Great GetTogethers

by Marsha Clinton, Guest Blogger for Great GetTogethers

Just in time for Super Bowl parties, Marsha Clinton reveals her Top Twelve Tips for hosting large get-togethers.  Cooking for a crowd is nothing new to Marsha, who routinely entertains family and friends at her home (65 guests for Christmas dinner!).

Here’s what I consider my top twelve tips for serving a crowd. A typical Clinton gathering (birthday party, bridal shower) is 20 people and then Christmas morphs into something much larger. I’m not a fan of big-box-store prepared foods since I enjoy cooking, and want it to taste good not store bought.

1. Choose a Theme–Plan your menu carefully. I choose a theme or food style, whether it’s Southern, Cajun, TexMex, Italian, etc. It helps keep the menu cohesive, and you often use similar ingredients throughout the dishes.

2. Menu–Make sure a large portion of your menu can be prepared beforehand. You don’t want to miss your own party because you are stuck in the kitchen. Plus large quantities take more time to prepare so you cannot get it all done right before serving. I have two extra refrigerators plus an extra freezer where I can keep food. For Christmas, my porch is a good spot to keep things cool if it’s cold out. You can also ask your neighbors for refrigerator space if they are good friends.

3. Serving Dishes–I have a stash of large white platters and bowls. They can serve anything and they don’t clash with any of the other serving plates you may use.

4. Serving Utensils–I have collected large spoons and spatulas which are key to serving that large bowl of pasta, salad, or beans.

5. Plates–I have a lot of china which I use, but if it’s a summer gathering or a kids’ event, then I use paper plates. Pottery Barn has a great catering set of plates that I have on hand, plus I bought some plates at a restaurant supply store. You can get extra flatware at Target.

6. Chafing Dishes–Make the investment and buy heated serving trays. I have two large steam trays that are invaluable. The wire kind are cheaper but don’t hold as much and don’t last.

7. Buffet Style–Serve buffet style but plan out the format. I use the island in my kitchen for serving the buffet. I lay out the empty serving pieces ahead of time  so that I have the right utensils and spacing. It also helps if I make a list so that I don’t accidentally leave a dish in the fridge and forget to serve it to my guests.

8. Drinks and Appetizers–Set them up outside the kitchen. You can’t serve a large group if everyone is in the kitchen at the same time.

9. Sit-Down Dining For a Crowd–I set up some long folding tables and chairs, in addition to my kitchen and dining room tables. With a large group, they won’t all need to sit at the same time since the kids go through and finish quickly, and there are always adults who talk a while before they get around to eating. If it’s a lap-tray affair, I just make sure my menu doesn’t require cutting.

10. Shopping List–I use a grocery shopping app called Grocery IQ that’s a life saver. This way I combine all the items from the various recipes, and I’m not stuck running to the store at the last minute.

11. Don’t Forget–Stock up on cleaning supplies–paper towels, dish soap, garbage bags, aluminum foil, etc. Remember to empty your dishwasher ahead of time. Set up designated receptacles for trash and recyclables.

12. Have Fun! Enjoy the crowd. Enjoy the energy. Have a glass of wine.

If you need a good cookbook, I recommend Perfect Party Food by Diane Phillips because she always includes a do-ahead tip and the recipes have been great.

Marsha Clinton lives in Northern Virginia, where she enjoys taking care of her husband and four children, raising seeing eye dogs, and, of course, cooking and socializing. Thanks for sharing your expertise, Marsha.

Manage any event large or small with Great GetTogethers and Small GetTogethers, party planning notebooks that guide you effortless through each stage with easy-to-follow checklists and reminders.

That can only mean one thing: The Super Bowl is here. According to Good Morning America today, over one billion wings are consumed on Super Bowl Sunday. That’s “billion” with a “B.”

Good Morning America “Deals and Steals” is offering wing sauce from the original Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY, where wings began in 1964.

The Beer Cupcakes were also featured on the show this morning. Here’s a recipe for Blue Moon Cupcakes and another for Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.

P.S. I think I’ll drink my beer rather than cook with it, but let me know how these turn out!

Marna Krajeski is the author of Small GetTogethers: The Tiny but Terrific Party Planning Notebook and Great Get Togethers: A Planner, Organizer, and Keepsake for Memorable Events.

Read her blogs at GreatGetTogethers.com and HouseholdBaggage.com.

I thought this was a joke when I first heard it. A burger between two glazed donuts? It had to be a sarcastic take-off on deep fat fry cookery. Then I discovered it was a real Paula Deen dish. Here’s the recipe from her website. Conveniently, there’s no nutritional information listed.

But it’s so much worse than just a donut burger. It’s a burger AND a fried egg AND two slices of bacon between TWO glazed donuts.

She euphemistically calls it  ”Brunch.” You could also say it’s a homemade Egg Mc- Muffin with a side order of clogged arteries.

