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

Fandango Catering Offers 3 Ideas for Outdoor Dinner Parties

Continuing with the concept of dinner parties, today we offer 3 ideas to inspire outdoor dinner parties and make them successful.

If you're VERY busy, choose some type of outdoor cooking and make that your dinner party
For people who are VERY busy, especially if you have children, this type of outdoor dinner party makes sense because there's less to prepare and have ready before the party starts. Choose simple food like grilled sausages or hamburgers and grilled vegetables, prepare (or buy) a salad and dessert, appetizers if you're feeling ambitious, and you're set.  Even involve your guests in the grilling, if they're the type--people love interactive cooking parties these days. 

But here's the key: make the outdoor dinner party environment as festive as possible with colorful plates or glasses, a table runner or outdoor tablecloth, votives, some nice beverages (non-alcoholic as well as alcoholic)...People that try to do an outdoor dinner with any old white disposable plates and foam glasses, or a plastic table and no table covering or any decoration--well, it looks bad and that will simply not be a successful party.  We have clients who are VERY BUSY professionals with small children and who keep nice melamine outdoorware that they use regularly, and their outdoor parties are very successful (BTW, buying a set like this inspires you to do more outdoor dining!).  You don't have to buy an outdoorware set but do look for best-quality paperware at least, a tablecloth or runner, flowers, votives, something.  THEN your outdoor dinner party will be a success, not a miss.

If you have more time, you can choose theme concepts or even go fancy
So cool outdoor dinner parties can revolve around themes like Texas BBQ, paella, France, Italy, Mexico, Tiki, seafood feasts, etc.--or how about an outdoor dinner party for a holiday like Halloween or Thanksgiving (weather permitting, of course)? A birthday, promotion, or celebrating retirement outdoor dinner party?

And if you have time, a bit fancier outdoor party will be memorable.  Several years ago we found a book on picnics with one chapter devoted to outdoor dinner parties--a beef or pork tenderloin served room temp with a seafood mousse, lovely cold marinated vegetables, and mini desserts or fruit and cheese plus nice outdoorware, real glasses, nice wines, maybe candles.  A bit more work, but if you have time so enjoyable to dine outdoors this way!

If you aren't crazy busy but don't have tons of extra time, do dinner but outside
Why not give a dinner party and just carry the food and eat it outside?  This won't be more work than a regular indoor dinner party.  The technique would be either to serve from the kitchen and have guests carry their plates outside or have helpers or servers carry served plates to guests seated outside.  Or if it's casual even serve family style at an outdoor table. 

What's great about this is that guests, and you, get to enjoy the food AND the weather.  So do the dinner party you were planning on doing, but if the weather will be nice eat outside, and we guarantee people will like it.  If you don't want to fuss too much with the outdoor table just put some flowers or a hurricane lamp with a candle on the outside table. 

Clear a space in the kitchen for used plates and have people take their plates inside, or have helpers clear the plates.  Put everything in the dishwasher if real plates and forget it until the next day, and enjoy a leisurely evening with your guests outdoors.

Warmly,

Kristina

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

Fandango Catering Offers 5 Tips for Choosing a Dinner Party Menu

Many people are intimidated by choosing a dinner party menu (or any menu).  Today we offer 5 tips to make the process less intimidating and more enjoyable. 

Use color ideas--As you put together your dinner party menu, think of what colors the foods or sauces will be and try for a mix of colors on the plate.  For example, if you have a chicken or pork or seafood dish in a light-colored sauce, you want to choose side dishes that complement the color of the entrée sauce, such as green spinach or artichokes or orange carrots or sweet potatoes, or potatoes or pasta or rice with a green- or red- (or shades of) colored sauce.  If you serve a a beef or pork dish with a dark-colored sauce, serve colorful vegetables that are orange or green or red, or a starch that is light-colored or with a green- or red-colored (or shades of) sauce.  You can also, if you're feeling ambitious, add chopped chives to the plated food (for plated, not buffet dinners) and that will make it more colorful, just sprinkle the chives over the food and serve.

Consider all the food--If you serve a meat or chicken main course you want to serve a vegetable- or cheese- or seafood-based appetizer.  If your main course is fish or seafood, serve a meat, chicken, pork, or cheese- or vegetable-based appetizer.

Salad? Don't repeat the main course--If you'll have chicken as your main course, don't put chicken in the salad.  We advise against serving salads with chicken, beef, pork, or seafood unless that IS the main course.

