Showing posts with label Chocolate Covered Bacon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chocolate Covered Bacon. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Fun Catering for 195 Hungry Friends

Last weekend - or was it two weekend ago? Bob and I were in charge of food for the 2010 Cleveland Area Mensa Regional Gathering ("RG"), which was a party "So Superior, it's Eerie!" We had a total of 195 people in the house (actually, a local hotel) for a weekend of food, fun, speakers, games, tournaments, friends, a dunk tank and book sale to raise money for the David Jaquet Scholarship Fund, and so much more. It was exhausting and exhilarating, fun and silly. And we raised a lot of money for the Scholarship Fund, which honors the late David Jaquet, a former President and activist in our Mensa chapter, and which offers scholarships available to any student enrolling in higher level education through an essay contest (you do NOT need to be a member of Mensa to qualify, and the national contest has additional scholarship opportunities available - check out info here).

The prep had begun weeks in advance of the event. One of our members was able to obtain an obscene quantity of lunch meats, bacon, kielbasa and hot dogs through her mom's place of employment. When she got redeployed due to her fiance's good fortune (he won an all-expense-paid trip to NYC the weekend of our event) - Bob and I swooped in to collect the bounty from her basement. It all just barely fit in our outbuilding's refrigerator, consuming both the fridge and freezer compartments:



Our Mensa-member farmers, owners of Mr. G’s Produce, 13213 Arlington Road, Norwalk Ohio, provided some gorgeous winter squashes, which I turned into 8 quarts of delicious soup:


Garden-Based Vegetable Stock Simmers 





Sadly, I neglected to get a photo of the final product. The squash halves were dusted with salt and pepper and brushed with melted butter, then roasted in a slow oven until tender. The insides were scraped out and blended with the finished veggie stock, then frozen. After reheating for service, a bit of heavy cream was added. It was heavenly.

Nick and Kelley also provided Eggplant a couple of weeks in advance of the event, which was prepped a few days before service.



Though it lacked the intense smokiness that a charcoal fire would have added, Amir's Tahini gave this babaganoush so much flavor and a touch of smokey tones:


Sadly, the only meal I got any photos of was Friday dinner - it just got too insane after that. In addition to the squash soup and baba, we served:

Lots of Cold Cuts - with Bread - at every meal!

Ham and Noodles, provided by a longtime member who always brings something yummy to the RG!


Keeping with our "Eerie" theme for the dinner, these blurry meatballs were called "Lake Erie Monster Eyeballs" - each had a single, strategically placed pea. Or at least they did, until they were tossed with the "Vinegar Splashed Meatball" sauce. Oh well.

"Soylent Green" aka Urban Herbs's Spinach Cous Cous with Lemon and Mint

Salad Bar - Lettuce and Tomatoes from our wonderful farmers!

More Salad Fixings: Plain Tuna, Farmers' Radishes (2 types) and Cucumbers, Mushrooms and Shredded Cheese

Vegan Chili, made by another RG Volunteer cook

We had other fabulous soups, Garlic Chicken and roasted Kielbasa, Tortellini Salad with Farmers' Tomatoes and Broccoli, Sushi, St. Josephat's Pierogies and Koko Bakery Pork Buns, plus beautiful and tasty cakes and other desserts made by our wonderful volunteers - so many delicious and beautiful  foods that I failed to photograph because I was too, um, busy. But there is one more photo.

Chocolate Covered Bacon with Almonds a la Iron Chef Michael Symon

We had lots of Chocolate Covered Bacon (milk and dark Belgian chocolate - thank you Caren and the Pittsburgh RG!). People seem to either love it or hate it, but it's become a Cleveland RG staple as much as our root beer floats, with craft brewed root beer.

As always, we had great fun feeding the masses, though we did suffer a casualty on our home stove when an igniter shorted out after tortellini cooking water splashed (AC Plumbing, Heating and Mechanical will complete that repair tomorrow - thank you Tony Caruso!). A great time for a great cause - we love feeding our many friends at these events! But much as I love doing this, at the end of the weekend, my feet remind me that I'm not ready to quit my day job yet.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Fun Playing the One-Armed Chef

