3 Easy Party Foods for Fall

As cooler weather approaches and we organize our fall gatherings, it's good to know a few easy foods that can be served to groups.

When we lived in Europe there was (and still is) a wonderful fall culture of grilling at country houses, and the cool bracing air out in the country really worked up people's appetites.  In the spirit of this fall grilling, here a few easy and delicious ideas you can adapt.

Escalivada
This is a Catalán dish of grilled vegetables (traditional for this dish are eggplants, peppers, and onions), but our Chef Jesús tweaks the traditional recipe by marinating the vegetables in olive oil and chopped fresh herbs and then mixing the finished grilled vegetables with roasted garlic, which can even be prepared ahead--the heat of the grilled vegetables will warm the roasted garlic enough for your guests.

From "Simply Recipes"--How to Roast Garlic:
Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.


Place the garlic heads in a baking pan; muffin pans work well for this purpose. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed.

Allow the garlic to cool enough so you can touch it without burning yourself. Use a small small knife cut the skin slightly around each clove. Use a cocktail fork or your fingers to pull or squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins.

Mixed Sausage Grill
In Europe people often do a mixed sausage grill in the fall.  This is not hard if you stick with three or max four types of sausages and you know how many minutes to grill each type.  Just as with a cheese platter, try to have different types of sausages such as fresh and cured or more sweet and less sweet and maybe a spicy type. 

If you want to up the flavor you can marinade the sausages briefly with your favorite grilling marinade or use special woods or fresh herbs on the heat source, but this is not necessary.

Set out a nice chimichurri or salsa verde, an alioli, and a remoulade, or any three sauces you like for your guests--buy the sauces at a gourmet shop if you're pressed for time.  People love the interactive aspect of choosing their sausage type and trying each type with the different sauces.

Shrimp Platter with Trio of Sauces
Grill seasoned shrimp or boil it with shrimp boil.  Put a large amount of shrimp on a couple of large platters or in large bowls,  Set out next to this pile of shrimp a trio of sauces (amounts given make for about 4-6 guests; multiply accordingly):
Lime-Poblano Crema--One of our signature sauces/spreads.  Mix 1 cup Mexican crema or sour cream with 1-2 roasted poblanos, blended to a puree, and the juice of 2-3 limes
Red Pepper Mayo--Blend roasted red peppers (1/4 to 1/2 cup) with 1 to 1 1/2 cups mayo--depends on how much you like red peppers.  If too briny add a little fresh or dried dill or fresh basil
Asian Dipper--Mix wasabi mayo or miso and mayo with ginger and chopped chives

Enjoy!

Kristina

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

4 parties Grilld Shrimp w trio of sauces: Crema blendd w rosted poblano lime juice Rosted rd pepp blendd w mayo Miso blendd w ginger, chives

New from our blog: More cool ideas for your party:
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More Cool Ideas for Your Party

This week we honor 9/11 by celebrating life, resilience, and joy,  so here are more cool ideas for your parties and gatherings this fall.

• If your decor is more contemporary, casual, or mod and you are having a small group for dinner, print colorful menus on your printer and lay one on each napkin or each dinner plate.  Menu templates are available in many computers, or the easiest design ever is just to pick a font you like and bright or other colors you like; make the menu heading or name(s) of the guest(s) of honor in one color and the course names or dish names in another.  This will take you only a few minutes and you'll be surprised how it really perks up your party.
• Buy gelato or sorbet and pack into a Bundt or other mold pan in the freezer, then unmold just before serving onto a platter or cake plate--looks cool. 
• Make your party look elegant with little work by piling chocolate milk balls that you buy in a nice bowl like silver or clear glass and then setting on a cake stand--looks something like chocolate truffles but is easier.
• Mix a Mexican or Latin tropical fruit nectar with cava, Prosecco, or a sparkling wine or champagne for a new twist on the mimosa.  Wet and then rim the glass with sugar--these look new and cool in martini glasses.

Enjoy!

Kristina

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

More Cool Fall Entertaining Ideas

Today we bring you even more cool ideas for fall entertaining.  As we often say, it's the little details that count, and just one cool detail can really make your event a success.

Here are 4 more cool entertaining ideas that you can use at your gatherings this fall, or whenever.

• Buy three stackable tier stands to stack (available at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and department stores) and stack them, or at least stack two of them, and put your hors d'oeuvres, soup or beverage shooters, or little desserts or candies on them.  Use as a centerpiece.  People serve themselves off of these stacked tiers. Refill as necessary.  Note: this idea is not appropriate for parties where kids might knock over the tier stands.
• If you will be having a seated dinner or luncheon with several tables, you can decant white or rosé wines into clear glass bottles or carafes so people can serve themselves--often guests prefer this as it saves them waiting for a server or host/ess to serve them more wine as well as being a great icebreaker at the guest tables
• An easy and harvest-y centerpiece is to fill a bowl, preferably footed, or an urn, with fall purple grapes and yellow fall fruits (if this complements your other decor, of course).
• Even just one really cool bar accessory adds the wow factor to your party--A butler-shaped cocktail shaker (Lenox) or oversize martini or cocktail glasses (just one per bar, and available from companies like Royal Doulton or Oneida) make a cool, fun statement.  You can even fill an oversize martini or cocktail glass with candies or nuts.

