I like to write practical advice. But sometimes, aesthetics matter. My mother made a special pint of ensuring that the colors and textures of teach meal were harmonious. She also had all kinds of little tricks to lay out the food attractively. While I am much more laid back, I still use her tricks when guests come. You’ll rarely catch me serving food out of the storage container or package, even thought it means washing an extra bowl.

Let’s start with serving pieces. Since these are a popular hostess gift, you probably have a few. If not, keep your eye out in bazaars, garage sales and even grocery stores, which usually have a few pieces marked down. Look for a few matching finger bowls, or a platter with several small compartments. Then you can place salads or raw vegetables, sauces or olives in each of the bowls or compartments.

Choose the right size bowl for the amount or it will look skimpy. With small bowls you can offer a variety with less space, and fill as needed. If you are serving a crowd offer more than one bowl of each item. Also, place the food neatly into the bowl and mold it into shape if you can. Leaving scraps on the upper edges of the bowl is unattractive.

Garnishes

Decorate your food with a contrasting color, flavor or texture. Always use fresh and colorful ingredients or you will defeat the purpose. Avoid decorating with fish, meat or cheese as they will shorten the life of the garnished food.

Line your food with vegetables. For instance, place a few lettuce leaves on a plate and add cottage cheese, egg salad or tuna salad. Or cut off the top of a pepper and fill it with chumus. Other example are a scooped out loaf of bread for soup, or a watermelon rind for fruit salad.

Here are some items I often use for garnishing food, along with examples. But don’t be limited—use your imagination.

• Olives. Example: Tuna salad
• Pickle slices. Example: Potato salad.
• Nuts or seeds. Example: Paté.
• Ground spices.  Example: Paprika on egg salad or cream cheese.
• Grated or thinly sliced fresh vegetables. Example: Radish for a soup garnish. Also try carrots, tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, or kohlrabi.
• Olive oil. Example: Make a well in your chumus and pour in a teaspoon or two.
• Herbs.  Example: Chop and add to soup just before serving. Or use mint leaves for cooked fruit.
• Lemon or orange slices. Example: Tuna salad or a pitcher of water.

It’s a good idea to keep jars of olives, pickles, and chickpeas on hand in your pantry for unexpected company, along with seeds and nuts in the freezer. And I generally have carrots or citrus fruit available, since they keep fairly well. You can use them as garnishes, or serve them in a small bowl or plate alongside your cooked food.

If you want something a little extra you can try reader Miriam’s tip for making rose buds out of radishes: Cut off the point, make a few half cuts, like a hexagon, and put it in cold water (maybe with salt) to open up.

What are your favorite tips for serving food attractively?

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Tips to Stretch Food for  Unexpected Company

Refreshment Help for Hosts

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image: gamene

People today have less and less time to entertain. The thought of shopping, cooking  and getting your house ready for a crowd is daunting! And that’s without the clearing up afterward.

Pot luck might be the answer. You, the host, still have to organize the food and do the groundwork, but your guests do most of the cooking. And you get to taste some dishes that you wouldn’t try yourself.

Here are my favorite tips for organizing a pot-luck dinner or party:

1. Make it clear when you invite that this is a pot-luck event. People might resent getting asked for a contribution after they’ve already accepted the invitation.
2. Find out whether any of your guests have special dietary restrictions. It’s okay if they can’t eat every item, though. At least they’ll eat what they bring themselves!
3. Have a flexible menu plan in mind. For example, bread or rolls, appetizer, main course, starch, (or casseroles/quiches), salads, drinks and desserts. Reader Robin‘s potluck group chooses a theme, like Mexican cuisine.
4. Always give choices. People vary in how much time, talent and money they can put into a particular item. Some people might prefer to buy paper goods or drinks instead of cooking. And another friend might make that fancy Chinese dish you’ve been craving.
5. Each dish should provide 6-8 servings. If you have more guests than that, double or triple the number of people you ask to bring each item. Don’t make the mistake of the organizers of an after-dinner synagogue event I recently attended. They asked each couple to bring a fruit platter or a cake so most of the food was barely touched. They should have asked only half of the couples, saving the other half for next time. But as always when entertaining, it’s good to plan for more food than you think you’ll need (within reason!)
6. Prepare space for food on a buffet table. You should have some extra serving plates and utensils on hand. Put out the appetizers first, then the main course and salads, and finally the dessert. Set up drinks on a separate table. Prepare a station for coffee and tea as well.
7. Be in touch with everyone a day or two in advance. It gets really awkward when the person bringing the main course forgets to show up.
8. Taste everything and compliment your guests on their delicious cooking. If it’s not good, do like your mother told you and don’t say anything.
9. Ask people to take their leftovers home. If they offer to leave them with you (assuming you want them), make sure they take home their containers and utensils.
10. Have a garbage bag ready for cleanup. People will usually pitch in and help if you start before they go home.
11. If you have a good time, mention that you should all do this again soon. Hopefully someone else will offer to host!

