<p>Soozie,
Yes, I live in the Philly suburbs, and, specifically, the hoagies from LEE’s are the best !!! They make great party trays !!! But this tidbit of advice won’t help BonTon if she lives in NH !!!</p>
<p>As I posted that suggestion about kegs of root beer, I wondered if this was available nationwide. Here in Wisconsin, there is no shortage of beer and faux beer! What I believe we get, from a local liquor store, is Sprecher, from a Milwaukee company. Wonderful sodas as well as beer. Their website says they ship bottles, tho no mention of kegs. But I think some of the local brew pubs produce their own root beer as well, and you might see if they have kegs.</p>
<p>Hurray!! the dessert menu is planned! I found a distributor about 1/2hr away who rents root beer logs, so we’ll have root beer floats; my husband is famous for his hot fudge sauce, so we’ll have a make-your-own-sundae station and my daughter’s friend is going to culinary school and is thrilled to have her first pastry order. She’s making us fancy cupcakes and chocolate dipped strawberries! This is great, I’m not even in the kitchen yet!
Now onto the nutritional part of the meal…
Thanks guys!</p>
<p>We had about 45 people here for a graduation open-house. We made two big pots of pinto beans (season with lots of garlic, cumin and epazote), and had “make your own” vegie soft tacos. We bought about 80 whole wheat flour tortillas - freshly made by our local store, chopped tomatoes, fresh cilantro, sour cream, hot sauce, grated cheese, guacamole or avadado and people made their own soft tacos. (My hubby was a big skeptic, and thought that noone would eat them at 2:00 in the afternoon. Boy, was he wrong!!!) We also had watermelon, honeydew melon and grapes, soda, beer, fizzy water. For dessert, I baked 8 batches of the Giardelli brownie w/ choc.chips mix (substitute real butter for the oil…), and kept a container of breyer’s vanilla bean ice cream out on the counter in an ice-filled container. People enjoyed the food, and it was fairly inexpensive and yummy and easy to prep ahead of time. ;)</p>
<p>ideally you want to set a table of food that doesn’t require made to order conditions. Self serve properly chilled or heated. Smaller batches out to prevent spoilage. </p>
<p>I’ve done alot of group feeds and by far the easiest is pulled pork, chicken or beef. It starts the day before. Take a mixure of sea salt, garlic powder and black pepper ( ratio 65/33/2) as your base rub. Liberally (never conservatively:)) hand rub the selected meat ( pork shoulder) with this mix. Place meat in plastic zip lock and add two tablespoons of liquid smoke and two tablespoons of water. Seal. Refridgerate overnight turning on occassion. </p>
<p>Morning of empty entire contents (pork shoulder and liquid) into crock pot and turn on high. After a few hours (say 4-6) pork should be fork tender. Pull out bones and cartlige, leave “broth” and you’re ready to serve. Rice, or bun or tortilla will work fine. </p>
<p>I usually did different meats as some couldn’t eat pork, you can pull chicken the same way though (skinless) or beef (potroast) .</p>
<p>The biggest hit at my daughter’s graduation party was a chocolate fountain. I bought a Rival fountain for ~$40, but I has seen smaller ones for even less money. It is really quite easy and mine cleans up in the dishwasher.</p>
<p>I have used my chocolate fountain a number of times now, and my favorite chocolate mix is half milk chocolate and half semi-sweet chocolate. Our family favorites to dip in the chocolate fountain: strawberries, pineapple, pretzel sticks, graham cracker sticks, Pepperidge Farm pirouettes, marshmallows, Rice Krispie treats, angel food cake, Nilla wafers, and peanut butter cookies. </p>
<p>Whatever you decide to do food-wise, enjoy the day!!</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This is what people will remember for years from your party! Great idea–wish we could all come.</p>
<p>Meatballs-was it Judy who told us how in 2004?went over very well. Crockpot kept them at the right temp.<br>
We attended a grad party with taco bar-considering it for senior recital next year.
We had 2 Costco cakes but the kids loved the neighbor’s cookies the best.