Enjoy!

Kristina

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

5 Cool Ideas for Fall Entertaining

Fall has begun to semi-officially creep up on us, and as we begin planning fall gatherings, we wanted to give you 5 cool ideas that will add pizzazz to your fall event.

With events, it's always the little details that count and that, added up, make for a successful event. So today we have some great ideas for easily adding that special touch to your event.  The emphasis is on easy!

Idea #1
Add cupcake toppers or mini flag banners to your desserts (or even to your hors d'oeuvres).  These are not just for weddings.  Two lines we like are:
www.millalove.etsy.com
www.mycreativesidekg.etsy.com

Idea #2
You can also buy great cool mod bunting, in very nice colors, at:
www.mycreativesidekg.etsy.com

This bunting is not the old-fashioned kind--it's very contemporary but the colors are soothing, so it doesn't look too cold (the danger with many contemporary designs is that they can look too cold).

Idea #3
You can create a wonderful and cool dessert with almost no effort by buying chocolate dessert cups and filling them with sweetened whipped cream or a mix of sweetened whipped cream and mascarpone or sour cream.  Then add a fresh berry to each cup, or chocolate sprinkles, or mini chocolate chips. 

Available at: www.langschocolates.com or www.thefind.com (Search "chocolate dessert cups" in The Find).

Idea #4
Create the coolest chips and salsa display (or station, as we events people now call them) in your 'hood by setting out unexpected types of bowls to hold the salsas, such as crystal or wide, low goblets, preferably clear or colored but clear glass.  Even better if the crystal bowl has a pedestal! That mix of more traditional design in the bowl type and more casual in the salsas is unexpected and will dazzle your guests without being stuffy. Use small spoons in each salsa bowl or goblet for guests to spoon the salsa on their chips.

Idea #5
Put small organic flower blooms on your desserts, even cookies, one small bloom per cookie/cupcake/mini dessert/cake or pie slice.  No time for even that? Put the blooms on the tray where you're serving the dessert from.

Enjoy!

Kristina

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

Creating Food Stations at Your Labor Day Party

As the Labor Day weekend approaches many are thinking of gatherings they're planning to celebrate Labor Day.  Today we offer ideas for adding pizzazz to your Labor Day outdoor party (works for indoor parties too) by using food stations.

If you live in an area that has not been either hit by a hurricane or burned under the merciless sun this summer and can still have an outdoor event this Labor Day, rejoice! And take note of how to make your gathering the most interesting in your neighborood.

Food stations continue to be trendy and can be elaborate, but it's not difficult to add the same interest factor to your Labor Day gathering by using the idea adapted to a more casual setting.

Here's all you need to know:

• Find or borrow (or buy) tables to equal at least three.  Can be any shape, really, and best if not very small.  If you want to make the tables look harmonious, cover them with the same type of tablecloths; or embrace their differentness as part of your decor (maybe using the same centerpiece or decorations on each of the tables to somewhat unify without dealing with tablecloths).
• Look over your outdoor (or indoor) space for your Labor Day gathering--where can you set these three tables so they aren't too close together? A triangle configuration works well.  Don't put more than one table close to the house or you defeat the whole idea. And keep the beverage table or bar as a separate thing.
• When you have your three tables (or more configured), divide up the food so that there is food on each table.  Yes, that's all there is to it, essentially.  You can make this work best by keeping the same types of food on one table.  For example, the appetizers or snacks on one table, the main course and sides on another, and the desserts on another. 
• Tell guests as they arrive something like: "Appetizers over by the X tree, main course will be over by the deck, and the dessert will be over next to the pool," or something like that, identifying by some marker or identifier and even pointing out each table.

What's the point of this?

Well, guests love this as it gives them something to do and they can "investigate" the yard, so to speak, which gives them something else to do, and they see and socialize with people coming and going from this or that station in the yard, so that's another thing to do, and it reminds people of childhood treasure or Easter egg hunts, which makes most people feel good. 

Some guests will even say, "Oh, I never realized how nice your  flowers/bushes/trees/lawn/pergola/gazebo is/are," even if they've been there before, because they never really looked at it in the way that food stations promote exploring a space.

We can almost guarantee that it will make for a more interesting Labor Day gathering.

Enjoy!

Kristina

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