FANDANGO Catering Offers Late Summer Event Ideas

FANDANGO Catering offers four ideas for your late summer and early fall events that will impress your guests.

Late summer and early fall gatherings are a great time to use some beautiful and simple ideas for your events to distinguish them from spring and early summer events. The weather is still warm but in late summer and early fall there is a different feel in the air, and your events should reflect that.

Whereas spring and early summer events are perfect for pastels or brights or both, late summer and early fall calls for something a little different but that still feels "summery."
Good options are to combine either one pale color with one stronger color or to stick to a medium color. For example:

• Pale yellow or pale dove gray with deep red or burgundy accents (runners, napkins, etc.)
• Pale dove gray with medium green accents
• Pale green or pale blue with gold or deeper green or deeper blue accents
• Terra cotta with pale yellow

Serve a "bridge" cocktail such as a cranberry juice/champagne punch or a mimosa with grenadine or cranberry juice (just a dash, and it makes the mimosa a beautiful deep blush color)

Serve some hot and some cold hors d'oeuvres rather than all cold food

Try some organic greenery on tables, mantels, columns, or chandeliers, or mix flowers and greenery of the season. Good flower colors for late summer and early fall are white or medium-colored flowers or deep colored (or a mix of white and medium or deeper colors). If you have leftover flowers please take them to a hospital, nursing home, or shelter to brighten up the residents' day!

Enjoy!

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.
Partner, Director of Sales & Operations
FANDANGO Catering
(281) 796-9841

FANDANGO Catering Offers Summer Entertaining Ideas for the Guest-Challenged

At FANDANGO Catering we hear over and over, "I'd love to entertain but I don't know how and it's too much work." Here are 4 of our easiest summer entertaining ideas for the guest-challenged.

Dessert-only gatherings: Buy a dessert from an excellent pastry shop or restaurant where you've had the desserts and serve with a trio of best-quality ice creams or gelatos and maybe some gourmet cookies on the side.

European-style cold cuts spread--Buy imported cold cuts and cheeses to make a European-style cold board and pair it with wines (ask your wine store for recommendations). Prosciutto or Jamón serrano, speck, mortadella, capicola, sorpessata, salami; and a Swiss-type cheese, a good Cheddar, a Munster or other soft buttery cheese, and a goat cheese if you like goat cheese--and you're set.

Cold grilled steak and salad--Grill flank steak a day ahead (use an indoor grill if you don't want to grill outside in the heat) that you've marinated in Italian dressing, along with grilled artichokes and mushrooms, also marinated in Italian dressing. Slice the steak thinly against the grain and serve it with the cold vegetables, also sliced. Add a Tomato-Watermelon salad (you can add chunks of feta or Cheddar if you like) with your favorite vinaigrette dressing and, if your guests are really hungry, buy some gourmet brownies that you can serve with ice cream.

Use Terraware compostable "disposables" (available at Whole Foods) to make cleanup easier--After the event is over, put the compostables in a compostables recycling garbage bag, tied to close, in the garage for recycling day or give the bag to a neighbor who composts. Have a kid or a friend spray down your kitchen counters and under the food table with a non-toxic spray, and your after-party cleaning is taken care of (you don't need to sweep if you use the spray, since the spray will get all the crumbs and dirt). This doesn't work for carpet, so it's better to put any food tables on non-carpet surfaces.

Enjoy the company of others this summer!

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.
Partner, Director of Sales & Operations
FANDANGO Catering
(281) 796-9841

FANDANGO Catering Offers Spanish Summer Food Ideas

FANDANGO Catering offers Spanish summer food ideas in its continuing series of tips to make your summer events outstanding this year (plus we're celebrating Spain's World Cup win!).

In Spain, grilling is generally about grilled sausages or kebabs, vegetables, mushrooms, and/or paella in a large paella wok over a wood fire. On occasion, people grill lamb chops or steaks, and they also like to grill French-type country breads.

Here is a summer grilling menu you can do here inspired by the summer foods of Spain. ­¡Olé!

Sausages on the Grill

Buy Spanish fresh or cured sausages such as butifarra (fresh) or chorizo (cured and Spanish, not the Mexican type), or you can also use Italian sweet sausage or bratwurst. Mix up a paste of a little olive oil and Spanish smoked sweet paprika and rub over the sausages. Oil the grill grates and grill, turning often with tongs (you may want to pre-cook for a couple of minutes in the microwave first).

Escalivada, Calcots, and Rovellones

In Cataluña in northeast Spain, grilled veggies and mushrooms rule. To create a similar spread, do foil packets of eggplant, tomatoes, and onions, cut in strips and interspersed with slivered garlic, about 2 heads garlic for a crowd (escalivada); put scallions brushed with olive oil, salt, and pepper directly on the grill and grill, turning often, until soft and only slightly charred (calcots); and use a basket to grill portobellos, brushed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix up an alioli or buy one and doctor it with fresh chopped herbs.

Fruta con nata

Popular Spanish summer desserts are any peeled, sliced fruit macerated several hours in wine, sherry, kirsch, Gran Marnier, or Marsala and served with real fresh whipped cream (not from a can). Best-quality strawberries without any spirits are also served with fresh whipped cream.

