Looking to be inspired by your ideas of anything tried and true or new and interesting to serve at a family event this weekend. It’s not at my house but I agreed to organize the food.
It’s casual - about a dozen of us, adventurous eaters but also won’t turn down something classic like a really good burger on the grill. One vegetarian in the group.
Simple prep is better. We will be swimming and playing cards/games so very casual. Appetizers good. Dessert ideas good. Any “make your own” is fun to do.
So, if you’re doing this type of spread what are you likely to put together??? Anything new tried this summer? A great vegetarian dish that can be made ahead??
I would say we are NOT macaroni/potato salad fans. Pasta salad is ok - or a great spin on one.
Pulled pork made in the crock pot is great and can easily be made ahead and feeds a lot of people. Use onion rolls for sandwiches.
Recently had a pasta salad that had fresh jalapeno in it–don’t have the recipe but it was great! Just enough tang to keep you coming back for more.
Depending on menu, Fettuccine Alfredo can make a good side dish and serves as vegetarian main dish. Also easy make ahead.
Put it in a casserole dish and just heat it up.
Get some Caesar Salad kits (or make your own) for the salad. Any salad with already applied dressing saves a lot of trouble (no need to trot out 10 different salad dressings).
I always make Key Lime Pie but your atlantic beach pie is similar. Simple brownies are good for a chocolate choice.
If you go the burger route Morningstar brand veggie burgers are excellent (I even like them!)
I have been making a great tomato salad this summer. It’s really easy: Quartered grape or Marzano tomatoes, corn (grilled or steamed and cut off cob), black beans, red onion, diced avocado all tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Adjust quantities as preferred by your crowd. It’s easy, has veggies and protein, and hits the spot on a summer day. I toss everything but the avocado and dressing together early in the day or the night before and refrigerate it. I then add the dressing/avocado 1-2 hours in advance and refrigerate until serving.
I should add that while I would like the menu to be “simple” in terms of time commitment I’m looking for a little upgrade from basics - like pulled pork in the crock pot - unless there is some great spin/addition to it. This is largely a group of adventurous cooks so I’m looking for that balance of delicious but also fresh.
Anyone have a great pork carnitas recipe??? Really flavorful??/
(and I’ll be hosting some of the same group next week so will have TWO occasions to consider your recommendations!)
For pork carnitas, I have an easy shortcut but it’s delicious. I buy the Frontera sauce pouch for carnitas - it’s a nice, garlicky sauce - cube and brown your pork, add it to the crockpot with the sauce and 3/4 cup of water, cook on low for 8 hours and shred. No need to reinvent the wheel! Serve with cilantro and avocado.
Thanks Sabaray - I know someone who used the Frontera sauce with flank steak this week and raved about it. What type of pork do you buy? Do you leave it cubed or does it shred after the hours of cooking.
If we go with a Mexican theme I’ll make my own homemade guac and salsa.
We just had this for dinner last night, so the timing on this is good! I bought a pork loin on sale this weekend (Whole Foods/Amazon prime!), so that’s what I used. It shredded really easily with two table forks after 8 hours. A little lime squeezed on it is also good if you wanted to offer that as a condiment.
@abasket how about an easy “main course” like pulled pork or spiral ham, and then fancy schmancy salads and appetizers for the upscale foodies in the bunch?
That might be more easily doable than a fancy schmancy main course!
@gouf78 this branch of the family introduced US to Code Names!! Euchre and Catch Phrase are two family mainstays - and I’m thinking a fast and furious round of Spoons might be fun.
FWIW none of my kids eat ham, nor do my Jewish and Muslim ones. If your vegetarian eats dairy, I really like to make a caprese salad. Just chop up the best tomatoes you have, slice a fresh mozzarella, or use the little mozarella balls, add a big hunk of basil, a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil and a little bit of balsamic vinegar if you like it. Grind some pepper, taste if needs salt. (The mozarella our local supermarket makes is already pretty salty so we don’t.) Jacques Pepin makes an interesting variation of this salad where he intensifies the tomato flavor, by cooking them in the oven for four hours at 250, blanches the basil and adds some capers. It’s in his book The Apprentice. I don’t see it on line.
If they’re open to Indian food, there is a woman who did a cooking demo at our library. She wrote a book called Spices and Seasons. I really like her approach to cooking - use local ingredients - it’s more fusion than authentic, but it’s all about what tastes good. The local paper runs a food blog to which she contributes. Here’s a typical recipe: https://www.lohud.com/story/small-bites/2014/05/19/spices-seasons-dandelion-greens-feta-chickpea-salad/9278083/ It looks like you can read ten articles before they make you pay.
^^^Is the sauce by the same chef/owner of the Frontera restaurant in Chicago–Rick Bayless? He has a great Mexucan cookbook. You might find something in there.
We had 13 people last weekend–ate at home one night and did a fish taco feast. Corn/flour tortillas, Black Sea bass (which H and I caught earlier) plus toppings crema, red cabbage thinly sliced, tomatoes, red onions, guacamole, and yellow rice (not from scratch but it was good). Also had Mexican street corn. Starter was water melon gazpacho. Final course was strawberry rhubarb pie (there is a great bakery that makes pies that are better than anything I could do.) adult kids took care of drinks: beer (Modello) lemonade, and sangria.
We had one vegan and bought a meat substitute (his suggestion) and he had that with his tacos instead of fish. Everyone seemed happy and ate a lot–nothing left.
It was a fairly easy meal since a number of folks helped with the prep. However we ate out the next night.
If you were thinking about tacos, you could do “walking tacos”. You need all your preferred taco fillings, plus those small bags of doritos. You kinda crunch up the bag so the chips are bite-sized, then you carefully open it only on the top. Then, the bag is your bowl for taco salad. A bit less healthy than traditional tacos, but way more portable.
Bromfield, I have one of the Bayless cookbooks but this is so easy and the result is pretty much the same. Did you pickle your red onions to serve with the fish tacos?
Our Mexican pork is not carnitas per se, but it’s shredded pork I simmer in chicken stock along with an onion and maybe a jalepeno or poblano pepper. Once it’s shredded we add a can of tomatoes, a can of corn, some hatch or anaheim green chiles. Yum. If you have it where you live Las Palmas green enchilada sauce (medium) is so tasty we are tempted to lick the can.
@mathmom well of course you don’t serve ham or pork to those who don’t eat it. I didn’t hear that restriction here…thus my suggestion.
We have family members with food “restrictions”. For that group, I have done a few things.
A pasta buffet. A couple of different kinds of pasta (regular, gluten free, whole wheat), with a bunch of different toppings to choose from. Grilled veggies, marinara sauce, turkey meatballs, regular meatballs, veggie meatballs, several different kinds of cheeses, a white sauce of some sort.
Then a salad buffet also.
Burger grill medley. This can include veggie burgers as well as a variety of different meat burgers, mushrooms. Different types of rolls, a variety of good mustards. Then dress up items like tomato slices, cheeses, nice sliced veggies to put on the burgers.
We always grill kabobs for large family gatherings. Pork/pineapple ones are always a hit. I use teriyaki sauce/pineapple juice/splash of cider vinegar/chopped onions to marinate the pork. Then pineapple cubes and red peppers go on the skewers with the marinated meat. Always grilled, never baked.