Have you ever hosted  a pot-luck meal? Share your experiences in the comments!

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Universal Crustless Quiche (great recipe for bringing to a pot-luck event)

My post on whether vegetarians should notify hosts about their diet sparked an interesting discussion in the comments. And Miriam linked to a cartoon from the New Yorker, showing a Thanksgiving dinner where every guest follows a different diet.

I started to think about what I would serve were these my guests. Here are the diets:

• Macrobiotic
• Vegan
• Vegetarian
• Lactose Intolerant
• Can’t have salt
• Allergic to gluten
• Ultra-picky gourmet
• Strictly kosher
• On a cleanse
• Fanatic traditionalist

The first thing I would do is to find out how flexible they are about their diets. People who have high-blood pressure or are lactose-intolerant can usually handle a little salt or dairy, respectively. And as readers mentioned in the comments, not everyone who follows a particular diet sticks to it all the time.

Perhaps I’m used to food restrictions being kosher myself, but I wouldn’t find this group such a challenge.

The lactose intolerant, kosher, and vegetarian can eat anything strictly vegan. Macrobiotics are essentially vegans who also don’t eat potatoes, tomatoes, and a few other vegetables.  If you wanted to add turkey, you’d please the lactose intolerant, gluten-free and strict traditionalist—but kosher turkey would be a no-no for the salt-free since meat and poultry are salted in the process of making them kosher. And bread stuffing would be out for the gluten-free, although the traditionalist would especially enjoy it.

As for the ultra-picky gourmet, I wouldn’t try to accommodate him or her at all. People can be picky about all kinds of different things, and if they choose to criticize the cooking, they won’t be invited back. I have a soft spot for traditionalists, though.

I imagine that cleanse diets vary, but I’m going to assume that carrot juice is okay.

So my simple menu would include the following. I’ve noted who could eat each item.

Soup, a broth of root vegetables, herbs and quinoa. Everyone, I think, including perhaps the cleanser. But you’d have to remember not to add salt.

Turkey: Lactose intolerant, gluten-free, gourmet, kosher, traditionalist,

Carrot juice: Everyone!

Rice and beans, together or separately: Everyone but traditionalist, cleanser.

Whole-grain bread stuffing, if I were feeling daring. But I would keep it away from the turkey for the non-meat eaters: Everyone but the cleanser and possibly the gluten-free or macrobiotic guest, depending on the ingredients.

Roasted sweet potatoes with olive oil or another plain vegetable: Everyone except the cleanser

Macrobiotic salad (no tomatoes, peppers or avocados): Everyone except possibly the cleanser, as long as it had no wheat, barley or oats containing gluten.

Dessert: Choice of fruit salad and a tray of gluten-full brownies. Or I would ask a guest to bring something.

What did I tell you? Easy! As long as Thanksgiving doesn’t fall out on Passover next year.

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Egyptian Red Lentil Puree

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Chaya left this comment on my post When Hosting, How Much is Too Much?:

I am a vegetarian and often face a dilemma when I am invited out.  I don’t like to tell my host that I am vegetarian so as not to make them feel that they need to make something especially for me or change their whole menu to accommodate me.  After salad and side dish and bread, I am rarely hungry and I certainly won’t be malnourished from one meal.  However, hosts sometimes feel upset if you don’t tell them in advance and they have, for example, made a soup with a meat base or they went to great expense to buy an expensive cut of meat which they otherwise would not have purchased had they known.  Any thoughts on my dilemma?

Chaya,  I appreciate that you are flexible about the menu and don’t want to inconvenience your hosts. But the answer is clear. You should tell your hosts, as soon as you are invited. And this applies to any dietary restrictions, unless they are minor. I don’t mention my allergy to red food coloring and buckwheat. Even then it can be awkward when one of those items is served.

