Contact: wildergin@yahoo.com
The Home Cook and Parties
What is the role of the home cook in a community? Who throws really good welcoming yummy parties? People who love to host. People who love to celebrate others. How do people build communities through home cooking? How can home cooks make a community rise? These are questions that come up at the parties we throw. It is so important to celebrate others!
What is the role of the home cook in a community? Who throws really good welcoming yummy parties? People who love to host. People who love to celebrate others. How do people build communities through home cooking? How can home cooks make a community rise? These are questions that come up at the parties we throw. It is so important to celebrate others!
December 2016 A SOUTHERN CHRISTMAS - I’m just going to say it: I feel proud that I can cook for 30 or more people! I’ve been throwing parties since I was in my early twenties. Practice makes permanent and I’ve been throwing parties for a long time. Though my parties aren’t perfect I am very happy with them. The last piece of the puzzle in entertaining has been my newly acquired ability to have everything hot when guests arrive. I’m happy that I can enjoy throwing large parties and sometimes people ask how I plan for them. Below is my step-by-step guide for planning and cooking a Southern feast for 30 people. My husband and I recently hosted a thank-you party for all the volunteers that play instruments in his ensembles at the college. Since I believe that Southern food is the best food in the world I made the theme A Southern Christmas and all the Midwesterners who attended seemed to approve!
So here’s how I planned the party: I started with a long list of all my favorite Southern foods 3 weeks before the party. I divided the foods I wanted to make into categories of appetizers, mains and desserts. I then made a handwritten calendar of all the days left until the party and listed at least two or three preparations I could accomplish each day for the party. The lists got longer on the days closer to the party. I was not only cooking and cleaning but decorating for Christmas as well. The holidays are the time of year when there are so many people you want to celebrate with and spend time with and get a small gift for. There are a million details that pop up at the last minute. (This is why I do all of my Christmas shopping and wrapping in the summer.) Because the holidays are busy we decided to have our Christmas party the Sunday after Thanksgiving to beat the holiday rush.
When it was time to start cooking for this party I made sure all of the decorations were up. My husband is always in charge of the vacuuming, sweeping, dusting and mopping so I wanted to make sure all the decorations were out before the deep clean began. There were preliminary trips to the grocery store out of town like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. By the day of the party there had been six trips to the grocery store for everything else. I rigidly made everything I’d typed up on the menu and posted in the kitchen. Even though everything fit in the refrigerator, I probably will not hold myself accountable for making everything on the menu again.
I am lucky to be a teacher with time off before and after Thanksgiving. (I have ample time to NOT get frustrated and start questioning why in the world I would think about trying to cook so much food.) Even with the extra time and careful planning and help from my husband, it is always a good idea to keep in mind why you are being a host. The goal is to encourage everyone to have a good time, to eat and be happy. The goal for the host is hospitality. I listened to some podcasts about hospitality and the spirit of giving before the party. Some of these were sermons and some were famous chefs talking about their favorite ways to entertain. It put me in the right frame of mind.
Let me address timing for a party a little further. This year I used all of my time off to cook the 31 items on the menu. We scheduled the party for Sunday afternoon so that we would have more time to cook and clean. I will be rethinking this next year. Even though I had the leisure time to cook and look at ingredients and finally had a whole week to think about nothing but food (a fantasy for me though I can understand this is not everyone’s fantasy vacation) I did indeed spend the whole vacation standing and cooking. And the next day started a long work week. At the same time the upside of a Sunday afternoon party is that we had a ton of delicious leftovers in the refrigerator to enjoy all week, to share with coworkers and furthermore, after a big party I always get back in the groove of wanting to cook every day.
The cooking started with cookies and candy 7 days in advance because these freeze easily. Then I made casseroles and appetizers that could be frozen. There were only a few because most of my casseroles include cheese. As the day of the party grew closer I started making desserts that would hold up for a few days with minimal refrigeration like caramel cake, pecan pies, Mexican wedding cookies and Mississippi mud cake. I set out the dishes I would be using in advance (I’d made a list for this too.) I cleaned up and ran the dishwasher every night before bed.
