first pack of tortillas that looked small enough. When I got home and realized that I picked up corn tortillas instead of flour, I new I would be faced with some challenges on this appetizer.

Attempt 1

I rolled the half tortilla as I have done in the past (with the flour tortillas) and before I could secure with the toothpick, the tortillas tore in several places and fell apart. Cone failure. I needed a different process.

Attempt 2

Since corn tortillas are more brittle than flour, I thought…. I could flash heat them in a pan of hot Crisco to make them more pliable. It worked through the cone fabrication process. I baked the cone shells at 400 degrees for 13 minutes or so to set the shell so they could be filled without tearing. Unfortunately when they came out of the oven, they were torn near the toothpick leaving a big gaping opening in the side of almost half the cones. Cone failure. Time for a recipe change.

Attempt 3

I decided to make a hot dip instead of the cones. I happened to have seen a recipe that used all the same ingredients I planned to use in the cone filling. I mixed up the filling, which was little more than Chihuahua cheese, Chorizo sausage, and a mixture of sautéed red and green peppers, onion, garlic, and cayenne pepper. I put the dip in a third size disposable steam pan tray and popped it in the oven to get the cheese melting started. When I took the aluminum tray lid off to stir the mixture, the grease from the Chorizo had accumulated at the top of the dip. It didn’t look very appetizing, but it tasted awesome. I wouldn’t call this try a failure, because it tasted great, but it suffered from “judging a book by its cover” syndrome.

Recipe – Hawaiian Hot Dogs

Ingredients

• two packages hot dogs (thinnest you can find)
• can crushed pineapple
• barbeque sauce (We use Sweet Baby Ray’s)
• 1-2 pounds bacon depending on thickness (thinner is better)
• toothpicks

Directions

We used to use the mini cocktail franks, but for the last two years we haven’t been able to find them anymore so we just use regular hot dogs now.

Cut the hot dogs into thirds to make really short hot dogs. Cut a slit lengthwise in the hot dog, taking care not to cut all the way through the hot dog. Fill the slit with drained crushed pineapple.

Cut the bacon in half. Wrap a half slice of bacon around the  hot dog. Secure with a tooth pick. To make ahead, you can bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, turning once. After they cool, I remove the toothpick from each hot dog, the bacon will hold everything in place now. Refrigerate or freeze until before the event. The pre-baking step will cook off most of the bacon fat which will make cleanup the day of the event easier.

The day of the event you can pop these back in the oven until the bacon is cooked, slather with barbeque sauce and bake an additional 10-15 minutes.

Advantages

• Kids and adults love them
• they are a very robust appetizer – they can be in a hot steam pan for several hours and still taste great
• They can be made ahead and heated before the party

Disadvantages

They are a little tedious and time consuming to make (by my standards), but did I mention they can be made ahead and frozen?

Disposable steam pan trays have hidden utility

This was the first New Year’s Eve party where I used disposable aluminum trays in the steam pans. Everyone knows about how convenient they are for clean up, but I discovered another advantage after the party was over. Because the third size trays I used in my deep pans didn’t touch the bottom, the food wasn’t subjected to as much heat. The meatballs were still in good edible condition at 2:00 in the morning. At the end of the night in previous years, the meatballs were not so appetizing or some of the barbeque sauce or food might be burnt to the bottom of the stainless steel pans.