Fun Playing With Food Fit For a Queen, For the Last Time

Last weekend was the 25th, and final, Queen's Croquet. A party that began at my friend's house as a games night, which then got out of hand, the Croquet morphed from that backyard through three hotels over those 25 years. I was fortunate to be in charge of the food for the last 10 annual parties. From a mini kitchen, to no kitchen, to a battered commercial kitchen, my team and I cranked out all kinds of fabulous food to feed crowds from 75-125 people, including no fewer than 4 weddings. I shall miss The Queen's Croquet very much. Our theme for this last event was "At the Movies."

Friday lunch had been sandwiches the last few years. But we were recently gifted with a substantial cache of canned cheese products, and money being tight, Her Majesty requested that I utilize the cheese as much as possible. 

Thus,  lunch for the early arrivers was The Cheesiest.

First up, Beefy-Cheesy Casserole - GFS meatballs, potatoes, cheddar cheese sauce, mild salsa:

And, next:

Cheesy Chicken with Fresh Spinach. Cooked chicken, cheddar cheese sauce, fresh spinach, Corn Flake topping, salt & pepper

The catering commenced in earnest with Friday Dinner: Cloudy, With A Chance of Meatballs.

Three Cheese Spaghetti Pie

GFS Beef Meatballs

I usually make them myself, but couldn't make them for the price GFS was selling them for, so frozen it was.

From Scratch Marinara Sauce

Farfalle with EVOO

EScape from the Maelstrom Pesto: garlic scapes, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, EVOO, Salt & Pepper.

Virginia's property has an overabundance of garlic plants, which yield a lot of scapes this time of year. The Farfalle was described as a place to resto your pesto.

Cheeseburger Soup

The first full meal appearance of the cheese sauce haul was in this delicious soup! Cheeseburgers were, after all, the first food that rained down in the movie.

Silky Spinach Soup

What a tasty way to eat your vegetables!

Salad Bar

Banana Pudding

Dave Reckner, who so kindly donated the cheese sauces, also donated some pudding. Not Jello, but it did just fine!

Cherry Slab Pie

Caren Bachman made not one, but two slab pies. Given our theme, Cherry was necessary (and delicious)!

Blackberry Slab Pie

Not finished yet, Caren donated another sweet treat for the dessert table:

Bund Kuchen with Raisins

I regret that I failed to take any photos of Ernie and Nita Jones dishing up omelets to order for breakfast Saturday morning. Ernie, the Queen's Omeletier, served up AM deliciousness at 8 of the last Croquets, and though he does them for some other events, the Croquet omelets will always have a special place in my heart. Perhaps because they always followed Ernie's fabulous Karaoke by so few hours?

One tradition that began at Mary Lee's house over the long Memorial Day weekends, which continued to the end, was the Grill Out. People would bring their own meat and Mikey would grill day and night! Once we moved to the first hotel in 2001, it became necessary to re-organize a bit.

The Queen's Grillfriend, John Massura, would schlep a Weber all the way from Chicago to join Her Majesty's Weber in some outdoor part of the hotel property (in Dayton or Cincinnati, depending on the year), where Saturday lunch would be prepared. Some years, John even prepared Grilled Chocolate - just because he could!

Saturday Lunch:

Bratwursts, Half Pound Burgers

Hot Mettwurst, Smoked Sausage (Mild Mettwurst)

Plain Grilled Chicken, Honey Teriyaki Chicken

John's Maple Baked Beans 

Though I usually made the beans from dry beans, John wanted to make this recipe (which he got from Caren) for the last Croquet. I could not refuse him, and they were marvelous.

Cole Slaw a la Chef Eric Wells

Chef Eric, now the Executive Chef at Cleveland's Ligali Bistro, taught me this simple and tasty cole slaw dressing that has ruined me for commercial cole slaw products.

No such luck with the potato salad - I just don't have the time to futz with the potatoes, so GFS it is!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Amazingly similar in content to the Cheeseburger Soup from Friday's dinner, this dish was even more popular than it's predecessor. It was so good, I might make it again for another event, even if I wasn't gifted with cheese sauce.

Dessert

And so we came to my final Croquet meal. Nita would be making pancakes (and I think Ernie took care of the sausage) for breakfast Sunday morning; again, I am kicking myself for not taking any breakfast pictures. But this dinner would be my last cooking project for the Croquet, other than heating and serving leftovers on Sunday for lunch.

Keeping with the overall theme for the weekend, dinner was dedicated to: Chicken Run.

These Chicken Pies (but of course!) were, I do believe, the best entree item Bob and I have ever made for a catered event. The filling was made in advance and frozen in pans, then Bob put together a simple crust that we baked down after the pans were hot.

Braised Chicken Parts

Parts is parts. But this simple dish was killer!

