Dinner time!

So, several weeks ago I was asked to audition (granted, after sending a bunch of information about myself to the casting director) for a new reality show on Fox about people with no formal cooking training who just happen to be really good cooks. My audition went really well, but I wasn't called back ... until I several days ago when I received a message from the casting director saying that they'd LOST MY APPLICATION and they really liked me but now it was too late and would I please consider auditioning next year and she was so sorry and oh wasn't this embarrassing etcetera. Wak wak. So although I won't be on the show, you guys get to reap the benefits of my (incredibly long) application process: applicants were asked to invent two dishes based on challenges, and I made and tested mine out on my family. Although I don't think this is the best or most interesting of the dishes I made, this is the one that everyone keeps asking for:

Bacon and Sage Macaroni & Cheese
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 pound orecchiette or other bowl-like pasta
8 oz sharp cheddar, grated
8 oz buffalo mozzarella, grated
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp mustard powder
4 oz beer of your choice, preferably an amber
1/2 pound thick-cut bacon
8-10 fresh sage leaves
1/2 cup panko or breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 425º. Fry bacon over high heat until crispy. Reserve bacon drippings, and fry sage leaves in the grease. Set bacon and sage aside on paper towels to drain. Break into bite-sized pieces when cool. Melt the butter over medium-low heat and stir in the flour to make a roux in a medium saucepan. When the roux is golden brown pour in 2 ounces of beer and begin putting in grated cheese mixture one handful at a time, stirring continuously. Continue adding beer, cheese, and spices until cheese mixture is blended and smooth (do not let it boil). Add bacon and fried sage. Meanwhile, cook pasta and drain when ready. Add 1/3 of pasta to a large casserole dish, cover with 1/3 of cheese sauce, and repeat until all the pasta and sauce are in the dish. Mix the pasta and sauce together with two large spoons, and sprinkle panko crumbs on top. Note: You can also make and serve this in several individual ramekins or smaller dishes, but don't bother with the layering in that case. Bake the casserole dish for about 25 minutes, or until cheese and crumbs are browned and bubbling. Decorate with fresh sage leaves and serve hot. Makes approximately 4 entrée servings.

The good news about this dish is that it's incredibly forgiving to substitution and error. Don't like spicy food? Leave out the cayenne! Prefer a sharper taste? Add a few drops of Worchestire sauce! Short on cash? Leave out the expensive buffalo mozzarella! It's pretty hard to mess this up, with a few exceptions: do NOT let the cheese get plasticky (this is why you start with a roux and add the cheese in small batches and cook over medium-low heat), and do not overcook it and let it burn in the oven (I warn from personal experience). Otherwise, mix and match it up and make it your own ... and let me know if you find a particularly delicious alteration! Enjoy!

Party People to the rescue!

It seems that people out there were listening, and have started sending some event questions to us for expert help! Hooray!


Dear Party People!
I'm going to be hosting a house-warming party in a few months, and I would love for it to be fabulous but inexpensive.  I'm quite a good cook (if I do say so myself), and would love to cater it, myself.  Also, I'm not much for decorations... and shouldn't the apartment speak for itself? It IS a housewarming, after all!  How do you suggest I proceed?
=Thanks for the help!
Sincerely,
Welcome to my Home

Dear Welcome to my Home,
Congratulations on moving in to a new apartment! People love any excuse to attend a party, so a housewarming is a great way to show off your new digs and visit with friends whom you may not get a chance to see very often. It's best to host an open house (no pun intended) for this kind of event, so people can come and go as they please and your apartment is less likely to be filled to the brim with guests for the whole time.

In terms of decorating, you're absolutely right - your home should speak for itself since that's what people are there to see! If you want to have a theme (luau, toga, whatever) by all means go ahead, but don't feel like you have to do anything extra to dress your home up. Decorate your apartment as you want to live in it, and let people get a feel for your personal style and taste. If you have the budget, it's nice to place a few bouquets of fresh flowers around the party area (and especially the bathroom) to make it extra-homey. TIP: buying flowers wholesale and creating arrangements yourself will save a bundle.

Fabulousness comes from the warmth of the host, and making sure that your guests don't go hungry or thirsty, so catering is extremely important. Doing it yourself will save you the most money but cost you the most time. If you're short on time, a good and relatively inexpensive option is to order catering trays from your local grocery store or deli. If you're up for doing the work yourself, we recommend creating lots of finger foods so you don't have to provide utensils (which will end up all over your new floor). Some classic options are a crudité platter (veggies and dip), a cheese plate with fruit and crackers, deviled eggs, and shrimp cocktail. Some slightly more unusual choices are marinated chicken or beef skewers, soup shots in dixie cups (or shot glasses if you have enough), stuffed mushrooms, and caramelized bacon bites. You can dress this kind of food up (foie gras bites) or down (bowls of chips) to fit with your hosting style. TIP: Websites like epicurious.com, marthastewart.com, and foodnetwork.com have great search functions to find recipes that will let you show off your cooking skills. We like to try to provide at least one meat, chicken, and veggie option to cover most dietary restrictions. TIP: Calculate 5 appetizers per person per hour. So if you are hosting an open house from 5-9pm and inviting 20 people, 20 people x 4 party hours x 5 appetizers = 400 pieces. Also, be sure to save some trays of food for guests who may come at the later end of the party.