As the week progressed more dishes were cooked and placed carefully in the freezer or refrigerator. Additionally as I cooked I often had enough ingredients to double the recipe so I made two of the same dish and put the extra dishes in the freezer for upcoming weeks. Some of the extras I turned into quiches, sandwiches or just sautéed ingredients and ate them straight out of the pan or scooped them on a plate and took them for lunch the next day.
Two days before the party as I prepared the appetizers I made some mistakes: I planned to make quick pickled peaches. It’s late November and there are no peaches in the grocery store in Western Kansas. I made pickled pears and mangos instead. They were actually pretty tasty, a new discovery. My grandmother used to make pickled peaches with cloves. I made quick pickles by slicing up pears and mangos and adding one cup of sugar, one cup of vinegar and a teaspoon of cloves and letting them soak overnight. They tasted just like the pickled peaches of my childhood!
Crockpots make everything easier and I love the crockpot trio that has one electrical cord but heats up three different dishes. I put grits, collard greens and black eyed peas in this and added seasoning as needed. I made the collard greens the day before so that they could soak up the brown sugar and other seasonings I cooked them in. They only needed to be reheated. I also made the cornbread dressing in the crockpot the day of the party. This is one of my favorite recipes to throw together. It’s delicious and I served it in my beloved Staub pumpkin dish keeping the dressing warm on the stove for guests to help themselves. I used my Staub tomato dish to serve tomatoes and okra.
I made the cheese biscuits and the jalapeno cornbread the day before the party and the no-knead bread a few hours before the party. I wish that I had more ovens (and another refrigerator too) because I would have preferred to bake the bread minutes before guests arrived rather than use the oven to heat up all the casseroles. I assembled the green bean casserole and put it in the oven with the casseroles I was reheating. The green bean casserole was special this year. I looked up different recipes online and decided to make the casserole with diced fresh mushrooms, a can of gf cream of mushroom soup, two cans of green beans and a half cup of parmesan cheese on top. After I had baked it for about 20 minutes I added Trader Joe’s fried French onions. This casserole was delicious! I will make this again as soon as possible.
As for the desserts, I made the pumpkin spice cheesecake that Philadelphia cream cheese made popular a few years ago in all the food magazines. I poured a whole jar of Coop’s Microcreamery salted caramel sauce over the top and this was delicious. It was a last minute decision because I didn’t like the way the cheesecake looked plain and slightly cracked. Also, I had already topped two other desserts with pecans so I didn’t want to hide the flaws with pecans. In hindsight I could have used sliced almonds.
The two hours before a party are the busiest for me (and my husband). I had delegated the pimento cheese sandwiches, icing down the drinks and last minute appetizers to him. He works so carefully that all of his dishes look better than mine, especially the deviled eggs. We have learned to work well as a team before the guests arrive. As he lit candles I ran around taking pictures and a few minutes later our first guests knocked on the door.
When I pulled everything out of the oven at 2:59 and placed it on the counter I felt like a winner. Everything smelled so good and looked so good. It was a lot of work but the finished products looked great, everything was homemade, and our guests couldn’t wait to dive in. Their happy faces made my heart beat with happiness too.
Here’s a quick list to keep in mind when planning a holiday party for 30 people
So here’s how I planned the party: I started with a long list of all my favorite Southern foods 3 weeks before the party. I divided the foods I wanted to make into categories of appetizers, mains and desserts. I then made a handwritten calendar of all the days left until the party and listed at least two or three preparations I could accomplish each day for the party. The lists got longer on the days closer to the party. I was not only cooking and cleaning but decorating for Christmas as well. The holidays are the time of year when there are so many people you want to celebrate with and spend time with and get a small gift for. There are a million details that pop up at the last minute. (This is why I do all of my Christmas shopping and wrapping in the summer.) Because the holidays are busy we decided to have our Christmas party the Sunday after Thanksgiving to beat the holiday rush.