Letting your hosts know about your special diet gives them time to prepare, and more important, a chance to retract the invitation. Maybe they were planning to serve a one-dish meat stew, and they’d prefer to invite a vegetarian some other time. And your assumption that there will be suitable side dishes doesn’t always hold.

One guest called before the meal to let me know she was vegetarian, just as I was about to heat up the potatoes with the chicken. Thanks to the call, I served them separately. No big deal to me, but I needed to know. There were other non-meat foods at the meal, but this way the guest enjoyed the potatoes too.

I agree with your point about the special cut of meat. Quantity is an issue as well: Hosts buy meat according to the number of guests, and they may not have made enough salads to serve as a main course.

Guests with food restrictions need to be specific about what they will eat. Vegetarian, for example, can mean anything. One guest ate chicken soup, just not visible meat or poultry. Others won’t eat any food that’s had the slightest contact with an animal product. You can say that the host shouldn’t go out of his or her way, and you’re fine with bread and salads. This gives the hostess the choice. You don’t have to feel bad if she prepares tofu surprise in your honor.

I’m not such a sensitive hostess myself. I don’t worry much about my guests starving, and am not offended if someone passes up a dish or two. But no host likes to prepare a meal for a guest who can’t eat it.

Readers, have you had guests who failed to inform you about their special diets?

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Photo credit: fuzzcat

In the comments on my guest post on hosting a crowd at Habitza, I recalled a party I hosted for a newly married couple I hardly knew. Afterward, one of the single men who had been invited complained that guys get hungry, and we should have served more than a quarter of a chicken per person. He would have liked a second piece.

I still remember that exchange because it put me on the defensive. Hosts are sensitive. Here I helped plan and pay for this huge party, and that guy (who also didn’t know the young couple in question) should have been grateful to be invited.

Hosts have a responsibility to provide enough food and a pleasant atmosphere. But guests have an obligation as well–to be gracious and be satisfied (or to appear satisfied) with what is on offer. There are a lot of legitimate reasons that a host might be short on food: one of the dishes turned out to be inedible, extra guests showed up, poor estimation, or budgetary concerns. Most hosts do try to prevent running out of food, and don’t need a reminder that there wasn’t enough. I don’t remember the menu at that particular meal, except that we did estimate one quarter chicken per person as had been done in other communal meals I’d help organize. I still think that’s reasonable.

This raises an interesting issue about what hosts owe to guests. When we invite guests we go out of our way to serve a special meal. But how high a level is appropriate? I don’t feel that a host needs to anticipate a guest’s every need. If there is soup, mashed potatoes, bread and vegetables, along with a serving of meat or some other protein, hosts have done their duty. That’s how caterers and restaurants stay in business, and it’s okay for home cooks to do the same.

I’m *not* talking about serving tiny portions or counting out exact amounts. You don’t know whether you will have surprise guests, or someone will come extra hungry for some reason. Hosts can choose to be extra-generous, and Rachelle Isserow mentioned that she serves her male teenage guests red meat when they visit.The problem is when hosts feel obligated to live up to external standards.

I think it mainly depends on what you serve your own family. I only serve red meat a few times a year, so I’m not going to go out and buy it for male teenage guests. But if I am having guests for a holiday meal, I will serve the beef at that meal. Most family members eat less than a quarter chicken including the teenage boys, so estimating half a chicken for each guest is over the top to me. I do prepare extra courses and quantities for guests, but only up to a point.

Another reason not to go all out when you host is that it can place a burden on people in your community who want to reciprocate. You don’t want to host at standards lower than those of your friends and neighbors because it feels ungrateful, but you also don’t want to perpetuate an unrealistic, over-the-top style that makes you reluctant to host or for others to invite you back.

What do  you think? How much is too much when it comes to guests?

Related:
Tips on Stretching Food for Company

In this classic episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show, Mary throws a dinner party. Her obsessive-compulsive friend Sue-Ann offers to make dinner, but  prepares exactly six portions. Watch the first minute or two of the scene, when a guest takes more than his share.

Has you ever run out of food for your guests? As hosts, we have to balance preparing more than enough with having to throw out leftovers. And just like at Mary’s party, the unexpected can happen: Someone who offers to prepare food doesn’t bring enough, extra guests turn up, or one guest is unusually hungry. Maybe a dish you plan to serve gets ruined.

