Cool Soups on Hot Summer Days

A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm. ~Bill Vaughan

The heat wave in Michigan broke, but it's back again. My poor grass is actually crunchy at this point, and there is no rain in sight.  I've been avoiding using the oven at all costs, and grilling in early evening, or using the stove.  Tonight I made grilled pork chops, salad and baked beans cooked in the microwave.  I wrote an article for Old Fashioned Living this week with recipes for chilled soups.  They are a delicious alternative to hot appetizers or soups, and are an elegant dish to serve guests.  I share recipes for:


Cool Cucumber Soup
Chilled Cherry Soup
Cold Avocado Soup
Gazpacho (Cold Tomato Soup)

You'll find the recipes here: 
http://oldfashionedliving.com/Summer-Entertaining:-Cold-Soups.html

~Brenda

Summer Fruit: A Watermelon Basket

That beautiful season the Summer!
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light;
and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


We gave my middle son an open house in June for his high school graduation.  We served hot and BBQ chicken wings, coleslaw, cheesy potatoes, and pulled pork, along with a taco bar.  Everything turned out great, but the hit of the party was the Watermelon Basket.

I've written an article with step by step instructions for the basket, and variations on the theme for baby and bridal showers.  You can find the article here: http://oldfashionedliving.com/A-Watermelon-Basket-for-All-Occasions.html

I hope you all our staying cool and hydrated during the heat wave we are experiencing!


~Brenda

Fourth of July Celebrations

If anyone, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him - it means just what Concord and Lexington meant; what Bunker Hill meant; which was, in short, the rising up of a valiant young people against an old tyranny to establish the most momentous doctrine that the world had ever known - the right of men to their own selves and to their liberties. ~Henry Ward Beecher


It's been a hot, chaotic summer so far, and I'm hoping for a few cool days and less chaos in July. All of us at Old Fashioned Living hope you have a safe, happy Fourth of July week. We have some great ideas to help you with your celebration:

Watermelon recipes are delicious if you can keep it around long enough to cut it up:)
http://oldfashionedliving.com/watermelon.html

A summer menu complete with burgers, pasta, muffins and Banana Split Squares for dessert. http://oldfashionedliving.com/celebrations.html

I love the recipes in this article on Cool Tea Refreshments, which include the use of fresh mint. Any variety of mint can be used, including spearmint, peppermint, pineapple mint or even chocolate mint. http://oldfashionedliving.com/icedteas.html

Enjoy your week!  ~Brenda

Summer Goodness: Homemade Ice Cream Toppings

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time. ~John Lubbock


Today I have a new article on Old Fashioned Living with recipes to make your own ice cream toppings, including:


Chocolate Sauce
Vanilla Sauce
Fruit Sauce
Strawberry Hard Sauce


All of these sauces can be used with other desserts too; such as pound cake, angel food cake, fresh fruit, pancakes or waffles.


You'll find the article and recipes here:
http://oldfashionedliving.com/Homemade-Ice-Cream-Toppings.html

~Brenda

Old Fashioned Summer Beverages

Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

Today I have a new article on Old Fashioned Living with recipes to cool you down this summer.  Two non-alcoholic recipes and two with a little pick-me-up are included. 

Iced Mint Cocoa

Raspberry Mint Lemonade

Champagne Punch

Nasturtium Punch

I'm always singing the praises of nasturtiums, and this punch is a perfect way to use the blooms, no matter what variety you grow. 

Old Fashioned Summer Beverages with recipes is available here:  http://oldfashionedliving.com/Refreshing-Summer-Beverages.html

~Brenda

A Party for 200: Part Two-What to Serve?

Figuring out what to serve for a gathering of 100-200 people isn't easy. We took several things into consideration when trying to decide the menu:

1. What dishes had been favorite in the past at family gatherings?
2. Was the food fairly easy to cook, and not overly expensive?
3. Would the food do well on a buffet table in warming trays?