Baked Chicken Eggs with Spinach, Mushrooms & Bacon

The top pan was without bacon, for a vegetarian option. I found the recipe (at Smitten Kitchen), but Virginia made it hers. A very successful dish.

Scott started bringing his chili to the Croquet around the time we started holding it in hotels and donated a big pot of it every year thereafter. This year, it gave relief to those who'd had enough chicken!

Corny Chicken Feed Salad - made by Virginia from Theresa Gregory’s recipe!

More Cheese, Gromit! 5 different kinds of cheesecake, made and donated by Caren Bachman. Plus, there was one more plain one left for lunch on Sunday!

I realized as I prepared this post that I never took a photo of my very last Croquet dish - a pasta salad I created Sunday morning from a pan of leftover Farfalle, EVOO, Balsamic Vinegar, chopped ham and mushrooms originally prepped for omelets, and some broccoli florets intended for the snack table. It accompanied the leftovers we served for our last meal together. Oh well. For more information about The Queen's Croquet, and some non-food photos of the fun, visit here.

I have made many friends over these last thirteen years as I've been learning the art and science of catering. But the two I hold most dear are Virginia and Phil. They first got to know one another at the Queen's Croquet, and were married at a Croquet. I was honored to cater their wedding dinner! And so, this post ends with a couple of non-food photos; I could not have done all the above without their love, support, and most important, HELP!

Here, Virginia is a two-fisted soup stirrer.

And below, Phil busts suds Sunday after our final Leftovers Lunch.

The end.

Fun Playing with Cheesesteak Wit Whiz in Twinsburg OH

My blogger friend Tom (Exploring Food My Way) recently referenced a post he made last year, describing a relative newcomer to the Northeast Ohio food scene - The Original Steak & Hoagies in Twinsburg, which promises to deliver the true Philadelphia Cheesesteak experience. I saw Tom's more recent post, and wondered, "how did this place slip through my radar?" And so, after a trip to the Geuaga Farmers' Market on a recent Saturday, we headed for Twinsburg to see if a true taste of Philly had landed in our proverbial back yard. Please refer to Tom's excellent post for some background on the genre, and the family that owns and runs Original Steak & Hoagies.

 

Orders are placed at the friendly counter - I ordered a small Cheesesteak Wit Whiz; Bob opted for Wit Provolone. As we sat and waited for our food, I was impressed by how exquisitely clean the place was - both the dining room, and the large portion of the food prep areas we could see from our seats in front of the restaurant.

We had also decided to share an order of fries, which was more than plenty for the two of us. The fries came up first:



The staff told us that they had just switched to this product, and asked how we liked it. The fries were perfectly cooked to crispy goodness and dressed with just the right amount of salt. Most important, they weren't greasy. Though not house-made "from scratch," we loved them.


Bob's Wit Provolone


Mine Wit Whiz

For those of you not conversant in Philly Cheesesteak speak - the "wit" refers to "with grilled onions."



This "sandwich consumption in progress" shot says it better than I can. The combination of an authentic roll sourced from Amoroso Bakery in Philadelphia, which handled the extreme juiciness of the sandwich with perfect aplomb, the creamy meld at the left of the sandwich in this photo of whiz, caramelized onions and tasty rib eye which had been chopped and fried to order on the grill, led to happy sighs. Our last trip to Philly was July 1990, but one bite of this sandwich took me right back.

We were having so much fun playing with our food that proprietor Bill Fromholzer stopped by our table to chat. I mentioned how the sandwich took me back to my last Philadelphia cheesesteak experience, and commented that next time, I'd have to try the Mom Mom's Meatball with Gravy sandwich. But before you could say "on top of spaghetti," Bill brought us each a meatball and a taste of gravy - made from scratch from his grandma's recipe ("gravy" is of course the Philadelphian term for tomato sauce) and piping hot; no microwave needed here.





The meatball tasted like a combination of different meats (probably pork, beef and veal), egg, seasonings, and just enough breadcrumb to hold it together - a great set of ingredients prepared with grandma-like finesse. And the sauce also sang with fresh-made flavor.

Since we were grilling sausage for dinner that night, we decided to grab a side of the house-made coleslaw to go with it.



This cole slaw had the flavors and texture of cole slaw as I enjoyed it growing up on the East Coast - chopped vegetables (not food service pack, and not shredded, but obviously chopped in house) with just the right amount of mayo, vinegar and simple seasonings (including a pinch of sugar, which always seems missing from Midwest coleslaws). Darn tasty.

According to the Steaks & Hoagies website, you can enjoy their products at Canal Park in downtown Akron (home of the Cleveland Indians AA affiliate Akron Aeros), in addition to the Twinsburg location on 10735 Ravenna Road. And free local delivery is available; call to learn if you are in their range. If you are fond of cheesesteak, Philadelphia, meatballs and gravy, or coleslaw - you will have fun playing with food at  The Original Steak &  Hoagies.