Appetizers ~Fancy Baked Brie with Gourmet Rooster Sauce (Vegetarian) ~Homemade bread (my friend Mattie baked 16 loaves) ~ Slow-cooked, marinated Italian meatballs ~Shrimp with tangy cocktail sauce (GF) Main ~ Coconut Ginger Curry Soup (V/GF) ~Massaged Kale Salad w/ Walnuts, Strawberries & Sea Salt (V/GF) ~ Quinoa Salad, Toasted Almonds and Fresh Herbs (V/GF) Beverages…
Me, working with the food, under the lovely Nevada sunshine.
Appetizers
~Fancy Baked Brie with Gourmet Rooster Sauce (Vegetarian)
~Homemade bread (my friend Mattie baked 16 loaves)
~ Slow-cooked, marinated Italian meatballs
~Shrimp with tangy cocktail sauce (GF)
Main
~ Coconut Ginger Curry Soup (V/GF)
~Massaged Kale Salad w/ Walnuts, Strawberries & Sea Salt (V/GF)
~ Quinoa Salad, Toasted Almonds and Fresh Herbs (V/GF)
Beverages
~Made in Nevada Wine
~Sparkling Soda and Champagne
Dessert – Miniature Cupcakes:
~Coconut, Salted Caramel, Vanilla Bean, & Lemon
V=Vegan & Vegetarian
GF = Gluten-Free
We prepared an organic meal . . .
Some of the many foods we purchased. Almost everything we provided was organic. Even our spices.
We invited cutie-pies to help with our food preparations . . .
Darling toddler helped keep our spirits high
The Creamy Carrot-Butternut-Ginger Soup Prep . . . we started this first.
Leeks. We used the white parts for the soup, the scrap for the stock.
We used about 21# of carrots.
We added two large butternut squash.
10# yams
We minced the ginger pretty finely.
Serve with a little toasted coconut on top. The hardest part about this soup is figuring out what to call it!
Next, the Herbed Quinoa-Almond Salad . . .
Thyme, Rosemary, Basil, Mint and Oregano
Zucchini
The stock. We boiled down all the “waste” and then cooked our quinoa in the stock.
The Massaged Kale Salad with Strawberries and Candied Walnuts . . .
. . . by the time we were making this salad, I was tired and managing an “emergency”. I forgot all about taking photos. Boo-hoo! (These are web-linked photos.)
We used a variety of kale and chard
We used almost an entire flat of strawberries. Mike was enthusiastic and bought two flats. So we had a LOT of berries! ;-D
We candied our walnuts for the massaged kale salad.
At long last, the night closed and we felt our sleep coming on . . .
The tired wedding prep team (clockwise): Norm, Kate, Sam, Mom, Mike, Me, Molly. Pops took the photo.
Have you ever dreamed of cooking for your own wedding? Mike and I took on cooking for our 80 guests for our prenuptial party. We learned a lot and gained priceless experiences. In the coming blog posts, I will share our personal recipes and experiences. Each recipe was carefully-crafted by us. Even if you don’t plan to cook for a giant party, you can still benefit from our many lessons. You’ve got three great recipes coming your way shortly.
Be sure to stay tuned for the recipes. If you aren’t subscribed, sign up now so that you receive the posts in your email!
Now it’s your turn: Have you ever cooked for a group of more than 10, 20, 40, or 80 people? Does cooking for more than two people sound intimidating and ludicrous? Do you have any advice to share, or questions to ask?
Please share your comments and questions below. I love hearing from you!
xoxo
Cheers,
Frances
5 responses to “Our Pre-Nuptial Party: The Menu”
Sounds lovely! Don’t do it often, but I love cooking vast quantities! My best piece of advice for cooking for a crowd is to remember that not all recipes can be doubled, quadrupled, etc, without adjustments.
Jean, you are so right! Thankfully, I chose easily multiplied foods – soup and salad. You can adjust the seasonings as needed to get the right taste. I also intentionally chose to stay away from baked goods, which are certainly harder to multiply. I wonder if ice cream is a challenge to multiply too?
[…] and reflection, I think I’ve come up with something similar to what I prepared for the prenuptial party. While this recipe won’t be an exact rendition, it’s close. I think you’ll find […]
Frances, for the soup, did you bake or boil the squash, carrots and yams? and then did you puree’ everything after? I loved this soup and want to make it. P.S. I just made the kale salad! 🙂
Hi Jenn,
Thanks for pointing this oversight out . . . I boiled everything together in the pot. You can peel the potatoes and squash. I left the skin on the carrots. I try to minimize the processing of all foods.