We used 18 quart electric roasters to cook most of the food. We borrowed roasters from family and friends, who dropped them off at the hall that morning, or the day before the party. We went through one roaster each of the potatoes, green beans, baked beans, and the meatballs. There was a little bit of ham left at the end of the party.  My brother in law provided the fried chicken, picking it up a couple hours before the party. We kept it warm in the oven until it was time to serve the food. 

Menu items:
1 boneless ham, sliced and heated
100 pieces of fried chicken, prepared and kept warm
Cheesy Potatoes
Green Beans with Bacon
Baked Beans
Sweet and Sour meatballs
Swedish Meatballs
5-6 dozen rolls and butter

Brenda's Cheesy Potatoes

Ingredients:
8 32 ounce bags frozen shredded hash browns, thawed
10 cups sour cream
5 12 ounce bags shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup sauteed onion
4 Family size cans (26 ounces each) cream of chicken soup
16 ounces bacon, cooked until crisp

Drain the bacon on paper towel after cooking, set aside to cool. In a large bowl combine the sour cream, and the soup, undiluted. Whisk together until smooth. Place all of the hash browns in a roaster pan, top with onion and cheese. Add the sour cream mixture, and stir with a sturdy spoon. This will be fairly hard to do, but try to mix the ingredients as best you can. Cover the roaster and set the temperature to 350 degrees F. After 20-30 minutes, stir again. As the ingredients heat it will get become easier to stir. Crumble the bacon and add to the potatoes after an hour or so. Continue to stir every 1/2 hour. When the cheese has melted, and the potatoes have heating through, turn the temperature down to it's lowest setting. Keep the lid on until ready to serve.

Notes: The potatoes ran out just as all of the guests came through the line. This dish was a huge hit, and I wouldn't change a thing. I started out with a very basic recipe for six servings, and made changes as I went along. I found shredded hash browns worked better, plus I thawed them overnight in the refrigerator before using them in the recipe. I used a sweet onion for the recipe.



The Meatballs

The meatballs come in 5 pound bags from Gordon Food Service. These are a nice quality ground beef meatball that we've used for years. We went through 20 pounds of meatballs for the party. They were divided and put into roasters. The Swedish meatballs were made with cream of mushroom soup poured over, cooked until heated through and kept on warm until ready to serve. We purchased BBQ sauce, and cans of sweet and sour sauce, which we poured over the meatballs, the same method we used for the Swedish meatballs.



I remember serving Swedish meatballs at our wedding reception, over 23 years ago. Some dishes remain popular throughout the years and never fail to please people. While cooking for almost 200 people is exhausting, it's also rewarding. I loved that our 18 and 19 year old sons helped us cooks and serve the food for the party. Working beside them is something we'll all remember.

~Brenda

A Party for 200: Part 1 Appetizers & Cold Food

Last weekend we cooked for almost 200 people at the 50th Anniversary party for my husband's parents. They have three sons, all married, and each family was responsible for a different part of the party.  Buying and cooking the food was our responsibility. My husband managed a restaurant before moving to Grand Rapids almost 25 years ago, and since then I've helped him cook food for three weddings and a retirement party, plus many small gatherings over the years. We only do this for family, and we keep the costs down as much as possible to save everyone money.  


I decided this would be a great experience to share on the blog. I'll be dividing the tips and recipes into at least two posts, possibly three.  Today I'm covering the appetizers and cold food. I've listed what we served, and below that in the notes I've gone over the amounts, recipes and tips.


Cold Food
10 pound container prepared coleslaw
10 pound container prepared potato salad
Fruit salad, homemade-recipe below


We actually bought two containers each of the coleslaw and potato salad, but only used one. Fortunately, we are having an open house for our son who just graduated from high school, and will be able to use it in June.


