baby shower

[teagal]

Am co- hosting a baby shower and the mother to be LOVES Pasta House's italian salad.

Wanting her to be happy I'm mulling over a menu to include this and wanting it to be sort of traditional-small town, no foodies, all ages present.

I'm much better at the tea party type so please comment if this sounds like it will do.

Assorted Salads:

The previously mentioned salad (iceberg lettuce, red onions, artichoke hearts, parmesan cheese, italian dressing), a 'fall' salad-lettuce, blue cheese, dried cran., apples, glazed pecans, a pasta salad with baked tomatoes-a riff off a recipe on Giada's TV show that I just saw this morning, I'm thinking more tomatoes than pasta, some type of melon salad tossed with lime juice and mint, (nothing too wild), and frosted (sugared) grapes.

Assorted rolls/mini sandwiches- with ham and salamis, maybe some with a pimento cheese spread

Different herb, etc. flavored mayos, mustards, and butters

I thought for a bunch of women a salad type meal would be ok-any comments?

[jgm]

I think you're probably on the right track. The key for an event like this, is to know your audience. Having several offerings would seem to assure that everyone will find something they can eat. It also lets you off the hook if someone insists there's nothing there they can eat. I learned the hard way, a couple of years ago, when doing once-a-month appetizers for a friend who owned her own business, that someone's always going to whine.

Let them whine and don't worry about it. They're not going to starve.

I suggest that you have the salads ready, and let them build their own sandwiches.

FYI an extremely successful party I helped throw, many years ago, was a fruit "fondue" bar. All kinds of fruit were cut into bite-sized pieces. We had a number of granular-type things, such as coconut, nuts, powdered sugar, chocolate shavings, etc., and dip-type things, such as sour cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, and actually about anything you can think of, and we allowed people to grab a toothpick and start composing their masterpieces. It was a great ice-breaker and people pigged out. A do-it-yourself combo of some sort, whether it's salad, sandwiches, fruit, or whatever, allows people to feel they have a lot of control over what they're eating, and that seems to make them happy.

[Little Colleen]

Sounds good to me! Just came from an event this afternoon in which one of the salads was watermelon & cucumber (more melon than cuke) with a balsalmic-type dressing that was very simple but sooo delicious. They also served bbq-d skewers of various meat & veg which were easy to make, serve and eat & pretty easy to please everyone with. Also fruit skewers, which is a heck of a lot easier to serve & eat than fruit salad but equally healthy & fast.

Instead of two "green" type salads, why not make one of them a lentil type or couscous/quinoa/wheatberry type? These all taste better when made the day before, which makes things easier for the host.

[Irenesh]

Ice cream scoops in a wine glass topped with assorted canned fruits make a great dessert. I would suggest a colored fruit punch as well - sky blue for a boy and bright pink for a girl. Good luck!

[teagal]

Thanks for the ideas. The lentil/couscous/quinoa salad suggestion would not work- they just don't eat like that around here. It has to have pretty familiar ingredients in a dish.

I do like the idea that a do it yourself gives one some control in what they're eating and I had never thought of it that way before.

Dessert will be a typical cake I'm sure. Can't go too far from tradition!

[Marmish]

I think that sounds good for what my friend and I call "Back Home Food" type shower. I might suggest chicken salad as a sandwich option, and rainbow sherbet with 7 Up makes a good "Back Home" punch.

[baroness]

I think that sounds good for what my friend and I call "Back Home Food" type shower.  I might suggest chicken salad as a sandwich option, and rainbow sherbet with 7 Up makes a good "Back Home" punch.

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Beware of brightly colored rainbow sherbet; when the colors start to mix the result is an unappetizing brown scum. My color theory education counsels that NO lime (green) will avoid this unfortunate result.

[prasantrin]

How do you feel about quiche to go along with sandwiches? You could make it as individual tartlets (if doing that, I'd probably buy tartlet shells). It just adds something a little different from sandwiches, and it still goes along well with salads. Plain cheese quiche tends to do well with provincial-types in my area. You could do half cheese, and half spinach and cheese for the more "adventurous" types.

And if you do individual tartlets, you can just freeze whatever is left for snacks later on!