I've posted before about my exploits as a would-be Chef, feeding up to 175 people at a time at various Regional Gatherings and other parties - here is last December at Cincinnati, and here is last Sept-Oct in Elyria. We'd been planning this Fall's Cleveland RG for months - then my August accident happened, putting a "tear" in my plans. Fortunately, my dear friend Virginia immediately volunteered to be my "right arm," together with her husband Phil (himself nursing a terrible hip). My husband Bob agreed to supplement my still-working left arm - and awaaayy we went! Virginia supplied three wonderful soups, which I did not get to photograph, and which we served with Friday's dinner. Bob made two soups, which we served with Saturday lunch. BLT soup, recipe from Paula Deen:
  Lettuce Cooks Down
Onion & Bacon Already Cooked Down
Garden Heirloom Tomatoes Await the Pot
Yum! But wait - there's more!
Heavy Cream is added just prior to service

 
 I admit, I didn't think it would work (cooked iceberg lettuce!) - but it was delicious! Another item we pre-prepped was Chocolate Covered Bacon with Almonds. We learned this one courtesy of Iron Chef Michael Symon and his new show, Dinner Impossible (though Michael later told me that this was a Cory Barrett invention). Even though my right arm was still in a sling, I was able to help with this dish by chopping the almonds in the food processor, them sprinkling them on the bacon with my left hand!
  Milk Chocolate is Gently Melted 
Almonds are Chopped
Bacon is Crisped in the Oven
Another Yum! 

 As Served

Speaking of service, we ran a little late getting Friday's dinner out. So, all I could get was a lone shot of the service line, before the hordes descended:
   

 Right to left, we had Salad Bar, Whole Wheat Cous-Cous, Peas & Garden Mint Salad, Hummus with Pita Chips, Garden Stuffed Tomatoes (made by Bob and looking kinda like the image that follows), Chinese BBQ Pork Buns from Cleveland's Koko Bakery, and Virginia's 3 Soups (Pumpkin Cheddar, Creamy Chicken, and Garden Miscellany). 

  Test Batch Sample of Stuffed Garden Tomatoes I also neglected to get a shot across the room at the 18 Qt Roaster filled with Potato Perogies made by the grandmas of St. Josephat's Church in Parma, accompanied by sauerkraut, red cabbage, and sauteed onions donated by Mary Ann, who didn't even attend the gathering! We kept the snacks coming after dinner, including a freezer full of ice cream treats and a hotdog cooking machine. I collapsed into bed after 2am - I did NOT photograph breakfast, which Virginia was kind enough to prepare with the help of Al and his 15 loaves of quick breads. Saturday's lunch included the BLT soup shown above, and this irresistible tomato soup featuring more of Bob's heirlooms:
   
Garden Azoychka (Yellow) Tomato Soup

  We also served a "make your own sandwich" bar and some salads.
   

This delightful Ham Mousse was donated by Robert - who was in his 30th year attending Cleveland Regional Gatherings. He had supplied an identical platter for Friday dinner.  

Again, the food line started with a salad bar.
  Here, in addition to some spicy peppers from our garden, and Robert's mousse, you can see a delightfully sweet and sour bean salad, which helped to answer the question - what to do with a #6 can of green beans? I would like to credit EGullet's own CaliPoutine for sharing her recipe with me - I regret I didn't get a close up photo of the finished product, but it was really delicious, as well as cheap and easy. Thankfully, Saturday dinner was catered by the hotel (though I honestly thought our food was better!). That meant that after dinner, all we needed to do was set up more snacks to hold the masses into the evening and on! That and get the homebrew rootbeer floats going - a Cleveland RG tradition I am proud to be responsible for!

   

Salad bar converts into bain marie to keep cheese, dip and crudites cold.

   
 Of course, there is also dessert! Colleen D. made these 4 lovely and tasty cakes for us, and Mary Ann made the brownies. The cookies came courtesy of Virginia and Barbara from the Akron group!
  And yes - there is more Chocolate Covered Bacon at the rear left.
  Last but not least - a lot of people ask me - "What do you do at a Mensa Gathering"? Well, in addition to playing with our food, sometimes, we get a little silly. Saturday afternoon, a lady who had been a great help with prep on Friday returned, and dropped off a bag of vegetables from her farm, and another bag with gorgeous gourds. One gourd, in particular seemed to fascinate people. Unable to resist any longer, Bob decided to play with his non-food food - and created the following:

   

Silly, isn't it? And hard to believe it was over so fast. Well, the pain and swelling in my feet late Sunday confirmed that it was indeed over. And Monday was Rosh Hashonah already! Eeke! What to do? Play with holiday food, of course! Stay tuned!