When it was time to start cooking for this party I made sure all of the decorations were up. My husband is always in charge of the vacuuming, sweeping, dusting and mopping so I wanted to make sure all the decorations were out before the deep clean began. There were preliminary trips to the grocery store out of town like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. By the day of the party there had been six trips to the grocery store for everything else. I rigidly made everything I’d typed up on the menu and posted in the kitchen. Even though everything fit in the refrigerator, I probably will not hold myself accountable for making everything on the menu again.
I am lucky to be a teacher with time off before and after Thanksgiving. (I have ample time to NOT get frustrated and start questioning why in the world I would think about trying to cook so much food.) Even with the extra time and careful planning and help from my husband, it is always a good idea to keep in mind why you are being a host. The goal is to encourage everyone to have a good time, to eat and be happy. The goal for the host is hospitality. I listened to some podcasts about hospitality and the spirit of giving before the party. Some of these were sermons and some were famous chefs talking about their favorite ways to entertain. It put me in the right frame of mind.
Let me address timing for a party a little further. This year I used all of my time off to cook the 31 items on the menu. We scheduled the party for Sunday afternoon so that we would have more time to cook and clean. I will be rethinking this next year. Even though I had the leisure time to cook and look at ingredients and finally had a whole week to think about nothing but food (a fantasy for me though I can understand this is not everyone’s fantasy vacation) I did indeed spend the whole vacation standing and cooking. And the next day started a long work week. At the same time the upside of a Sunday afternoon party is that we had a ton of delicious leftovers in the refrigerator to enjoy all week, to share with coworkers and furthermore, after a big party I always get back in the groove of wanting to cook every day.
The cooking started with cookies and candy 7 days in advance because these freeze easily. Then I made casseroles and appetizers that could be frozen. There were only a few because most of my casseroles include cheese. As the day of the party grew closer I started making desserts that would hold up for a few days with minimal refrigeration like caramel cake, pecan pies, Mexican wedding cookies and Mississippi mud cake. I set out the dishes I would be using in advance (I’d made a list for this too.) I cleaned up and ran the dishwasher every night before bed.
As the week progressed more dishes were cooked and placed carefully in the freezer or refrigerator. Additionally as I cooked I often had enough ingredients to double the recipe so I made two of the same dish and put the extra dishes in the freezer for upcoming weeks. Some of the extras I turned into quiches, sandwiches or just sautéed ingredients and ate them straight out of the pan or scooped them on a plate and took them for lunch the next day.
Two days before the party as I prepared the appetizers I made some mistakes: I planned to make quick pickled peaches. It’s late November and there are no peaches in the grocery store in Western Kansas. I made pickled pears and mangos instead. They were actually pretty tasty, a new discovery. My grandmother used to make pickled peaches with cloves. I made quick pickles by slicing up pears and mangos and adding one cup of sugar, one cup of vinegar and a teaspoon of cloves and letting them soak overnight. They tasted just like the pickled peaches of my childhood!
Crockpots make everything easier and I love the crockpot trio that has one electrical cord but heats up three different dishes. I put grits, collard greens and black eyed peas in this and added seasoning as needed. I made the collard greens the day before so that they could soak up the brown sugar and other seasonings I cooked them in. They only needed to be reheated. I also made the cornbread dressing in the crockpot the day of the party. This is one of my favorite recipes to throw together. It’s delicious and I served it in my beloved Staub pumpkin dish keeping the dressing warm on the stove for guests to help themselves. I used my Staub tomato dish to serve tomatoes and okra.
I made the cheese biscuits and the jalapeno cornbread the day before the party and the no-knead bread a few hours before the party. I wish that I had more ovens (and another refrigerator too) because I would have preferred to bake the bread minutes before guests arrived rather than use the oven to heat up all the casseroles. I assembled the green bean casserole and put it in the oven with the casseroles I was reheating. The green bean casserole was special this year. I looked up different recipes online and decided to make the casserole with diced fresh mushrooms, a can of gf cream of mushroom soup, two cans of green beans and a half cup of parmesan cheese on top. After I had baked it for about 20 minutes I added Trader Joe’s fried French onions. This casserole was delicious! I will make this again as soon as possible.
