My Entertaining Season Begins

[maggiethecat]

Those Apple Charlottes look just beautiful, Marlene. (Well, everything does.) And I agree-- save the cheese course for another night. That dinner was one powerful blast of heavenly protein and starch!

(Gotta ask: the sauce looked good. Did it taste good? Only so much culinary help is available via AIM!)

[Marlene]

The popovers had blue cheese and thyme in them, no bacon. Next time, I'll definately use bacon, and probably a very sharp cheddar cheese. (And there were more than you see on the plate there)

The apple charlottes are wonderful. They are reasonably labour intensive, but because they can be fully made ahead of time and re warmed for service it wasn't so bad.

And maggie, the sauce was absolutely divine. Your advice and instruction was bang on. The only thing I added was add some port to the wine reduction. Everyone raved about it, and two of the wives said it was better than having gravy!

[Marlene]

We're ready to go tomorrow night. the rentals will arrive sometime this afternoon. The caterers are providing a chef, bartender and server. This is the final menu.

Cold Hor D'Oeuvres

Parmesan Rosemary Crackers with Herbed Cream Cheese

Mini Corn Muffins Stuffed with Turkey and Cranberry

Honey Mustard Chicken Pieces

Hot Hor D'Oeuvres

Beef satays with horseradish sauce

Bacon and Cheddar Mini Quiche

Mini Potato Pancakes

Salads

Tossed Garden Salad Three lettuces mixed with slivered red cabbage, cucumber, carrot & seasonal garnish, accompanied by our ranch dressing or honey Dijon

Entrees

Roast Prime Rib of Beef - Gorgeous prime rib cooked to medium and served with spicyhorseradish and pan gravy.

Roast Ontario Turkey - Whole turkeys roasted on our premises, freshly

carved and served to you with pan gravy, sage dressing and cranberry sauce.

Side Dishes

Romanoff Potatoes - a magnificent casserole of creamy potatoes, cheeses, scallions and sourcream

Glazed Carrots

Rice Pilaf - seasoned long grain rice mixed with diced vegetables and cooked in our chickenbroth

Deluxe Bread Assortment arranged in a basket with creamy butter on the side.

Desserts

Seasonal Finger Desserts

Gourmet Cheesetray - A Cheese platter with a touch of sophistication. The wedges of Canadian

and imported cheeses are elegantly presented with grape and seasonal fruit garnish and accompanied by toasts.

Fresh Brewed 100% Columbian Coffee -

Orange Pekoe Tea -

[Marlene]

All in all a successful event. The only thing I wouldn't order again from these caterers was the Turkey. It seemed to me to be more like Turkey roll, than roast Turkey. But, it was all good.

I did not take the pictures, so I apologize in advance if some of them aren't very good and also that we didn't get more close ups. But here they are:

Mini corn muffins with turkey and cranberry, parmesan rosemary crackers, and mini mustard chicken bites:

Mini potato pancakes, bacon cheddar quiche and beef satays:

The buffet set up:

The prime rib:

Desserts and cheeses:

I will definately use these caterers again. The price was right, the food was good and the staff were some of the friendliest yet most professional people I have ever dealt with.

[rjwong]

Full marks for those caterers, ehh? What was the favorite dish(es) of the evening? A round mirror for the cheese presentation? I've never seen that before.

How many more events to go, Marlene?

[Marlene]

I really liked the round mirror presentation. My favourites were the beef satays, the mini potatoe pancakes and the prime rib. Next year we are taking our own pictures.

We take a bit of a break now. Next Sat, we leave for a week's vacation then when we come back I've got a cocktail party to do here, and then we are entertaining people at a new restaurant in Toronto, Houston's I think.

(Of course tonight, I'm doing a family celebration in advance for my husband and son's birthdays)

Then it's the company Christmas party. In between I think we have three dinner parties at home, but they will be small in scale. Two are 4 people and one for 6.

Then of course Christmas!

[Malawry]

Nice. Did the caterers provide all that holiday decor for the table, or did you contribute some of it? Also, what's the stuff dolloped on the potato pancakes?

[Marlene]

The caterers provided the decorations. The dollop on the potato pancakes was a sour cream/fresh chive thing.

If you look back to Here

you can see the difference between last year's caterers and this year.

[Marlene]

We returned from vacation late last night and early this morning I shopped and started cooking for the cocktail party I'm throwing tonight. The only thing I can think of right now is "what the hell was I thinking, throwing a cocktail party the day after I get back from vacation?"

