Fandango Catering Offers Halloween Event Resources

Today we'd like to offer our readers some resources and ideas for Halloween events and parties, since Halloween is next week. 

There is so much info on the web for this, even if you just do a search with terms like "Halloween party ideas" or Halloween party food" or "Halloween party decorations."

Two resources that we particularly like are:

www.marthastewart.com/halloween

and

www.heb.com/halloween

We loved Martha Stewart's Halloween Handbook this year, BTW! Check it out for the coolest ideas.

Now, for those who would like to throw something together last minute for Halloween and have it be cool and Halloweeny and festive but not much work, here are some of our ideas:

Serve regional favorite hamburgers that you buy (like Whataburgers or In and Out Burgers), or ones from a good hamburger place you know--buy them and fries, or have someone bring them just before, then reheat in foil (take off any paper wrappings) in a low 250 oven for about 10-15 minutes or until hot, and serve on platters.  Easy, and it's a nostalgia/cult favorite thing, and fun.  And since it's not your cooking, who can criticize?

Accompany with Halloween desserts such as themed cupcakes (best quality, not from the grocery store unless it's an upscale market since they do desserts well) and your candy assortment.  Easy too!  Or serve orange sherbert with black Oreo cookies to keep the theme but have it be easy on you.

Finally, you can buy if so inclined a large plastic jack-o-lantern, and use as a beverage tub.

Decorate as much or as little as you want, and then enjoy your easy-to-do and fun gathering.

Warmly,

Kristina

Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
www.fandango-catering.com

Fandango Catering Offers 4 Fast Food Ideas for Fall Entertaining

If you'd like to host a fall gathering and are somewhat short on time, here are 4 food ideas that will help you entertain stylishly, but that don't take a lot of time.

Do a one-pot classic with salad and dessert--We like Grace Parisi's recipes in her article on New Comfort Classics in the Nov. 2012 issue of Food & Wine.  For more casual gatherings, the concept works well and isn't as much trouble as a starter, entree plus sides, then dessert.  Do a one-pot braise, stew, or soup and serve with a salad and dessert, and you're done.  Dishes like Parisi's Braised Chicken with Cilantro, Mint & Chiles or classics like goulash, paprikash, white or regular chili, minestrone or another hearty soup...Ideas for dishes like these abound in cookbooks or on the web.

Do a pressure cooker risotto--Same idea, but make a risotto with chicken or pork or beef or sausage the one-pot dish, with salad and dessert.  Kuhn Rikon's and other good pressure cookers can do risotto in around 7 minutes.  The work is in the prep; then just start the cooker and voilà! The finishing touch? Stir in Laughing Cow Cheese wedges, plain or flavored--no kidding! Easy and it really adds a master touch, a trick we learned a few years ago from a chef colleague.  The pressure cooker risotto concept is also great for casual gatherings.

Make crumbled cake balls--Fast cake balls, no baking in special molds! Crumble pieces of baked cake or even brownies in a bowl.  Mix with frosting, then roll out scoops of the mixture with an ice cream scoop.  Use a fork to dip cake balls into sprinkles or chocolate or other syrup, or drizzle syrup over cake balls.

Use chocolate spread as a dessert--We saw this in last month's F &W--Serve the new chocolate-cream cheese spread (or, our take, mix up your own with Nutella and cream cheese) and serve as a dessert course with the spread in ramkins or small dishes and a dipper like cookies, or even serve as a sort of pudding with spoons.  Decadent!

Warmly,

Kristina

Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
www.fandango-catering.com

Fandango Catering Offers 5 Tips for Serving Appetizers with Dinner

If you're thinking of serving appetizers with a dinner (at smaller events), here are 5 tips to make this go more smoothly. 

Choose 2, max 3 appetizers--Unless your main course is on the light side, 2 or max 3 appetizers should be more than enough.  Don't make the mistake of serving too many kinds of appetizers before a seated dinner or buffet then seated dinner; it's too much work and stress and your guests will be too full to enjoy the main course.

Choose appetizers based on doability--Don't stress and choose appetizers that can are good served room temperature rather than hot.  Many appetizers can be served this way, including all kinds of skewers, rollups, tartlets, pie or quichelike bites, and many others.  Look at cookbooks and on the web for ideas for cold appetizers.  And don't get overly ambitious--it's better to do something simpler well than to try something ambitious and not have it turn out as well.

 Offer a lovely cold board selection as an appetizer course--Cold cuts (charcuterie) and wonderful cheeses or cold boiled shrimp with a couple of interesting sauces or a nice antipasto are even easier than cooked appetizers, and are often served in Europe this way, as an appetizer course.  And it can be done buffet/self serve or passed style, or seated.  It's important to buy best quality, though.