As for the desserts, I made the pumpkin spice cheesecake that Philadelphia cream cheese made popular a few years ago in all the food magazines. I poured a whole jar of Coop’s Microcreamery salted caramel sauce over the top and this was delicious. It was a last minute decision because I didn’t like the way the cheesecake looked plain and slightly cracked. Also, I had already topped two other desserts with pecans so I didn’t want to hide the flaws with pecans. In hindsight I could have used sliced almonds.
The two hours before a party are the busiest for me (and my husband). I had delegated the pimento cheese sandwiches, icing down the drinks and last minute appetizers to him. He works so carefully that all of his dishes look better than mine, especially the deviled eggs. We have learned to work well as a team before the guests arrive. As he lit candles I ran around taking pictures and a few minutes later our first guests knocked on the door.
When I pulled everything out of the oven at 2:59 and placed it on the counter I felt like a winner. Everything smelled so good and looked so good. It was a lot of work but the finished products looked great, everything was homemade, and our guests couldn’t wait to dive in. Their happy faces made my heart beat with happiness too.
Here’s a quick list to keep in mind when planning a holiday party for 30 people
- Create a menu and decide where you will serve each dish.
- Make a grocery list of all the ingredients you will need for each dish. Decide which ingredients can be bought early and which can be bought a couple of days before.
- Lay out platters and plates that will be used for each dish in advance.Make a separate list of when you will cook each dish keeping in mind its freshness and fragility. Some dishes taste better once they’ve had a day or two to let their flavors marry. (This list can also include when you will clean certain parts of the house if you need to do a deep clean before company comes like we do.)
- Once the lists are made go over them many times before you actually start cooking so that you know the recipe instructions and the ingredients. This will prevent surprises that will slow you down. I take pictures of the platters and rooms where I’m going to serve food so that I can visualize how I want the food to look and figure out other details that can be added for improvement. I stare at the pictures and lists on my breaks at work.
- After the party is over make a mental list of the dishes you can make with your many leftover ingredients and dishes you can transform your leftovers into.
August 13, 2016 - Paul and I had our annual Bastille Day party in our home yesterday. It was a Belated Bastille Day party because everyone we invited was out of town on July 14th. We rescheduled the party for August and this happened to be the day after we returned from a week-long trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. It took careful planning and a long handwritten list to pull this party off in one day! This year we served a hot dog buffet again and I made ratatouille goat cheese dip for the first time. I made quiche, French onion soup, faux escargot and put (the mushrooms) in my new escargot dishes. I also had a whole table set up as a crepe bar which was new this year. There was Nutella, honey, bananas, sugar, cinnamon and strawberries to put on the crepes. I just learned to make crepes and now I want to make them all the time! I made caramel cake with caramel frosting from The Caramel Factory in Batesville, MS, apple brown betty, brownies and homemade chocolate peanut butter cups from Trisha Yearwood's cookbook. The guests loved all the hot dog combination possibilities and I loved how excited they were about our food. It's true, I love parties. I love to cook for people. There's nothing better!
May 7, 2016 - Raclette Night! Even though it was 85 degrees outside we had raclette with some people we admire in Dodge City. Raclette is basically grilling meat table top, melting cheese and then adding yummy condiments to the meat and cheese. It was so much fun and our guests loved it! Our peonies bloomed in the back yard that weekend so I thought I'd include pictures of them too.
Opera Night at the Kuplics' house. Paul and I enjoy hanging out with this sweet little family so much. I plan to learn a lot about opera from their Opera Nights. They make food and everyone sits around and watches an opera on Netflix. For this party it was The Cunning Little Vixen, a Czech opera. The food was delicious!