Appetizers
Cheese Tray
2 vegetable trays with Ranch Dip
1 large relish tray
Baked Mushrooms


Salads: We actually bought two containers each of the coleslaw and potato salad, but only used one. Fortunately, we are having an open house for our son who just graduated from high school, and will be able to use it. We worried that we should have had a third salad, but decided to go with the fruit salad instead of a pasta salad. I'm going to give you an approximate recipe for the fruit salad below, but my husband changes it a little bit each time, so it's never exact. In the notes below the recipe I'll go over what doesn't work and what does.


Cheese: We bought three 2 pound blocks of cheese: Cheddar, Colby Jack and Hot Pepper. We cut each block into cubes, rather than buy it already cubed. It was MUCH cheaper. The picture below shows the tray we made with the cheese.





Vegetable Trays: We bought way too much on these, but brought them home to eat. With 2 teen boys and friends over we didn't waste too much. I'm going to list what we actually used, not what we bought.


2 pounds baby carrots
4-5 green peppers, cut into strips
1 head broccoli, cut into pieces
3-4 cucumbers
2 stalks celery
1 pound radishes
2 pounds Ranch style dip


This made two vegetable trays. We were surprised we didn't have to refill these at least two more times. The way the room had to be set up, a table was placed away from the buffet line for the cold appetizers. In the past they were placed next to or in the same row of tables as the buffet, and we used far more vegetables.


Relish Tray: We had one large relish tray with olives, dill pickle spears, bread and butter pickle slices, and pepperoncini. We only ended up needing the one tray. 


CHUCK'S FRUIT SALAD


Ingredients:
1 cantaloupe, cubed
1 mango *see note
8 kiwis, quartered and sliced
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 pound bag frozen mixed berries
3 pound bag Fuji apples
1 pound bag frozen blueberries
3 medium cans mandarin oranges, juice reserved
3 medium cans pineapple chunks, juice reserved
1 pound bag shredded coconut


Dressing:
6 eight ounce containers Yoplait Orange Cream Yogurt
2 eight ounce blocks cream cheese, room temperature





Core and dice the apples into a large bowl. Add the juice ONLY from the oranges and pineapple chunks into the bowl with the apples. Allow this to sit and soak while cutting up the other fruit. It's important to drain all the fruit, fresh, canned and frozen using a colander. Drain off the apples after everything else is finished draining, discarding the juices. Place all the fruit in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine the yogurt and the room temperature cream cheese. Using a mixer, beat until smooth. Add to the fruit in the bowl, stirring gently until combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve. This made two deep foil roaster pans-- they were about 7x11 inches or so.





Notes: The mango was a huge mistake- we wouldn't use it again. My husband has been making variations of this type of fruit salad for years. Bananas, no matter how firm or fresh, never seem to work well either. Seedless fresh grapes, watermelon or cherries have all been wonderful. Substitute any of those for something in the recipe, with the same amount and it should be fine. In the picture you'll see more than one mango, but we only used one, but as mentioned they didn't do well.


CHUCK'S STUFFED MUSHROOMS


Ingredients:
1 box Herb Flavored Stuffing Mix
4 pounds regular sized mushrooms
1 stick butter
12 ounce bag finely shredded Cheddar Cheese


Prepare the stuffing as per the instructions on the package. Wipe off the mushrooms. Scoop out the mushrooms, putting aside the stems. Set the scooped mushroom tops in a 9x13 pan or a pan large enough to hold them all. Chop the mushroom stems and add to the prepared stuffing mix, stirring well. Carefully stuff each mushroom, brush the tops with melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20-30 minutes. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake another 5 minutes to melt the cheese.


Notes: I kept wanting to add more to this recipe--herbs, spices etc. but my husband shooed me away. He was right, because these were gone VERY quickly. We could have easily doubled the recipe. People loved the mushrooms. My husband did say to mention that he sometimes adds sauteed, chopped onion and celery.


Next, I will go over the hot food we served.  


On OFL we have an article on figuring out seating for parties:
http://oldfashionedliving.com/hospitality4.html

~Brenda