Pair dessert to the other courses--If your main course is very rich and filling, serve a light dessert, and if your main course is light (not skimpy but rather light in sauce or marinade), serve a richer, more filling dessert.  Unless everyone's on a diet! Then serve everything light :)

Write or type and print your dinner party menu and review it--Don't just stare at it on a computer or tablet.  In cold hard print or writing is where you'll see if you're repeating ingredients, have flavors that are too extreme or timid for your guests, have taken into account any vegetarians or special diets, are in season or wildly out of season, will need hard-to-obtain ingredients, etc., etc.  Review with a critical eye and then decide if you need to make changes, and it's not a bad idea to have at least one other pair of eyes look it over and give feedback. 

BTW, a dinner party is NOT the time to try a new recipe--if it comes out badly you'll look foolish.  Stick with recipes you know and do well, or hire someone, and save the new recipe for another day, when you can test it and then, having tried it out, use it at your next party.

Warmly,

Kristina

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

Fandango Catering Offers More Dinner Party Ideas and Resources

Since there has been so much interest on the part of our clients this late summer and early fall-ish season in dinner party entertaining, today we offer more dinner party ideas and some web resources with more dinner party ideas and tips. 

A client recently had a cool idea for a fall dinner party: putting several tables together to make one long table outdoors, with a appetizer food station, an outdoor cooking area, and servers serving the main course.

We love this idea and it can be tailored to your needs.  You could do all three things or choose only one. 

The long table outdoors is the unifier. If the only tables you can get to make one long table don't match or are unattractive, cover them with overlapping tablecloths in the same color or design (make sure that the tablecloths drop nearly or all the way to the ground or you'll see mismatched, maybe unattrative, table legs). 

You could have this long table and a self-serve finger foods station and have people serve themselves and sit at the long table.  Or you can have servers serve the guests finger foods from the station at the long table. 

Or you can have an outdoor cooking area where guests serve themselves and sit at the long table, or are served at the long table.  If you do this, serve interesting food, more so than standard BBQ items...Foods like paella or grilled Spanish sausages, interesting kebabs (Middle Eastern or Russian or other Slavic or Greek), Florentine steak sprinkled with lemon juice, satay or fish skewers...

Go casual or more formal, adults only or with kids, any way you put it together, an outdoor dinner party is cool and fun.

Here is a list of web resources on dinner parties:

www.divinedinnerparty.com

www.food.com/recipes/dinner-party

www.delish.com/entertaining-ideas/parties/dinner-parties/

www.adinnerparty.net

www.celebrations.com/dinnerparties

Warmly,

Kristina

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

Fandango Catering Offers Cool Tips to Make Your Event a Success

Someone recently gave us a stack of Organic Style magazines, and one of the issues has some of the coolest ideas for things you can do to ensure that your event or party is a success that we've come across, so we want to share these with you.

When setting up food (either buffet style or a sit-down dinner), think like a caterer--Try for plenty of red, yellow, and green foods.  Our note: Or add color with easy garnishes like whole or chopped chives or small grape clusters or flowers.

For sit-down dinners, choose foods that don't need too much use of a knife--Struggling with cutlery impedes conversation.  Our note: BTW, European-style holding of cutlery with the knife in the left hand and the fork in the right if you're right handed (or vice versa if you're left handed) means you don't have to switch as in American-style use of cutlery; you push the food with the fork onto the knife without missing a beat! I mastered this years ago and it's so much easier.  Try it sometime if you don't already do this!

Act as your own butler--As you take people's coats or purses, inquire about their commute or if they found parking and ask about their children or significant other if they have one.  Even if you're busy praise their choice of wine or flowers if they bring them.  Then give them their first drink and show them where to get more.  Our note: Beware starting heart-to-heart talks when greeting guests as they arrive or you won't be able to greet everyone.  So often no one greets anyone at the door anymore at a party or event.  If you feel you really will be too busy, ask someone to greet everyone.  It's much more welcoming than everyone just wandering in and asking where do we put this? where are the hosts? are we supposed to go out back? where is the bar?, where is the restroom? etc., etc.

Get the conversation going--Ask a couple how they met or seek advice such as whether to buy a specific car, how to sell old jewelry, where to go on vacation, ideas for your parents' anniversary, and so forth.  Some kind of advice always gets the conversation going.

Turn on a jazz station in the background, such as upstairs or in a bedroom, or leave a piano open or a guitar out and a guest may play--Unless you're very young, blasting music kills conversation (and if you're very young it does too).  Our note: If you hate jazz, how about Brazilian music or world music?  This way you have music but it isn't intrusive; no one has to shout but there isn't dead silence.  And if a guest starts playing--fun!