Easter Bonnet Party 2016! I have always truly loved Easter. I think it goes back to my childhood when my parents would return from a spring banker's convention on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and bring a carload of Easter and pastel-color presents for me. As an adult Paul and I have had Easter Bonnet Parties before. This year we had one in Dodge City. Here's the menu our friends enjoyed: cheesy hashbrown casserole, quiche Lorraine, vegetable quiche, bacon, cheese biscuits, no knead bread, sausage balls, smoked sausage and bell pepper hash, apple pie oatmeal muffins, grits, rice krispie treats, coconut macaroon nests with Cadbury eggs, granola and Greek yogurt trifle, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry jellies that I served in Le Creuset fruit dishes, praline bread pudding (my first), Bloody Mary's, mimosas, decaf Roasterie coffee, salted caramel hot chocolate and an assortment of candies (jelly beans, Reese's eggs, candy crosses, mystery flavor Peeps). We encouraged guests to wear silly Easter bonnets and some were hilarious. I was delighted with the foods and presents that were brought as hostess gifts: deconstructed deviled eggs, traditional deviled eggs, an orchid (!!), 5 bottles of wine/sparkling wine, assorted juices, and a fruit salad. Midwesterners are so generous and gracious! It was a beautiful sunny day in Western Kansas, a perfect Easter with good people.
Mardi Gras 2016!
It's Mardi Gras time again! I usually have Mardi Gras parties for my students at work but Paul and I have never had one in our home. We invited some of our favorite people from work and the community and I started cooking. I made gumbo, jambalaya, a shrimp boil, homemade pimento cheese, turnip greens with bacon, black eye peas, sweet potatoes, a Mississippi mud cake and king cake cupcakes. I also bought a sock-it-to-me cake at the grocery store and decorated it with white icing and purple, green and gold sprinkles. I hid a piece of candy in it so that the person who got this piece could be crowned king for the day. While Paul made muffulettas I mixed up hurricanes and bloody mary's and cut up garnish. Everyone was so sweet and gracious. The gumbo seemed to be the biggest hit along with the Mississippi mud cake. Kansans know how to appreciate a party. I can't wait to have these people over again!
I also threw a Lundi and Mardi Gras party for my students. I love doing this because it makes the students smile and there's always a positive shift in the dynamic of each classroom after we bond over food. For Lundi Gras I made jambalaya and took it in a crock pot. I also served French bread and hot sauces on the side. For Mardi Gras I bought cinnamon sock-it-to-me cakes and decorated them with cream cheese icing and purple, green and gold sprinkles. I had no plastic baby Jesuses because in Kansas there are only Rosca de Reyes cakes at Epiphany. There are no Mardi Gras king cakes in the bakeries or grocery stores. I'll have to order the plastic babies for next year's celebrations. I used red pieces of candy as the "bean" instead and gave bead necklaces as prizes to the King or Queen who got the candy in their piece of cake. We watched videos about the history of Mardi Gras, played Mardi Gras themed Kahoot games and studied Cajun French vocabulary words. It was a fun Mardi Gras for me and the students but I was exhausted by Ash Wednesday.
It's Mardi Gras time again! I usually have Mardi Gras parties for my students at work but Paul and I have never had one in our home. We invited some of our favorite people from work and the community and I started cooking. I made gumbo, jambalaya, a shrimp boil, homemade pimento cheese, turnip greens with bacon, black eye peas, sweet potatoes, a Mississippi mud cake and king cake cupcakes. I also bought a sock-it-to-me cake at the grocery store and decorated it with white icing and purple, green and gold sprinkles. I hid a piece of candy in it so that the person who got this piece could be crowned king for the day. While Paul made muffulettas I mixed up hurricanes and bloody mary's and cut up garnish. Everyone was so sweet and gracious. The gumbo seemed to be the biggest hit along with the Mississippi mud cake. Kansans know how to appreciate a party. I can't wait to have these people over again!
