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Critique my menu??
I am hosting my sister's baby shower in September. It's going to be a brunch shower and I'm trying to come up with a menu that I can handle by myself, but I have a few complications. One, I live about 7 hours away, so I can't do much until the day before the shower since it would all need to transported by car. Two, the venue does not allow for cooking of food, but only warming of food so anything hot needs to travel about 10 minutes by car and then stay on sterno. Three, there are a few more people coming than I had expected (about 50), so I need to keep to a budget.
If you wouldn't mind taking a look at my menu and making suggestions, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
* Yogurt, fruit and granola parfaits (in individual cups w/covers)
* Breads/Muffins platter (banana bread, cranberry bread, blueberry muffins and chocolate chip muffins)
* Morning Casseroles - eggs, potatoes, cheese, veggies (some will have meat)
* Mini-Quiche - bacon/spinach, ham/cheddar
* Cold Tortellini Salad
* Meatballs in marinara (in a crock pot)
* Cupcakes or a cake - haven't decided yet.
Re: Critique my menu??
The morning casseroles and the mini quiche are kind of redundant. I'd drop one and add something a little more lunchy. Either a deli tray or chicken salad. You can easily add croissant to the breads and that would cover things. Another option might be to add some grilled and sliced chicken to the tortellini. Then add a green salad. I know you have fruit in the yogurt, but you might also consider some on a platter since you'll have the parfaits premade. Or you could just opt to let people builed their own.
I'll also add that the meatballs seem a little odd. I'd just cut them and call it a day.
As for cupcakes vs. cake- I know the world is in love with cupcakes, but I think they are overpriced and too big. I'd rather be able to choose how much or how little cake I want. Especially since budget is an issue, get a cake.
I think that the rest of your menu sounds great - but are you really planning on making all of that food for 50 people the day before the shower? That sounds like a logistical nightmare, not to mention expensive.
Cupcakes are cake. They taste the same. They are just a bigger PITA to make. I did them for my son's bday last year. Never again. I will continue to wage war against them and nobody will stop me
Thank you all for the great suggestions! I love the idea of chicken salad instead of the morning casserole. I think I'll definitely do that.
The meatballs, however, are a request from my sister so I have to leave them on the menu. I thought that the tortellini salad would help make them part of the menu, but what else would help them seem to fit better ... maybe a baked ziti?
As for dessert, I think I might just order a sheet cake, it'll take the pressure off having to transport frosted cupcakes, or decorate them on site the morning of.
If you need to leave the meatballs, why not make it a lunch menu instead of a brunch menu?
Meatballs, tortellini salad, chicken salad, you could make one big quiche instead of making a bunch of mini ones, fruit platter, veggie platter, and as assortment of buns/bread/croissants. Sheet cake for dessert.
I still think that it's going to be a nightmare preparing enough for 50 people in one day, and then trying to transport and keep that much food warm. Good luck.
I agree with this COMPLETELY. Meatballs just do not go with breakfast foods AT ALL. Something very simple would be to make an egg salad, tuna salad and chicken salad and have the assortment of buns as mentioned above. You could even pre-make ham buns. All of these things would transport fine in a cooler so you could make the day before. I would also add tomato mozzarella skewers which can be pre-made. Then with the meatballs, tortellini salad, veggie & fruit platters I think that would be plenty. Maybe do a relish and/or olive tray and some cookies? I would personally ax the quiche/casseroles since that cant really be pre-done or made there.
Totally agree with this. Ditch mini quiches unless you are buying them--anything individually prepared is both time consuming and hard to transport. Go with a few full-sized quiches or ditch that completely. Keep the meatballs (add rolls for sandwiches), tortellini salad, chicken salad with rolls, fruit platter, veggie platter or green salad or broccoli slaw, some sort of chip and dip and sheet cake for dessert.
I actually don't think this will be awful to do (can you put the meatballs in Crockpots? I like that better than sterno.) Unless you keep the quiche, every single other piece can be made a day ahead and kept cold or purchased, if necessary.
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I feel like you are making the same mistake everyone does with brunch...doing breakfast well and haphazardly throwing other stuff in.
I would do the yogurt, and muffins, and a potato dish as breakfast...
your quiche would be a good tweener with breakfast/lunch...as would a bread option like bagels, rolls, croissants.... and a fruit salad.
your lunch you can do the cold tortellini salad and I would say some kind of meat...maybe a spiral ham, chicken salad, or a deli platter to be eaten on the bagels, rolls, croissants I mentioned above.
All of this combines well to me as a brunch