Warmly,

Kristina

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

Fandango Catering Offers 3 Ideas for Choosing a Dessert for a Dinner Party

Choosing a dessert for a dinner party can be daunting.  Full-size or mini? Frozen, parfait, mousse, ramekins? And on and on.  Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing a dessert for your dinner party. 

Understand what it means when you choose to offer a full-size dessert--In our experience full-size desserts at a dinner party work best for 12 or fewer guests UNLESS you have a caterer or other helper.  Why? If you don't hire someone to handle dessert, guests will be waiting while you serve dessert portions, and thus will have to wait less if you have 12 or fewer guests.  If you pre-plate full-size desserts to avoid hiring a caterer or helper to handle dessert, you must also make sure that you have space on your counter or kitchen island or in your refrigerator for the pre-plated desserts ON THEIR PLATES.  You must have room for them somewhere while the first part of the dinner is going on.  A full-size dessert for a group larger than about 10 or 12 guests is best served buffet style, with portions pre-cut and/or plated and put out on a dessert buffet before your party starts.

Ice cream and other frozen-type desserts can be messy to handle yourself--Again, if you'll be scooping while guests are waiting, it's better for a small group.  You can pre-scoop and put the scoops on cookie sheets in the freezer until dessert time as long as you have enough room in your freezer.  And frozen desserts can't be left out on a buffet or they'll melt; they must be brought to table or to the buffet table at serving time.

Mini desserts can be easiest of all--They don't need to be sliced or scooped, take up less room, and can be served buffet style or plated.  You can set out mini desserts buffet style before the dinner party starts or have them waiting in the wings for dessert time.  Or here's another way to serve them: one of our clients has one or two of the catering team (us) go around to seated guests and offer mini desserts and small plates to guests seated at her dining tables--sometimes we serve guests and sometimes they prefer to help themselves and all we do is put the plate down on the table for them, depending on the mood of the party.  People really like this as it makes them feel special.  The fun factor of mini desserts is another reason to choose them for your dinner party--their fun size puts guests in a good mood! Also, people feel more virtuous when they have a mini dessert than if they have a full-size dessert. 

BTW, beware relying too much on a candy buffet combined with dessert--though candy buffets are popular at events nowadays, too much candy and not enough baked or made desserts  (whomever actually makes them, be it you or a restaurant or food emporium or caterer or baker) says you couldn't be bothered and is too much like a Halloween party (unless of course it IS a Halloween party).

Warmly,

Kristina

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

Fandango Catering Offers 4 Tips for Hosting a Dinner Party

After Labor Day it seems that everyone is in a flurry to plan and host a gathering of some type.  Today we offer 4 tips for success at hosting a small dinner party. 

A small dinner party is 40 people or less.  Most dinner parties are 20-25 people.

Some dinners are fully plated, with servers serving every course and clearing dishes between courses.  For many this is too much work or too formal.

A seated buffet is when guests are served or serve themselves from a buffet and then seat themselves at one or more guest tables.

A combination is where you have one or more courses plated, such as a starter or dessert, and the guests go to a buffet for the main course.

Whatever type of dinner party you choose, here are few ideas to make yours successful.

Unify guest tables visually--If you have more than one guest table you should unify them visually with tablecloths or something else.  Often people press into service for their dinner party tables that aren't alike in size or shape.  So make them look alike with all the same tablecloths--also a good idea if the tables you use aren't attractive, such as banquet or card tables.

Serve hot food hot--Use or have your caterer use chafing dishes if your guests are the type to mill around for a while after being called to a dinner buffet.  You may want to serve from your kitchen, with the food taken hot out of your oven, but this only works well when people eat it right away.  Chafing dishes keep hot food hot with moist heat for up to 2 hours; or use a tableside warmer/cooker like Fagor's portable induction cooktop.  If you insist on serving from your oven, don't allow guests to mill around without serving themselves after you announce dinner or let a caterer, who knows how to work with "holding" food and keeping it from drying out in the dry heat of an oven, handle it--but be warned that even a caterer can't work miracles at preventing food from drying out if you delay serving from the oven TOO long once the food is hot/ready.

Put cutlery and napkins, if not on guest tables, at the end of the buffet, after the food--That way it's easier for guests to serve themselves or be served and then grab the cutlery and napkins at the end, whether the cutlery is rolled in napkins or not.

Consider serving dessert and/or coffee in another room--If you have room this can be a good idea as so many people don't want dessert or coffee nowadays.  That way, it gives people a gracious out, and often by then guests will want to get up and move around anyway after sitting during the dinner.

Warmly,

Kristina

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