I also threw a Lundi and Mardi Gras party for my students. I love doing this because it makes the students smile and there's always a positive shift in the dynamic of each classroom after we bond over food. For Lundi Gras I made jambalaya and took it in a crock pot. I also served French bread and hot sauces on the side. For Mardi Gras I bought cinnamon sock-it-to-me cakes and decorated them with cream cheese icing and purple, green and gold sprinkles. I had no plastic baby Jesuses because in Kansas there are only Rosca de Reyes cakes at Epiphany. There are no Mardi Gras king cakes in the bakeries or grocery stores. I'll have to order the plastic babies for next year's celebrations. I used red pieces of candy as the "bean" instead and gave bead necklaces as prizes to the King or Queen who got the candy in their piece of cake. We watched videos about the history of Mardi Gras, played Mardi Gras themed Kahoot games and studied Cajun French vocabulary words. It was a fun Mardi Gras for me and the students but I was exhausted by Ash Wednesday.
Here's a favorite recipe from Mardi Gras:
Crock Pot Jambalaya
To make an easy crock pot jambalaya you will need:
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 celery heart chopped
2 cans red beans (optional)
1 package raw frozen peeled, tail off shrimp (optional)
1 package of smoked sausage sliced in thin medallions
1 package uncooked chicken tenderloins sliced into medium size chunks
2 bay leaves
5 tablespoons of your favorite Cajun seasoning. (I like Penzey's but you can use Old Bay or Tony Cacheres.)
An additional 2 tablespoons of Old Bay seasoning
Dump all of these ingredients in a large crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours. Then add 5 cups of cooked white rice. Mix thoroughly and serve with French bread and hot sauce!
Crock Pot Jambalaya
To make an easy crock pot jambalaya you will need:
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 celery heart chopped
2 cans red beans (optional)
1 package raw frozen peeled, tail off shrimp (optional)
1 package of smoked sausage sliced in thin medallions
1 package uncooked chicken tenderloins sliced into medium size chunks
2 bay leaves
5 tablespoons of your favorite Cajun seasoning. (I like Penzey's but you can use Old Bay or Tony Cacheres.)
An additional 2 tablespoons of Old Bay seasoning
Dump all of these ingredients in a large crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours. Then add 5 cups of cooked white rice. Mix thoroughly and serve with French bread and hot sauce!
Christmas time is here again! As a busy teacher it is both joyful and stressful to try to cook for every party and get-together that pops up. Even in a small town like Dodge City there are plenty of celebrations. As soon as Thanksgiving dishes were emptied into the garbage bag it was time to start cooking and freezing treats for our Open House for Paul's jazz orchestra and the community symphony orchestra. I started by freezing sausage balls and cheese biscuits. I usually make gluten free cheddar biscuits but this time I decided to make regular Bisquick biscuits as well adding garlic and parsley to the mix. This batch was disappointing and had the texture of cardboard. I hated to waste them so I decided to freeze them and later put them in a chicken and biscuit casserole where they would soak up cream of chicken, sour cream and the flavors of cooked onion and celery. This saved them and was this dish was one of the biggest hits at the party. I made and froze an apple Brown Betty. This dessert is getting tired or it doesn't taste as yummy as it used to or I must try it with different ingredients next time. As the work week began I made white bark pretzels that I stored in large ziplock bags and made extra for my students. The two days leading up to the party I made Captain Rodney's dip again, coconut macaroons, two pumpkin cheesecakes, many brownies with hazelnut icing and sprinkles, bleu cheese biscuits, sweet potato casserole, onion dip, beer cheddar dip, a vegetable tray with Ree Drummond's home made ranch dip, a large quiche with basil, spicy olives and cheddar, pomegranate punch in the spiked and non-alcoholic versions, and some no-knead bread that was hot from the oven when the guests arrived. Paul made two large bags of chex mix and some delicious sandwiches with ham, swiss and Dijon mustard topped with olives. I had small cards that labeled each dish. Our guests were so gracious and enthusiastic. I love cooking for a crowd like this.