Leave the appetizers on a side table or sideboard or bar--This way people can continue to enjoy them throughout the evening.  As your guests get up from the dinner table(s) and are lounging etc., they can continue nibbling from the appetizers if they wish, and we have often seen this to be the case.

Have enough plates--Be sure you have enough plates for all the courses you'll serve.  To be on the safe side have 1/3 to 1/4 as many plates as guests.  If you have 20 guests, have 20 + 7 or 5 extra for the appetizers, and so on for each course.  Unless your event is very informal AND the guests know that they are expected to reuse their plates, it's best to have extra plates.  Or use eco-disposables if the event is not overly formal--bamboo plates are lovely though more expensive, but bagasse is seen widely now in entertaining and is a less expensive disposable alternative that is still eco-friendly.

Warmly,

Kristina

Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 524-0077
www.fandango-catering.com  

Fandango Catering Offers 4 More Fall Entertaining Ideas

If you're looking for ideas for a fall gathering you're hosting or considering, today we offer 4 more ideas for creating successful fall events. 

Wine or other tastings--Tastings of wine, beer, cider, chocolate, or cheese are tremendous fun for guests.  Use a pairing idea--what cheeses or cold cuts or nuts go with what wines or with what fruit, for example.  Set up stations rather than having everything in one place--blind wine tastings are out and were boring anyway.  At each station have a different larger type of wine or whatever.  You can offer a self-guided tasting tour of the stations set up around your home, where guests stop at each station to sample.  There are all kinds of fun ideas for tastings--do a web search on "ideas for wine tastings." 

Fall sports-watching events--Here the key is to be unique! BHG has a great article this month on this type of event.  We especially like the idea of serving sandwiches and soup (sandwiches in kraft paper, soup in cups)--more original than the same old wings, pizza, or chili.

Outdoor brunch--Brunch time is so cool for outdoor entertaining in fall--lovely weather, and the time slot is great for people with kids or others who are REALLY busy on the weekends and can only spare a couple of hours mid-day to gather with friends.  And no late night cleanup!

Cocktail hour, also outdoors--People love these parties, which start at dusk, with finger foods, nice drinks, and lounging indoors and outside.  Relaxed and relaxing, and sure to be enjoyed by your guests.  Add ambience with little votives in holders all over, inside and outdoors, and turn all the lights on inside for light to spill outside too.

Warmly,

Kristina

Fandango Catering
(713) 522-0077
www.fandango-catering.com

Fandango Catering Offers 6 Fast, Cool Food Presentation Ideas

Since many people are now considering or planning a fall or later event, today we offer 6 fast, cool food presentation ideas.

Most everyone is pressed for time these days, and so a few ideas you can use or adapt to make your event better looking come in handy.

Here are some of our fast presentation ideas:

Use small bunches of grapes--Snip small bunches of grapes and put in corners of trays, or in two corners of a tray.  This should not take more than a couple of minutes, and it adds color and style to a food tray with only a little time spent and no special skills needed.  Even fancier? Use champagne grapes. 

Use dill sprigs or cut fresh chives--Put dill sprigs in the center of an hors d'oeuvres tray or on dinner serving bowls or platters (such as on top of mashed potatoes or a vegetable dish).  Or cut fresh chives and sprinkle them on top of the food and a bit on the serving piece on hors d'oeuvres trays, serving bowls, in chafing dishes, on soup glasses or mugs, or on plated food.  To cut chives, line up the strands, cut off the tips, and, using one hand to hold them down, cut across using the other hand--and you can even do this with a steak knife, you don't need a special knife.  Keep moving your hand as you cut, and don't rush so you won't get cut; it's much easier to cut chives than people think.

Use croutons or add-ins to decorate soup servings--Make or buy croutons and put them on top of your little soup cups or glasses (see above), or drop into plated soup bowls or larger mugs croutons, chopped chives, a bit of grated cheese, tiny soup crackers, a cooked shrimp, a bit of crabmeat, some tiny diced red pepper or tomato...Add color by using light or bright-colored croutons or add ins if the soup is dark (such as grated cheddar on a dark soup or a lovely pink shrimp on a red or cream-colored soup), or vice versa. 

Use grapes in a martini glass--Put green grapes in a martini or cocktail glass and let the bunches hang over the sides of the glass a bit (cut the bunch to size)--it looks mod and is easy to do! Then use this as a centerpiece for any display like hors d'oeuvres, cheese, fruit, sandwiches, mini desserts, etc. The glass should not be too tall or too short; you should be able to see it comfortably on the platter from several feet away.

