My husband and I say this to each other sometimes, like a mantra.
One of Us: Hey, I just found out that [insert yummy restaurant] has an awesome happy hour. We could eat there for $30!
The Other: *fist pump* I like food.
or
OoU: Check out this recipe I just found! Goat cheese, honey and strawberry compote. Super easy.
TO: *sly smile* Well, I do like food.
or
OoU: You want dinner?
TO: *philosophy face* I like food. I’m quite a fan, actually.
So planning a dinner party is heading towards Nirvana for us. We take off work the day before the party to start cooking, and we do everything from scratch – homemade stocks and sauces, home baked bread and pastries, and (of course) my annual batch of pumpkin soup! Of course, you don’t have to do the cooking yourself to have a grand celebration — hey, if a day in the kitchen sounds more like Tartarus than Ellysium, you and your guests will both appreciate a call to a caterer! — but for Scott (my super spouse) and I, there is something spiritual about cooking our Halloween feast that brings us closer as a couple, and we look forward to it every year.
This year, we’re looking at southern cuisine, and man are we excited! Jambalaya, etouffee, sweet potato biscuits, she-crab soup, shrimp and grits, and chocolate pecan pie all hopped to mind immediately. Southern food is tasty and not terribly expensive to prepare (a bonus when cooking for a large group). It lends itself to family style dinners, and while Scott and I have done plating before (where we serve our guests), family style (where guests pass the food around) allows us to spend more time with guests and less time in the kitchen. (And as much as we love cooking, spending time with our friends is the point of the night.)
We have a few extra challenges in addition to the normal assortment of menu planning considerations  – such as cost, serving style (family style, plated, or buffet being the main choices), and what’s in season locally (we make a big effort to stick with locally sourced ingredients or to at least support the many awesome family farms still in operation around the States) – we have a few extra challenges. Scott is mildly allergic to shellfish (so we can’t go too crazy with the bayou cuisine). One of our regular guests is lactose intolerant. And I’m on a gluten-free diet. And GG can’t handle spicy food. Now this doesn’t mean that we can’t have any shellfish, dairy, or wheat flour, but it is important to us that nobody goes away hungry (especially us ‘cause, well, we like food!).
Some of our goals?
- Plan an affordable four course meal that includes:
- Appetizer – available on arrival, so it must be able to sit out for half an hour while guests gather
- Soup – I usually do pumpkin and one other for the less adventurous (though even the unadventurous who try my pumpkin soup usually ask for seconds!)
- Main dish – meat w/vegetables, but, you know, interesting
- Kick-ass dessert – meal planning fact: if we get one thing right, it MUST be the dessert; it’s what the meal ends with, so even if everything else falls flat, people will walk away singing our praises if the dessert is killer
- Learn how to transform my sweet potato biscuit recipe into a gluten-free masterpiece (I refuse to live life without them),
- Figure out a way to Cajun-ize my pumpkin soup (8 years of pumpkin soup tradition can’t end over a theme!),
- Pick one can’t-live-without-it shellfish dish (crawfish gumbo maybe?) and create a menu that otherwise avoids,
- Find alligator meat and include it somewhere on the menu (ever since we decided on Southern Goth as a theme, I’ve been ridiculously excited about cooking alligator. Yes, I am slightly demented.).
9 comments
RFS says:
Sep 14, 2010
Alligator, I have found, is quite fabulous simply grilled in a foil pouch with butter, garlic salt, and pepper. As is rattlesnake.
Do you use yogurt and carrot juice in your pumpkin soup?
(And do you serve it in little pumpkins? So prosh. I love it. 😉
Jax says:
Sep 16, 2010
oooh! Isn’t it amazing how butter, garlic, s&p can make pretty much anything divine?? I’ll have to try that with the alligator. So far everyone keeps saying to fry it, and fried food just doesn’t work well in this setting.
I do not use yogurt and carrot juice. Pumpkin, onion, white wine, cream, garlic, and a leeetle bit of habenero for a kick is my usual mix. 🙂 But now I’m curious about your recipe! How do you make it?