OpieofMayberry-thanks for the pork crockpot receipe-sounds good. :)</p>
<p>I served my fresh fruit on wooden skewers, making fruit kabobs. They looked pretty and were easy to pick up and eat. Definitely will do that again.</p>
<p>“OpieofMayberry-thanks for the pork crockpot receipe-sounds good”</p>
<p>You’re welcome. I didn’t create it myself. When touring colleges several years back we stopped at a haiwaiin box lunch shop in forest grove OR. Pacific University. The two haiwaiin guys gave me their receipe for “luau pork” and I’ve been using it ever since. The liquid smoke (hickory or mesquete) gives it a wonderful trace of smoky flavor, like it’s been on a spit all day, or in these guys case, in the ground. </p>
<p>Enjoy. Make sure you use sea salt not regular table salt though. Sea salt just isn’t as salty tasting so you can use liberally without oversalting.</p>
<p>BonTon,
sounds great that you are feeling upbeat about the food aspect of the party already…</p>
<p>since you are in NH…and it is a special day…not sure how available Maine Lobster is…but, there are these puff pastry mini shells in the freezer at Shaws and or Hannafords…bite sized…15 to a box…and I make a lobster salad and then stuff the mini shells…it is a real treat… I just use Hellman’s mayo, a bit of small diced celery and diced cooked lobster… I find I need 1/4 lb of lobster meat for 15 shells…4 boxes/60 treats needs a good pound of lobster meat…</p>
<p>Hannaford has a great Lemon Garlic Marinade that is perfect for Chicken Party Wings…marinate for at least 1 hr…and then cook in oven for 25 min total at 400* turn after first 15 min…kids love those…</p>
<p>Chocolate covered strawberries are a wonderful treat…especially with ice cream treats too… so is sliced pineapple…that is a big hit every time… </p>
<p>I love the idea of a cake in shape of year… I was going to suggest cookies made out of the numbers 2 0 0 7…or using number shaped cookie cutters to make sandwiches in those shapes too…</p>
<p>if there has been something you have been known for (ie your chili for soccer games or a special dessert) then make sure you include it…cause it is a chance to revisit old memories or make sure it gets accentuated for their long term memory bank!!</p>
<p>I always order up a bunch of cocktail size samosas and chicken tikka from the local Indian restaurant. Yum!</p>
<p>^^love that idea, mathmom</p>
<p>MotherofTwo and Springfield mom,
Wawa and Lee’s are two Phila. area finds that we always seem to gravitate towards. Both Costco and BJ’s are always great for party ideas - along with Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.</p>
<p>Ok, I think I have about 70 people coming during the course of the afternoon. Alot of family will be arrriving at the ceremony around 9 to get a good seat and it will probably end around 12:15. ( my D’s the val and class pres. so everyone wants to see her at the mic) Therefore,everyone will be coming to my house starving! We’ll start with fruit kabobs, finger sandwiches, roll-ups and quesadillas, potato salad and chips. That will keep everyone from fainting and give me time to heat up the sausage and peppers, meatballs, ziti w/ chicken and brocolli, and taco bar. We’ll also have a large green salad. Of course, we’ll have assorted sodas and waters on ice. Desert will be my favorite part with the rootbeer floats, cupcakes, sundae bar and probably brownies.
I had been thinking that that wasn’t enough food, but now that I’m typing it out it seems like a feast- am I all set?
You guys are the best-thank you for all your great ideas!</p>
<p>It sounds like a lot of good food to me! Can I come and enjoy? :)</p>
<p>We are cohosting a graduation party for our son and one of his best friends
We are serving all Italian food for about 150 people</p>
<p>Chicken, Ziti, Broccoli
Baked Ziti
Meatballs
Ceasar Salad
A wide variety of Calzone
Pizza</p>
<p>Cake, munchies—that’s it</p>
<p>BonTon: sounds great! What’s your address again?</p>
<p>Dear Opie ofMaybery2,
Husb and son loved the pork in tortillas. THANKS.</p>
<p>Kegs of root beer: if you have a local micro brewery, that may be a good source. That’s where we got ours for S’s party last year.</p>
<p>True story: we had a large dessert party for 6 graduating seniors. The post card invitation mentioned the desserts and the “keg” with an asterix sending the reader to the footnote saying “of the best root beer in town.” </p>
<p>However, the post card affixed a bar code sticker right over the explanation! So some out-of-towners thought we were throwing a “kegger!”</p>
<p>Of all the desserts we had, and there were many delicious choices, the one item we kept having to refill and eventually depleted entirely was fresh pineapple.</p>