Once a year I’d go to the State Fair and order one of these fat- clotted delicacies and split it with my daughter. Call it part recreation, part sustenance. My seventeen year old son (the one with two hollow legs) would order one just for himself because when I showed him the picture last night he said, “That looks pretty good.”

Marna Krajeski is the author of Small GetTogethers: The Tiny but Terrific Party Planning Notebook and Great Get Togethers: A Planner, Organizer, and Keepsake for Memorable Events.

Read her blogs at GreatGetTogethers.com and HouseholdBaggage.com.

Recently I received an offer for the 75th Anniversary Edition of Joy of Cooking, that chatty bible/battle axe/encyclopedia which is synonymous with my mother’s kitchen. I tried to recall other vintage cookbooks from childhood, but there’s only one:  Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cook Book ©1965.

This isn’t our original one—it disintegrated from use or disappeared in a military move—but twelve years ago I discovered another copy at a used book sale and squealed with delight as it  transported me back to first grade.

The maniacally cheerful, white-aproned brother and sister team on the front cover were my kitchen companions. As the triumphant boy-chef held aloft his chocolate layer cake, the sister, tending to cheeseburgers, gazed in genuine admiration. Oh, the dizzying personal potential contained within these pages.

They’re a memory keeper of all the times my sister and I cooked “Silver Dollar Pancakes (p. 36) and the gimmicky Carrot Curls (p. 51). We thought Silhouette Sandwiches (p.40) made with white bread, bologna, and American cheese were the coolest thing. I loved the adorable Bunny Salad (p. 57) made with canned pears with cottage cheese for a tail and almond slices for ears. It was creativity in the kitchen to be sure. Some of the recipes are humorous now, to wit “Ham” Loaf Hawaiian (p. 68), or Spam embellished with pineapple rings. (This would later appear in White Trash Cookbooks as “Rack of Spam.”). The Polka-dotted Macaroni and Cheese (p. 72) was always a crowd-pleaser. For the piece de resistance, there was the Castle Cake (p. 101) or the ever-popular Drum Cake (p. 135).

Silhouette Sandwiches

This cookbook has the best meat loaf recipe. I still use it.

Sure, with its over-reliance on mixes and processed food, the recipes lack nutritional value by today’s standards. Since corned beef hash and Rice-a-roni served as the base of the food pyramid in our large family back then, we didn’t care.

Although we’ve progressed to whole foods obtained at the farmer’s market or grown in our backyard, I owe my love of food and cooking to the tutelage in this cheerful yellow primer.

(Marna Ashburn Krajeski is the author of Small GetTogethers and Great GetTogethers. She blogs at GreatGetTogethers.com and HouseholdBaggage.com.)

Bunny Salad

Castle Cake

Ham Loaf Hawaiian

I recently hosted my first bridal luncheon for my niece, Ashley. Since I’d never done it before, I searched online for guidance. I discovered that luncheons aren’t like showers where you play games and stick bows on the bride’s head. It’s mostly for female friends and family to spend some quality time with the bride before the big day. Still, I tried to add a little bit of structure to the luncheon, so here are my tips, suggestions, and lessons learned.

• Keep the numbers down. We invited 17 women and 13 attended. We all fit at one long table.
• Have some idea of a sequence of events, but keep it loosely structured with time for relaxed conversation.
• I coordinated with a restaurant and we narrowed the menu down to two entrees served with iced tea and dessert. This is the best way to do it, as it streamlines the logistics and simplifies ordering. The restaurant printed out custom menus and put them at each place setting.
• The purist in me prefers paper invitations, but this time I used www.Evite.com because the guests lived all over the country. The RSVP mechanism enabled me to have an up-to-the-minute guest count. I had to send one snail mail invitation because the grandmother didn’t have email
• Remember name tags for your guests. Not those awful adhesive ones but pretty pin-on badges you make ahead of time. Along with names, I put relation to the bride (aunt, bridesmaid, etc) and hometown.  You can also use these as place cards so guests know where to sit. (I recommend assigned seating.)
• Begin the luncheon by going around the table and asking everyone to introduce themselves, say something about themselves, and tell how they know the bride.
• After dessert, we did something very special for the bride. A few weeks earlier, I asked the the guests to bring a wedding-themed bead or charm for a Pandora bracelet. I presented the starter bracelet to Ashley, and then each woman gave her a wrapped gift containing one bead. By luncheon’s end, Ashley had an entire Pandora bracelet (something she’d wanted), and it turned out beautifully.
• Our gift had the additional benefit of generating lots of ribbon and bows for her rehearsal bouquet.
• Finally, to end the luncheon, I passed around a basket of party favors. They were small, flat beach rocks (in honor of her beach wedding) that my daughter and I had cleaned and painted in the wedding color (teal). On each one, we’d inscribed a word like “Trust,” “Laughter,” “Faith,” “Peace,” and other qualities of an enduring marriage. I asked that we go around the table and everyone say the word on their rock. Collectively it became a touching and heartfelt wedding blessing for Ashley and her groom.