¡Que aproveche!/Bon Appetit!

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras

Partner, Director of Sales & Operations

FANDANGO Catering

(281) 796-0941

FANDANGO Catering Offers 4 Summer Grilling and Dessert Ideas

FANDANGO Catering offers 4 summer grilling and dessert ideas in its continuing 2010 blog series, "Summer Food and Entertaining Ideas."

A type of meat that we particularly like for grilling and that always impresses guests is pork tenderloin. It's much easier to season, cook, slice, serve, and eat than fajitas, brisket, ribs, or chicken and, because it has no bone, there's less waste than with bone-in types of meat.

Here is a great pork tenderloin grilling recipe that our Executive Chef has adapted from Southern Living:

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin on the Grill

Serves 8

3 (3/4 lb.) pork tenderloins

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. white balsamic vinegar or tarragon vinegar (you can throw in a dash of Spanish sherry or marsala to really make this outstanding)

1 1/2 tsp. ancho chile powder or a combination of 1/2 tsp. ancho chile powder, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, and 1/2 tsp. Penzey's BBQ 3000 (we prefer the latter combination but if you're in a hurry or don't want to shop for the other ingredients ancho chile powder gives great results too)

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

8 thick-cut bacon or pancetta slices

Cut pork into 8 slices. Place meat between 2 sheets of heavy duty plastic or wax paper and pound it to a 2-inch thickness with a rolling pin, meat mallet, or plate. Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, and seasonings. Rub mixture over pork, cover and chill 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Microwave bacon or pancetta on high 2 minutes. Drain marinade from pork, then wrap each pork slice with bacon and secure with a small skewer or a toothpick.

Grill meat, covered with grill lid, over lit side of grill (leave other side of grill unlit) 5 minutes on each side. Move pork to unlit side of grill, cover with grill lid, and grill 30-35 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees.

Another of our favorite grilling techniques is for vegetable packets. These are really easy to prepare and make for easy cleanup because you throw away the foil when you're finished eating. You can make one large packet to serve a group or individual packets. If you're using vegetables that tend to be crunchy, par-boil them first for about 5 minutes and then put them in the packets to finish on the grill--most vegetables in foil packets take 12-20 minutes on the grill (the vegetables will be tender, not crunchy).

About the easiest of all ways to do these vegetables packets is to season them with Italian dressing and a few chopped fresh herbs (salt and pepper optional). Easy, and everybody likes these.

For this menu we suggest a dessert of grilled pineapple with ice cream or, even easier, ice cream with fold-ins. Ice cream fold-ins are a wonderfully easy dessert for summer and take advantage of the delicious fresh fruit of the season.

Here's how: buy vanilla ice cream and blend in a blender or food processor any of the following combinations, then fold fruit mixture into the ice cream:

Mixed Berry Ice Cream Fold-In:

4 cups fresh strawberries

2 cups fresh raspberries or 1 cup each fresh raspberries and blueberries

1 cup sugar

Optional: 1 tsp. heavy cream

Process 30-45 seconds. Cover and chill at least 2 hours. Soften ice cream and fold in berry mixture with a rubber spatula

Peach Ice Cream Fold-In:

6 cups fresh sliced peaches

1 cup sugar (or to taste)

Optional:1 tsp. heavy cream

Procedure: Same as for Mixed Berry Ice Cream Fold-In

If it's too hot to cook but you still would like to invite people over and serve them a little something, why not invite people over for dessert only and serve ice cream with a fold-in, with perhaps some shortbread or Bonne Maman or other deluxe cookies? You can serve the ice cream in pretty goblets or, if you have them, dessert dishes, and impress people! Ask your wine store for suggestions on libations to serve with this type of dessert or do as our grandparents did--serve iced tea.

Enjoy!

Next time: Spanish Summer Food

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.

Partner, Director of Sales & Operations

FANDANGO Catering

(281) 796-9841

FANDANGO Catering Offers Summer Food Ideas Part IV

FANDANGO Catering offers more summer food ideas in our blog series, "Summer Food and Entertaining."

It's summertime and the living is easy, or it should be. To avoid being stuck in the kitchen or not inviting people over because you don't want to deal with cooking, create an easy all-bought meal that can be served indoors, al fresco, or on a picnic.

Buy any of all of the following to please your and your guests' palates:

• Italian cold cuts
• Gourmet cheeses
• Gourmet potato salad or another gourmet "composed" salad (with vegetables, cold meats or cheeses, cannellini, tortellini, or some other combination)
• Italian frittata or Spanish tortilla (potato omelet)
• Good artisan breads to make gourmet sandwiches
• Bought pesto to mix with mayo or ranch dressing for sandwiches
• Cherry or full-size tomatoes
• Olives
• A platter of best-quality ripe fresh fruit or watermelon slices
• A lovely dessert--not run-of-the-mill grocery store cakes, cupcakes, cookies or pastries, which are made with trans fats--Buy your dessert at a pastry shop or a good restaurant

If you buy your summer event food from a place that makes its own food (such as Central Market, Whole Foods, or a good caterer), you know it will be high quality and all you have to do is provide serveware, beverages, and, if you wish, decorations, and you're all set.

Enjoy!

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.
Partner, FANDANGO Catering
(281) 796-9841