Lay food out in circles--Almost any hors d'oeuvres, cheese, sandwiches, desserts, look good this way.  Creative? Pile a bit of food in a triangle/pyramid as a centerpiece.

Pile up certain foods--Some foods, like Caprese salads or fruit trays or other cold salads, look good piled up a bit.  The secret is to use a serving piece with a bit of sloping sides so that when the food is served it doesn't fall on the table, but instead falls back into the bowl.  Don't use a flat serving piece to pile up food, for this reason.

Warmly,

Kristina

Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
www.fandango-catering.com

Fandango Catering Offers Dessert Shot Ideas for Dinner and Cocktail Parties

One of the signature foods we're known for are our dessert shots, and today we offer several ideas to inspire you to serve dessert shots at your next dinner or cocktail party. 

Dessert shots are fun for guests as their small size is whimsical and, since the portions aren't too big, people eat them more readily than a large slice of a rich baked dessert.

Plus you can have all kinds of fun presenting them attractively.  AND, depending, on the recipe, they're doable even for those who don't cook or bake.

Below, ideas to get you started.

-The way to present dessert shots is to line them up on a (or as the) dessert buffet or on a tray (or both)--the number of little glasses is what's cool.

-Choose real glass (we buy schnaps glasses at IKEA) or now you can also buy elegant mod green plastic that's like acrylic from online suppliers like www.restaurantware.com in cool shapes like triangles, waves, boats, shells, round shot duo cups, parfaits, stars, square glasses...

-Try to make time to add a little garnish to each shot glass--As simple as a mint leaf, a bit of cocoa powder or powdered sugar sprinkled on top, a raspberry or blueberry, a strawberry slice or other small fruit that fits, a small cookie (such as a rolled profiterole) that fits

-If not a plated dinner (and even then, if you adjourn to another room or another part of the room for dessert), pass trays of dessert shots with little spoons (Restaurantware sells the cool green disposable ones), and people will gobble them up.  If you have no one to pass trays, arrange trays with the shot glasses in the room you adjourn to and people will still love them.

Here are some of our most popular dessert shots:

• Valencian dark chocolate mousse
• Bailey's tiramisú shots
• Bourbon cheesecake shots
• Ricotta-coffee mousse shots
• Cheesecake truffle shots

-Pressed for time and don't have a caterer or helper for your party? You can still serve dessert shots! Buy wide-mouthed shot glasses and cut up brownies or cake and ice cream to fit inside each glass and garnish.  Or another idea: soften cheesecake and ice cream and fold gently together, then spoon into shot glasses and garnish, or blend together until smooth, freeze, and garnish.  Or just serve great bought ice cream or gelato in shot glasses, with a garnish--the shot glass presentation will add style and fun!

Warmly,

Kristina

Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
www.fandango-catering.com

Fandango Catering Offers Fall Entertaining Ideas

Fall is one of our favorite times of the year, and it's wonderful for entertaining (actually, we like every season except deep winter; mercifully winter is short where we are).

It seems like people become energized in fall to host gatherings of every type--wine tastings, cocktail parties, dinners, not to mention fundraisers and tailgating.

Today we offer some ideas for fall entertaining.

Harvest--The harvest theme lends itself to so many cool interpretations.  It can be things like celebrating pumpkins or squashes or apples or fall festivals or fall arts offerings or fall sports, or it can be the wine harvest (vendange).  Seasonal produce lends itself to wonderful dishes like pork or beef loin with apples or pears in Calvados cream or rich gratins of potatoes or vegetables or both, plus lovely desserts usings the season's apples and pears or, in some areas, citrus fruits (in our area, satsumas).

Outdoor entertaining--Fall's cool weather inspires outdoor entertaining, from casual grilling to tailgating to more formal outdoor dinner parties.  More ideas? Block parties, Halloween parties, Thanksgiving dinner or post-dinner gatherings, interactive grilling parties where guests help grill (this is fun!).  So nice to be outdoors! During the day is often good for a fall outdoor event, and on a beautiful fall day, who wants to be inside?

Use fall in your decor--We love small white pumpkins for fall event decor, for example, lined up on a runner or mantel or as a display, or even the smallest ones as tray garnishes.  For color, we like burnt peach (not carrot orange), yellows, gold, or deep terracotta for fall events.  These say fall but aren't the stereotypical shades, and are softer, so more elegant and inviting.

Warmly,

Kristina

Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
www.fandango-catering.com