Some guests were unclear if they had to pay for their lunch, but it was always my intention to foot the bill as the hostess. (That’s what aunties do!) I arranged for the server to bring the check to me discretely. Don’t let financial constraints stop you from giving a luncheon for the bride-to-be. If necessary, I could’ve asked my sisters or mother to help out, or we could have prepared and served the food ourselves at someone’s home. As with any entertaining endeavor, the important thing is not the opulence, but the intent in your heart.

(Marna Krajeski is the author of Small GetTogethers: The Tiny but Terrific Party Planning Notebook and Great GetTogethers: A Planner, Organizer, and Keepsake for Memorable Events. She blogs at GreatGetTogethers.com and HouseholdBaggage.com.)

After my last blog post, I got many emails   asking where I got my Wine Journal. The one I use is called Wines to Check Out: A Journal and Tasting Guide.

It’s available at Chronicle Books for $10.95. Follow this link for a special discount. Happy Wine Tasting!

“Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” Aristophanes

How many times have you stood in the wine aisle at the local liquor store and stared blankly at the shelves, totally perplexed at the selection and variety? Then you either ask the clerk for a recommendation or reach for an adequate, if uninspiring standard.

I’ve been keeping a wine journal for several years, and (when I remember to bring it with me), it’s an invaluable resource in this situation.

The 6.5×4.5 inch book has a page to record wines and even a pocket if you’re inclined to save labels. I note the name, vintage, varietal, and price of the wine I like. The space for “Tasting Notes” is where I record my candid and somewhat unschooled comments about the wine. They range from “Berry & cherry flavors really come through. Tasty. A keeper,” (about a Cabernet Sauvignon under $10) to “Never buy again. Blechhh!!!” (about a certain Shiraz).

When I told a friend about my wine journal, he said, “There’s an app for that.” On his Smart Phone, he brought up the application store with half a dozen apps to keep track of wines. Another ad hoc way to do this is to take pictures of wine labels and store them in your phone for reference.

Still, the purist in me prefers the stubby pencil method. I’m a note taker, and if that method appeals to you, there are several different wine journals on the market. Just type in the search terms “wine journal” or “wine log” at Amazon.com.

Then remember to bring it with you when you head off to buy wine! Read the rest of this entry »

“If I only had a year to live, I’d give a lot of dinner parties. They’re what life is about for me: good food and good conversation.”

—Laura Linney, American Actress

Fans of Great GetTogethers requested a party planning checklist for less complicated events, so I created a bite-sized companion.

Introducing Small GetTogethers, an organizer and journal for simple parties, dinners, or special occasions when “company’s coming.”

It has all the same features as Great GetTogethers in a handy booklet. Invites, menus, RSVP’s, supplies, groceries, and to-do items are captured and saved in a convenient format. There’s also a scheduler so you can pace yourself and check off tasks as they’re completed. Afterwards, record memories, expenses, and lessons learned to give yourself a head start next time.

The small size (5.5″x 7.5″) easily fits in your handbag while you run errands, or you can store it in the pocket of Great GetTogethers.

Economically priced at just $7.95 each, Small GetTogethers makes an excellent stocking stuffer, hostess gift, teacher present, or office gift exchange item. Stock up for the holidays!

You can also purchase Great GetTogethers and Small GetTogethers as a set at the special price of $25.40.

Find out more and place your order here.

Have a very special holiday season!

Today at work we had a Pie Tasting and Silent Auction. It was a great way to build esprit, get in the holiday spirit, and raise money for a worthy cause. All the funds collected went to the local food pantry and soup kitchen.

It goes like this: people volunteer to make two pies–one to cut up for samples, and one to auction off. At first this two-pie requirement stopped me, but I figured, once you’re making a pie, what’s the marginal effort to make one more? I volunteered to participate.

The recreation committee set up the pie tasting in the conference room. For $2 you could try all the pies and vote for your favorite. Around lunch-time, the employees strolled in to sample. There were ten pies, including two traditional apple, a Swedish apple, pumpkin, chocolate creme, sweet potato, and a chocolate, caramel-strawberry pie that was truly decadent.

Beside each pie was a silent auction sheet, and the bidding was Ebay-competitive. One co-worker confided that he was instructed by his wife to bring home three different pies for Thanksgiving. That’s a great way to get homemade pies without having to make them yourself. Store-bought pies can be so disappointing.

I’m not even sure who won the contest, but we had fun raising money for the food pantry. And tomorrow, some people are going to have mighty tasty pies on their Thanksgiving table.

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Marna Krajeski is the author of Great GetTogethers: A Party Planner, Organizer, and Keepsake and the upcoming Small GetTogethers, both available at www.GreatGetTogethers.com.