Here are some tips for when you realize that you may be short on food when company comes.

• Relax. Most of the time, hosts prepare more than enough food, and in the end there turns out to be plenty. Guests naturally take an appropriate amount—ones like Lou are rare.
• FHB. This stands for “Family Hold Back.” Politely inform family members to take a small portion or wait until everyone else has been served (good manners even when there is plenty, particularly for children).
• Bring out food from the pantry. You can make an excellent tuna, bean or corn salad from cans and a raw vegetable or two.
• Serve it yourself. Notice how, in the video, Mary offers the entire platter to Lou? She could have asked him to hold it, then served the portion directly to his plate. Or she could have filled the plates in the kitchen, like caterers often do.
• Cut portions small. This helps most when you have one item you are afraid will go fast.
• Distraction. If some of the serving platters get scraped clean, remove them from the table and pass around the rest. Or just move on to dessert, start a game, or ask a provocative question.

If you do run out of food, don’t apologize. Your guests are probably full, and may not have even noticed.

Food is only one part of entertaining. They key to good hosting is keeping a smile on your face even when things don’t go as planned.

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I often host clubs, committee meetings and speakers in my home. The standard refreshments in our community are bought or homemade cakes, soft drinks, bottled water, packaged  “snack” foods, fruit, and nuts. I prefer not to buy the prepared foods both because of health and cost. There are almost always leftovers, and I don’t want the family to eat them.

I happen to love potato chips and will eat them when offered. But I always regret it, and find I don’t sleep well after indulging.  I figure I’m not the only one who appreciates healthier options.

My other problem is that as much as I preach about planning, when I make my grocery list I usually forget I am hosting soon. So I get stuck either buying in a more expensive store or having to make do with what I have.

Necessity is the mother of invention so I’ve come up with options for refreshments from foods I usually have on hand.

Healthy suggestions for meeting refreshments:

• Homemade cake, cookies, or muffins.
• Popcorn. You can flavor it with grated cheese, hot pepper or other spices. Store raw kernels in the freezer. If you don’t have a popcorn maker, pop them in a saucepan with a cover. Avoid the microwave versions.
• Dried fruit.
• Sliced fresh fruit.
• Nuts or seeds. These can be kept in the freezer to have on hand.
• Cut-up vegetables. Serve with soft cheese, salad dressing, or chumus.

Drinks:

Regular readers won’t be surprised to learn I don’t buy bottled mineral water. It’s bad for the environment, and its quality is not regulated to the same degree. I don’t filter tap water, either. Some people don’t like the taste but I am used to it and even prefer it to Brita-filtered water. And the minerals in tap water are good for you.

I particularly dislike buying and serving diet drinks. For a short meeting (as opposed to a meal) most will be left and I don’t want  it in the house. I’ve been known to offer the remainder to guests who enjoy it.

If you do serve bottled drinks frequently, keep a supply on hand. They keep for months, if not longer.

In addition to, or instead of bottled drinks, you can serve:

• Tap water in a pitcher. Add slices of lemon or orange to make it more elegant.
• Fresh lemonade or orange juice. This requires squeezing a lot of fruit.
• Water flavored with a smaller amount of fresh juice. I see they even sell it that way now.
• Smoothies are a special treat. All you need is fresh or frozen fruit, ice cubes, and milk or yogurt.
• Coffee, tea, or cocoa.

I’m looking forward to hearing more ideas from readers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/little_yiye/ / CC BY 2.0

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Bar Mitzvah Menu Planning

Do You Admit to Guests that the Food Isn’t Great?

Simple Entertaining

Jonathan Bloom of Wasted Food was kind enough to post Be Thankful, Not Wasteful, with suggestions for avoiding Thanksgiving waste. Jonathan writes about news and public policy relating to food disposal. For instance, should children eat lunch before recess or after? They eat more afterward, yet most schools schedule recess after lunch. Or whether colleges should serve food on trays, which also results in more food getting thrown out.

I’m interested in the use of food and energy on the micro level, in the kitchen. This site is a tribute to my mother, an efficiency expert par excellence and a conservationist before her time.

You can explore the archives or categories from the drop-down box on the right. I’ve also picked out a few posts that I thought would appeal to Wasted Food readers:

Series on Feeding Babies Frugally

Do You Need a Second Freezer?