Monday was a snow day and it was such a welcome day to clean up from the party, cook out everything in the refrigerator (making quiche and ratatouille for all my students) and make careful lists for each day of the week in preparation for the close of school and a long trip to the South to see friends and family. We had a teacher's potluck in my wing of the school with meatballs, sugary sausages, a wild rice dish, a Tuscan soup and there were leftover sweets for the rest of the week in the teacher's lounge.
By the end of the week my brain was made of jello but I was proud of my students' work and my own work with them as the final days drew to a close. Our principal organized a sponsored barbeque lunch from Billy Sims' BBQ. I love going to this place in town and I was thrilled to get to try a little bit of everything including some menu items I had missed in the restaurant.
Monday was a snow day and it was such a welcome day to clean up from the party, cook out everything in the refrigerator (making quiche and ratatouille for all my students) and make careful lists for each day of the week in preparation for the close of school and a long trip to the South to see friends and family. We had a teacher's potluck in my wing of the school with meatballs, sugary sausages, a wild rice dish, a Tuscan soup and there were leftover sweets for the rest of the week in the teacher's lounge.
By the end of the week my brain was made of jello but I was proud of my students' work and my own work with them as the final days drew to a close. Our principal organized a sponsored barbeque lunch from Billy Sims' BBQ. I love going to this place in town and I was thrilled to get to try a little bit of everything including some menu items I had missed in the restaurant.
December 12, 2015 - The same evening after our orchestra and jazz band party Paul and I left the dirty dishes and drove over to Nan and Butch Pyle's house for a Christmas party for their friends at the Episcopal church. This was a fun party with great food. Nan and Butch are naturals at making guests feel welcome.
November 14, 2015 - Raising Spirits Fundraiser. Though technically not a party, this was a great night out on the town with my man. I love learning more about the art of the cocktail. The hors d'oeuvres were very tasty and satisfying. I had liqueurs that I haven't tasted since trips to Italy and France and my early 20's. Why did I ever stop drinking Bailey's?
Laura Woolfolk had a Halloween party for the English Language Arts Dept (and friends). I dressed up as Coco Chanel and took red beans and rice with shrimp and baked some no-knead bread. The party was so much fun! It was the first time I'd ever hit a piñata! The food at the party was good. I'd never seen Doritoe casserole before. I'd also not tried the local Chinese takeout place and was excited to try bacon fried rice. There was spiked cider, peanut butter brownies, cocktail weenies and a ton of other food. I love potlucks more than most things in the world. I'm constantly learning about new foods out here in Western Kansas!
Paul and I had our first big party in Dodge City in July 2015. It was a celebration of the birthdays of America and France. I made ratatouille, cassoulet, French onion soup, faux escargot, apple brown Betty, brownies and set up a huge hot dog bar. It was a ton of fun!
July 4th, 2015 - Kerry and Laura Kuplic invited us over for really delicious grilled food. I'd had cantaloupe and prosciutto before but not wrapped and grilled together. Delicious! I made Captain Rodney's dip and served it with jalapeno dip roasted crackers. At 10:00 PM the fireworks started in Dodge City and their back yard was a front row seat.
Jennifer and Andy Nolan had a backyard party with delicious Kansas food. I loved their antiques!
A Southern Night. This was our first dinner party in Dodge City, Kansas. June 1, 2015. I thanked Shannon Ralph for being such an amazing person to work with after I long-term subbed for her classroom at Dodge City High School. For all the details of this evening, check out my cooking diary page called A Southern Night.
This was a New Year's Eve party in Memphis. I always loved cooking for our sweet friends in Memphis.
I love, love, love my Sunday School class in Memphis, TN. The Women of Faith are some of the sweetest ladies I've ever known. Here is a party where we had ribs and many delicious sides.
Below is Barry Flippo one of my two best friends. I cooked several dishes that celebrated our best memories together, especially traveling around Paris and Chicago together.
