A very important part of a party: food

After eating ourselves through the potential food I can honestly say that we're serving bulk food. The bean gumbo in itself would be enough, but we're also having vegetarian burritos, corn dogs and corn cobs. On top of that it's rocky road. You don't need much to get full. It's good though. Food should not only taste well, but no one should leave a table still hungry.

From the start we had decided on beer, but it's so much trouble with beer. You need so much and somewhere to cool it and it turned out both expensive and difficult to store cold during a party. Wine is easier that way. We're having one simple red and one white, both in bag-in-boxes. Right after the ceremony we're having a jug drink with white sweet sparkling, cranberry juice and Cointreau. It's a lovely raspberry red drink with a cosmopolitan feeling to it, albeit more laid back.

There will be drinks for those who don't drink alcohol. After the ceremony I thought a fitting substitute would be sprite, cranberry juice and some lemon. As for dinner drinks, I'm not sure. We really should have Coca Cola considering the theme, but I suspect Darling won't approve. We'll see. Water must be available at all times of course. You shouldn't have to drink alcohol or soft drinks to quell thirst.

Back to the food

I have worked on the menu some and cooked one course. I found a vegetable gumbo with rice that sounded tasty and tried that one. After tweaking the recipe some I must say that it's a winner. Problem though is that okra isn't easy to get hold of here. They're not spectacular in any way and I don't need it to thicken the gumbo so I could leave it out. The thing that gives it the gumbo taste is the roux after all. IMO anyway. We'll see what I end up doing.

We're still having the corn cobs and the corndogs, though I haven't made a trial of those yet. I've caught a cold and cooking isn't a high priority right now. The rocky road is still on. However, I kind of want something more for variation. American food is generally not very vegetarian oriented, it's basically all about meat, meat, meat and some seafood every now and then. However, it's a different story south of the Rio Grande. Burritos? I think so. It's something people eat all over the South too, though it's imported from Mexico.

Tortillas are again easy to make and keep in the freezer. They cost very little when you make them yourself too. Fried potatoes with a chilli sauce, tomato and onion salsa, guacamole, cucumber sticks and kidney bean salsa were the things I was thinking about having to fill the tortilla bread with. In the gumbo we have black beans so I'm trying to vary the bean assortment here. The one thing that has to be made the same day is the fried potatoes, but that something anyone could do. The other things even get better if they're kept cold over night. Well, the cucumber is best cut up the same day too. I think this will have to do actually.

Original gumbo recipe can be found at Meatlessmonday.com

Food

Eating is a huge part of any party of this kind. Of course we're self catering. Again, planning is everything. I know that for a proper sit down dinner you need, even if you've got some serious mice en place and simple courses, at least one (1) in a kitchen. Preferably a kitchen with plenty of counter space and a large hot air oven. You also need at least two (2) carrying plates, and this is if they're skilled. Having teens wanting to earn some extra cash and you need four (4) for this to not capsize. It's not going to happen. Sit down dinners also tend to be more formal and stiff, and I'm not having that. So some kind of buffet style kind of food it is.

Many are vegetarians among our friends so to make it easier, having vegetarian with meat add ons for those who wish, is what seems to be the most practical thing to do. Some kind of bean stew as the main attraction is simple and easy to prepare and cook. I think corn cob is tasty (well we all do) and it's that time of the year as well, so we'll have that too. Bread naturally. The meat? I'd really want to try and make corndogs and see if that's ok. It's not exactly fancy food, but neither is a bean stew, so I think they'd compliment each other well. And if anything, those are all southern foods, so we're sticking to the theme here. My main goal is for people to be full when they leave the table and I think they will be with this kind of food.

Cake? Nope. Cupcakes? Never. Too much work and difficult to deal with if we get the typical hot August weather. No, I want rocky road. Plain and simple. Easy to make, easy to keep in the freezer and whip out and let them thaw in a cool place the day before and cut them up and put on trays. This anyone can do. And it is possible to have a topper on a mountain of rocky road too, though I haven't decided if we should have one.


This pretty picture comes from Nigella Lawson's Christmas cookbook and it illustrates just how cute rocky road can be. Though I'd not have deer and spruce trees of course.