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 Food at the Cleveland Asian Festival, 2012

With a rhythmic welcome from the Kwan Family Lion Dancers, Cleveland kicked off its third annual Asian Festival this morning. We actually arrived rather early, so we could pick up some needed items at Park To Shop (and park our car). While we would have loved to spend the entire day at the Festival as we did last year, too many pressing obligations would make that impossible this time. The Festival is free to attend and open to all. In addition to food, two stages provide non-stop entertainment, and there are vendors galore selling products and services that may interest you. A children's area offers games, crafts, attractions and "inflatable sumo wrestling" for the minis. And Lolly the Trolley provides complimentary tours of Cleveland Asiatown.

A few changes for this year - a larger eating area is provided in the "food court" a/k/a the main Asia Plaza parking lot. The performance stage that shared the space with food vendors last year is now larger and located on Payne Avenue proper. Some of the vendors we loved last year did not return, but many did, together with some new faces. 

One thing we noticed was that some of the spicier cuisines seemed, um, gentled down a bit, especially compared to last year. Still, it all tasted good, and that's what counts.

Since we arrived shortly before the official commencement of the festivities, we walked around the food court and photographed even though not everyone was ready. The photos are in the order of the vendors; we didn't eat in the order shown, but if you decide to visit the Festival tomorrow, this order will make it easier to find your target.

Otani Japanese Restaurant returned with their portable sushi case

#1 Pho was the first new face we encountered

We had wanted to try Flavors of India last year, but lacked sufficient intestinal real estate. How would their Nepalese cuisine taste?

Everest Lamb Curry: Lamb with ginger, onion, tomatoes and Himalayan spices

Though we really enjoyed this plate, we wished that the tempting spices that played peek-a-boo with our palates were more prominent. Though the fragrance said "India," the flavors were a little different and we wanted more! We licked up every bit of that gravy (thank goodness they gave us a spoon). 

We had chatted with a gentleman while enjoying our first plates, as he consumed Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) - delicate dough containing pork or crab and a savory liquid filling. He pointed us to Li Wah, but warned us that these weren't the greatest. He was right - my guess is that they came out of a food service package, which doesn't make sense because Li Wah had it's full restaurant kitchen right on the premises. Oh well.

Li Wah's Little Cousin

E. 30th Cafe also had the same food items for sale at a table in front of the restaurant, in Asia Plaza. No pizza this year.

We loved the grilled chicken skewer from Asian Grille last year. 

I am an unabashed Koko Bakery lover. If you've never experienced a real Chinese bakery, you need to give Koko a try! As with last year, both sweets and savories are available:

We brought home a number of the above items, which wrapped flaky pastry around various savory fillings. Our selections of Bacon & Wasabi (above, right), Sausage & Cheese and Curry Potato & Cheese (above, left), as well as Ham & Cheese & Vegetables & Cheese were fabulous after just a few minutes in the toaster oven. We've got a couple of Taro strips (two photos up) that will probably wait until tomorrow.

Map of Thailand, as it did last year, had "show plates" at the ready; as last year, I photographed them but unfortunately did not get to sample their wares. Here's the dish that gave me the best photo:

Thai Style Basil Chicken

King Fire Baby looked so good last year, but we'd hit "uncle"! This year - they were a first stop.

Grilled baby ribs with Khmer pickled vegetables

Lemon Grass Chicken Wings

Iced Mint Green Tea Lemonade

King Fire Baby is offering a coupon on its website: purchase $12 from the booth, and get an Iced Mint Green Tea Lemonade for free! Since our order of one rib plate, one wing plate, and one tea got us over $12, we got my tea free. A little sweet for my taste, perhaps, but a truly lovely combination of tea and lemonade. My only wish was for the Cambodian flavors to pop a bit more - both meats were delicious and nicely cooked, and the slaw was yummy, but I wanted more tingle, more spice! 

And now we have . . . our pick for Best Bites of Festival (of those we tasted, of course): Tamarind Asian Cuisine! Alas - I cannot link you to a website, or even a Facebook page, because it seems that caterer Marina Villanueva Velmin doesn't have any yet! But this Filipina can cook!

Pork Adobo, Pancit Bihon (rice noodles with chicken, sausage, hard cooked egg),  pickled vegetables 

Tender, luscious pork in adobo sauce joined stir fried rice noodles loaded with a sausage similar to lap cheong but softer, chicken, hard cooked eggs, and vegetables. The small side of pickled vegetables (which had some chilies) provided acid and heat - and all of these elements together combined to make this dish our absolute favorite of the day.  Marina's business card lists contact info in Westlake and Venice Florida - I hope that we see more of her cooking here in Cleveland!

We took home a Banh Mi. When we were finally hungry again, we removed the crisp vegetables and toasted it, then put the veggies back. Yum.

Ono Turo-Turo was another booth we had been forced to pass on last year. It was at the top of our list, but by the time we got to them, we knew we'd be packing most of our goodies up for later noshing.

Dinoguan (Chocolate Meat) 

This delicious mole-like dish was served up with plenty of incendiary whole chilies - so we were a little surprised that the meat, while perfectly tender and delicious, with hints of chocolate and seasonings, didn't have much chili flavor. Last year, after we'd reached satiety, our friend Stuart told us we had to try their food. While I'm glad that we did this year, I'm still puzzled how something cooked with that many chilies could taste so mild. We'll cut the chilies up and add them when we reheat the leftovers.

This signless stand was presented by the West Side Market's own Kim Se Cambodian

And I somehow neglected to photograph Always Gutom, Always Pinoy, a Filipino stand that we much enjoyed last year. Looks like they had an awesome steamed pork bun that we missed. 

Once you step out of the food court, you will find three stands serving shaved ice in the Payne Street concourse; I got photos of two of them. It looked like refreshing fun!

Whew - lots of great food to play with at the Cleveland Asian Festival! And there is still one day to go in the 2012 edition. The weather is grand and the food is fun at the 2012 Cleveland Asian Festival, so go on out  on May 20 and play with your food!