Pre-Leftovers and Rotating Food

Estimating Quantities

Nine Tips to Help Food Last Longer

Five Basic Recipes for the Food Processor

How I Made a Bar-Mitzvah for 35 Guests

Links for an Easy and Frugal Thanksgiving

Enjoy and  have a happy Thanksgiving!

We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving much in my part of the world, but I collected some links for the readers who do.

First of all, check out my guest post, Be Thankful, Not Wasteful this Thanksgiving, at the Wasted Food blog.

Here is more Thanksgiving reading:

Pioneer Woman’s Menu

Family Savings for Thanksgiving (Parent Squad)

Ten Tactics for a Cheaper (and Saner) Thanksgiving Dinner (The Simple Dollar)

Tofu-Free Vegetarian Main Dish (Blue Kitchen)

Thanksgiving Recipes I (Cheap Healthy Good)

Five Creative, Simple Ideas for Leftover Turkey (Wise Bread)

Allergen-Free Pumpkin Pie (Heart of Cooking)

Thirteen Tips to a Stress-Free Thanksgiving (Record on Line)

When Holiday Meals Go Wrong (Suburban Journal)

Consider a Lighter Thanksgiving Menu (Epicurious)

Make Safe Cooking a Priority this Thanksgiving (News Chief)

Enjoy and happy cooking!

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Feeding Babies Frugally, Part I of a four-part series

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Photo credit

Fancy Vegetable Platter

Photo from flickr by Neeta Lind

Reader Terry is making a Friday dairy buffet brunch for about 25 people in her friend’s home, for bar mitzvah guests coming in from out of town. She doesn’t want to duplicate the bagel and lox brunch planned for Sunday, and asked for ideas for items that can be cooked ahead of time.

First of all, this is a really thoughtful thing for Terry to have offered her  friend.

Here is my suggested menu plan. It involves a limited amount of items that Terry will have to prepare herself. She may want to enlist paid or volunteer help with preparing the vegetables.

• A double recipe of Marcy Goldman’s Quiche-In-A-Loaf. Rich with a lot of ingredients but festive and no need to roll out a crust. Make it on Thursday or even Wednesday and keep in the fridge. Then you can freeze any leftovers.
• Fresh crusty rolls or bread, crackers.
• Two vegetable platters.
• Two fruit platters.
• Pasta or quinoa salad, lasagna, or another starchy dish.
  
• Two to three spreads, like chumus, eggplant, egg or avocado salad.
• Cold and hot drinks.
• One or two cakes. They can be cut, frozen and defrosted the morning of the event.

If Terry isn’t on a tight budget, she could serve a cold whole salmon like I enjoyed at a bar mitzvah kiddush yesterday. No one will object even though lox will be served on Sunday. Another option is a platter of cheese or salted fish. Vegetable platters will be served Sunday too, presumably, but as they will be catered they will look different. I wouldn’t worry much about this, especially since you are first.

More tips for planning this event:

• Go over the general menu with your friend to avoid surprises, like a family member’s aversion to one of the items.
• Vegetable and fruit platters can be prepared the day before, fish even earlier.
• You can buy the spreads and cakes to save time.
• Order bread and rolls and arrange for pickup the morning of the event.  If this is impractical, buy (or bake) in advance and freeze.
• Place spreads other than avocado in serving bowls the day before.
• Prepare garnish like parsley, radishes, and olives in advance but decorate  platters and spreads just before serving.
• If you go with tossed salad, prepare (or buy) dressing in advance and use packaged, washed greens.
• Prepare and count out all serving and eating utensils in advance.
• Calculate your refrigerator and freezer space carefully.
• Calculate your oven and hotplate space for warming.
• Make a schedule reminding you when to put drinks in the refrigerator, pull out frozen items, and so on.
• Put whatever you can at your friend’s house in advance, and use her oven and refrigerator if available.
• Plan to set up food for easy access. With a big table buffet of 25 shouldn’t be hard to manage, especially if guests are not all eating at the same time. Place drinks and desserts on a separate table.
• Cut tomatoes don’t keep well overnight so skip them or use cherry tomatoes.

Do you have other ideas to help Terry’s event run smoothly?

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Estimating Quantities

Bar Mitzvah Menu for 35

Planning My Bar Mitzvah Weekend for 40 Guests

By the way I think we were 38 in the end!

Bar Mitzvah Menu Planning

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