I'm keeping it to things I know how to make. So far I've made honey garlic meatballs, I've got oriental chicken wings marinading, garlic cheesecakes, cookie batter ready to be made, cheddar cheese tartlets and a 3 cheese cheeseball. I'm about to embark on beef rolls.

Whew.

[Lori in PA]

Ummm, how many guest do you expect? I feel for you no matter what the number...

[Jake]

Are you mad?!?!? Hope you enjoyed your vacation. I'm on a cooking strike today. Went to Ottawa over the weekend to visit and attend a turkey/ham buffet dinner for 50. The gentleman with whom we were visiting was supposed to be preparing all the food with 3 friends (one is a prof. chef). The guys all cancelled due to various emergencies. Our friend had no clue how to plan it out. Guess who cancelled her day at the spa and cooked 2 24 lb turkeys, 1 22 pound ham, potatos, dressing, gravy, carrots, beans, squash, broc. & cheese sauce, cranberry sauce etc? Yep, lucky me. To make it even more fun, I didn't have my knives with me (theirs suck) and they only had 3 pots! I had to send the SO out to buy more pots among other things. Our hostess mingled and drank wine and went to bed when the guests left leaving everything to us. Nice.

[Marlene]

Ummm, how many guest do you expect?  I feel for you no matter what the number...

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25 or so.

Are you mad?!?!?  Hope you enjoyed your vacation.  I'm on a cooking strike today.  Went to Ottawa over the weekend to visit and attend a turkey/ham buffet dinner for 50.  The gentleman with whom we were visiting was supposed to be preparing all the food with 3 friends (one is a prof. chef).  The guys all cancelled due to various emergencies.  Our friend had no clue how to plan it out.  Guess who cancelled her day at the spa and cooked 2 24 lb turkeys, 1 22 pound ham, potatos, dressing, gravy, carrots, beans, squash, broc. & cheese sauce, cranberry sauce etc?  Yep, lucky me.  To make it even more fun, I didn't have my knives with me (theirs suck) and they only had 3 pots!  I had to send the SO out to buy more pots among other things.  Our hostess mingled and drank wine and went to bed when the guests left leaving everything to us.  Nice.

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Quite mad in fact! I'm down to the wire now. The wings are in the oven, the meatballs are ready to be warmed and the beef rolls are ready for the que. In a few minutes I'll take the cheesecake and the cheeseball out and roll the ball in walnuts and spread the top of the cheesecake with garlic jelly. I've only had to change clothes three times so far!

[rjwong]

Should we send the RCMP to rescue you, Marlene? Perhaps Jake needs to be rescued more.

You did have time to take photos of your party, ehh?

BTW, whose idea was it in the first place to schedule a party the day after your vacation? A rhetorical question, if you wish ...

[Marlene]

No need for rescue. I managed to survive and take pictures. I must admit to it being my idea. Our council meeting is always the first Monday of the month. Traditionally the December meeting is a social for the Council and we usually go to a local pub. I made the mistake of offering to host the social at my house as I do every June for our last council meeting, and for some odd reason, Council thought that was a marvelous plan.

I had simply forgotten that we would only be returning the day before. Even at that it would have been ok, since we were supposed to be back here early afternoon. Then they changed our flight so we ended up arriving home at 11 at night, so I had no chance to do any prep. Here's the food from last night. I made quite a bit of it, but Council members did bring some dishes as well.

Getting the buffet ready:

The centrepiece. It's really hard to see, but all the little houses and things light up.

First, the food I made.

Garlic Peppercorn Cheesecake:

Pastries (ok, I didn't really make these. I got them from Costco and all I had to do was bake them)

Cheddar Cheese Tartlets:

Oriental Chicken Wings:

Three Cheese Cheeseball, rolled in crushed walnuts:

Honey Garlic meatballs:

Beef Rolls with soy scallion dipping sauce:

A selection of chocolates (no, I didn't make these either)

Other foods that people brought included:

Brie and crackers:

Cheese rolls and salsa:

Perogies. (someone called this by a Jewish name, but I can't remember what it was)

I'm not positive what this is, since I didn't have any, but it looks to be another cheese dish of some sort.

Cookies:

Monkey bread done in mini bundt pans:

And a couple of pies.:

Someone made a pinapple cheese cake, but I never did get a picture of it.

There was certainly enough food and I'll be spending my morning cleaning up.

We are taking people out to dinner at Ruths Chris this weekend, then the following weekend, my MIL and SIL arrive for a few days, so I'll be doing a full blown turkey dinner on the Sunday.

[Jake]

Looks great, Marlene. What do you marinate your beef roll-ups in? What cut of beef are you using?