I am a huge dork and bought little pumpkin soup bowls that look like pumpkins (or was gifted some and I bought the rest? I’ve had ’em awhile!) I have yet to actually serve them in dried real pumpkins, though I’ve heard that works and I think it’s super cool! But bringing out the pumpkin bowls every year is one of my annual “Yay!” moments. 🙂
RFS says:
Sep 16, 2010
One of my absolute favorite things to do with small pumpkins in the fall is (chuckling) make little floral arrangements! It’s so dorky, I know. But I always make several and take them over to my in-laws for Thanksgiving as centerpieces. They’re adorable. Lots of little autumn-colored blossoms and maple leaves, springing out of a little pumpkin, with the pumpkin lid sitting to one side or tacked to the edge of the opening, kinda off-kilter-like.
Oy… I’m having one my very girlie flower-gasm moments. Totally embarrassing.
(Whenever my Florist Review magazine arrives in the mail, C says, “hey – you got your florist porn”.) (I suppose he’s required to give me crap about it, being my DH and all.)
Jax says:
Sep 16, 2010
That’s awesome! Floral porn. heehee. Love the idea about the arrangement/centerpieces. That sounds lovely!
GG says:
Sep 16, 2010
If we can’t get alligator meat locally, we can show Louisiana some (financial) love: http://www.cajungrocer.com/.
T.K. says:
Sep 19, 2010
I’d love to get your recipe for pumpkin soup. I’ve made a Hungarian Green Pumpkin soup that was my grandmother’s recipe. A small green pumpkin grated, butter, flour, water, salt and pepper, minced onion, evaporated milk, and sour cream with a paprika kicker.
As for the alligator… if I were a practicing pagan there’d be some witchcraft involved. A small meteor in the bayous would cook up some alligator quite nicely. And add some excitement to Samhaim night.
Jax says:
Sep 19, 2010
Hahahahhaha! I’ll have to work on my meteor aiming spell. 😉
Man, your pumpkin soup recipe sounds awesome! Trade ya instructions? Mine serves 8 and goes like this (courtesy of Walter Staib – my favorite chef in the world – http://tinyurl.com/2dsuhqa):
1. Cube flesh of 1 lg pumpkin (6lbsish)
2. Put in stockpot; cover with salted water.
3. Add 1chpd onion, 1/4 habanero (or Scotch bonnet), 2 bay leave, 1 clove chpd garlic. Bring to a boil
4. Reduce heat and cook/simmer for 30 min.
5. Remove bay leaves and drain the water. Puree the rest
6. Add 5cps heavy cream (and don’t tell anyone… oops) and 1cp dry sherry (or white wine)
7. Simmer 20minutes
8. Season w/S&P, serve with herb croutons
T.K. says:
Sep 19, 2010
I will be trying your recipe also. May even add a cp of dry sherry to this :o)
1. Peel and seed a green (no yellow showing) pumpkin.
2. Using a course shredder, shred four cups of pumpkin. Set aside.
3. Melt 2 tblsps butter (or margarine) in a large pan.
4. Stir in 4 tblsps of flour. Cook medium heat stirring constantly until the flour has browned.
5. Slowly stir in 4 cups of water.
6. Add 1 bay leaf, ¾ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, ½ cup of chopped onion, and 1 smashed garlic clove.
7. Simmer for 10 minutes.
8. Add 2 tsp a of Hungarian Paprika (regular or hot to taste)
9. Add shredded pumpkin and simmer for 20 minutes more or until pumpkin is tender.
10. Remove from the heat. Remove the bay leaf.
11. Stir in ½ cup of warmed evaporated milk and ½ cup of sour cream.
Serve at once. Makes 6 – 8 servings.
You could use the herb croutons or we usually serve it with warm french bread.
Southern Gothic Menu Planning – Princess Style « The Pagan Princesses says:
Oct 15, 2010
[…] Alligator (recipe provided by commenter RFS- hats off to you for […]