And don't forget the drinks! Have a few bottles of non-alcoholic sodas or juices on hand for pregnant ladies and teetotalers, but otherwise plan to serve wine and beer. If you want to serve something harder, we recommend making a special cocktail for the event (the Homewrecker?) and offering just that one option to save on expensive alcohol costs. TIP: Assume that your guests will drink two drinks per hour for the first two hours they are at the party, and one drink per hour thereafter. And don't forget the cocktail napkins!

A last word on gifts: Housewarming parties came about because new homeowners didn't have have many of the items they might need or want for their new pad, so it was common for guests to bring mixing bowl sets, candleholders, and other items you now more commonly see as wedding gifts. If you are hosting the party with the intention of receiving these items we certainly hope you get them, but you are much more likely to receive candles and bottles of wine. If you already have everything you need, just add a line at the bottom of your invitation (Evite or email is perfectly acceptable for this kind of event) that says: "No gifts, please."

We wish you happiness and prosperity in your new home!

Happy partying,
Party People

Hitched in the Highlands

Exciting news! Events Laureate was just invited to participate in an awesome event taking place in Denver at the end of February. One of my favorite cupcake shops, Happy Cakes, has organized an incredible opportunity for local engaged couples: a fun race through the Highlands neighborhood solving clues and completing challenges, and the first couple to reach the end wins a wedding package worth over $25,000!! An awesome group of vendors donated products and services for this, including one of my favorite wine shops, Mondo Vino (mondovino.net), one of the most unique and fabulous wedding dress boutiques I've ever been in, Anna Bé (anna-be.com), ... and now us! That's right, Events Laureate is now the wedding coordinator for this incredible event! We're donating our Posh Party wedding package, so the lucky winning couple is going to get A LOT of time with us ;)

If you are engaged or know someone who is, here's all the pertinent info:
Applications are due February 12th
Race will be Sunday, February 28th
Wedding date is April 25th
Download the application and get all the info at http://www.happycakesdenver.com/HITH.htm

Woo HOO!

Dear Party People

Only one of the many great things about being me is that I have fantastic friends and clients, many of whom answered my call for help for a direction for this blog since my first post just a few days ago! One of my favorite ideas came from the marvelous mom-to-be, Rachel Anderson-Rabern (see her sweet and hilarious testimonial on the website): Rachel suggested a "Dear Abby" format in which people with questions about events can write in and ask them of those of us who fancy ourselves pretty good at them. So if you have a question about etiquette, invitation wording, theme ideas, scheduling, color palettes, vendors, or anything else about events or parties of any kind, email us at partypeople@eventslaureate.com and we'll answer your question on the blog (or in person if it's, well, personal). We look forward to hearing your questions and living up to our name!

Party Time, Take 1

It is apparently at long, long last time for me to enter the blogosphere. What should I do to celebrate the fact that I finally made it to the first hopscotch square where all the rest of you were already well at home in the last year/decade/century/millennium? Throw a party, of course! After all, we at Events Laureate are the ultimate party people. So please consider yourselves cordially invited to this, my Welcome to the World Wide Web party (I'm registered at Manolo Blahnik in case anyone is interested).

While I don't really have a concrete plan for this blog yet (I hope you will be pleased to hear that there will be no Julie/Julia Project rendition anywhere in this blog's future), I think we'll probably talk about all manner of things related to event and wedding planning: trends, flowers, locations, party favors, food, and what to do when you kind of hate the person you're marrying. Well ... maybe we won't cover that last one. At least until I start my fifth career as a therapist. At any rate (I almost typed "at any event" - ha! party punning!), since the topics are open, if there's something you want to hear about, learn about, complain about, or crow about please let me know either here or at sarah@eventslaureate.com so I can make sure that the best party news is getting out there.

As this blog gets up and rolling you can do your part by becoming our fan on Facebook, joining our network on LinkedIn, becoming a follower of the blog, reviewing us on Yelp! (links for all of these on the left), and helping us market by sending any and everyone you know to our website. And if you happen to have a bunch of extra Events Laureate business cards on hand, you can follow one reader's suggestion and start stashing them in every book in the wedding aisle. You know, just sayin'.