[Marlene]

The beef rolls are dipped in a soy/brown sugar mixture. I use beef tenderloin, sliced in 1/4 inch strips then pounded. Then I place matchsticks of green, yellow and red peppers and green onions and roll them up. I make this ahead up until this point and refridgerate until I want to serve. 3- 4 minutes on the grill and they're ready.

The recipe comes from Martha Stewart's Hor's D'ouvres handbook

[H. du Bois]

Dear Marlene,

I'm a newcomer who is wending my way about the site, and I stumbled across this thread after having just read your tag-team blog with slkinsey. I'd like to say that: a) your food looks so delicious and beautiful; and b) it seems like there's always a party at your house!

How often do you entertain? Your guests must love you!

Ellen

[Marlene]

Dear Marlene,

I'm a newcomer who is wending my way about the site, and I stumbled across this thread after having just read your tag-team blog with slkinsey.  I'd like to say that:  a) your food looks so delicious and beautiful; and b) it seems like there's always a party at your house! 

How often do you entertain?  Your guests must love you!

Ellen

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Welcome! It does sort of seem that way doesn't it? This is a heavy time of year for me for entertaining, although I do entertain frequently throughout the year. As the owner of a business I have clients to entertain and I'm also a corporate wife and my husband has partners and clients to entertain. When we aren't in the festive season I probably entertain at home every other weekend and we take people out once or twice a month. By the time New Year's Day comes, I'm pretty much ready to stop cooking for a while!

[H. du Bois]

Goodness me, you must have lots of stamina! I wish you a delicious and glitch-free entertaining season, followed by a lengthy vacation somewhere warm (where you should be waited upon hand and foot!).

Ellen

[Marlene]

I entertained on my own tonight, since my husband is travelling. It's a lot harder to do this without someone to help you! Fortunately, (especially given the way at least one dish turned out) they are all friends and love to experiment with me when I try new stuff.

Most of the stuff I did tonight I've done before, with the exception of the roasted green beans (we'll get to them later). I had intended to do brie bites with cranberry in phyllo purses, but I ran out of time. No problem, I'll just fall back on the brie in puff pastry. Great.

Oops. The puff pastry was frozen. I hadn't taken it out, not realizing I'd need it. Ok, into the microwave for 30 seconds and then place on warm counter. The edges were still a bit frozen when I wrapped the brie, but it seemed to turn out well:

I'd also made Tortilla Crisps which are highly addictive:

Mains were Roast Pork, Mashed Potatoes and gravy and um, roasted green beans. Well, we were supposed to have roasted green beans. Unforunately, they turned into desicated green beans. I did not serve these, but I'll show them for your amusement:

However, the rest of the meal turned out splendidly. (sorry, I'm still learning how to use this new camera, so some of these are worse than my usual picture taking.)

Roast Pork:

Mashed and Gravy

I made a small loaf of bread in my Just for Dinner mini bread maker:

And dinner was capped off by creme brulee. When my guests saw me torching the first one, they all wanted to torch their own, so I let them.

All in all a fun night although I had to juggle the timing more since I was doing it on my own. Tomorrow night, Ruth's Chris.

[ruthcooks]

Marlene, instead of purses for your Brie and cranberry bites, next time you could try the little phyllo tart shells. I use them for all sorts of things.

[Marlene]

That's a neat idea! Could you elaborate on the tart shells? How many layers etc?

[ruthcooks]

I buy them frozen in packages of 15! Reheat at 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes after filling.

[Anna N]

...

Well, we were supposed to have roasted green beans.  Unforunately, they turned into desicated green beans.  I did not serve these, but I'll show them for your amusement:

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Marlene,

I have become totally addicted to roasted green beans. I even make them as a snack and eat them with my fingers, like pretzels. I got the recipe from a recent issue of Cooking Light - here it is adapted from the original:

Put a baking sheet in the oven and preheat oven and sheet at 425F.

Use many fresh green beans as you need but that will fit in a single layer on whatever baking sheet or pan you are using. Toss beans with enough olive or vegetable oil to just coat each one. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Toss the oiled beans onto the hot baking sheet (they should sizzle immediately) and roast for 3 minutes. Toss the beans around and roast for another 4 minutes or until crisp-tender. So easy and so good. When I do them for a snack in the toaster oven, I reduce the heat to 400F.

[daniellewiley]

I buy them frozen in packages of 15!  Reheat at 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes after filling.

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I've used these very successfully too! They are great filled with a cream cheese/spinach/artichoke mixture.