Wedding Recipes

[e]

So my Fiancée and I are getting wed this August, and are too cheap to buy catering.  As a cake-equivalent, we are purchasing cupcakes.  Because hey, free cupcakes! 

I suggested microwaveable brussel sprouts PLEASE HURT ME NOT GODS OF COOKERY!

Can any of you guys suggest snack or entrée style dishes that will wow the pants off people and will not require either of us to go to school for cookery?  My fiancée is a decent cook, so complexity is not necessarily an issue.

Ideally, these will be dishes that are served cold, so that we can prepare them the day before and chill them overnight before serving them at the reception the next day.  Current estimates call for roughly 20-30 people in attendance.

I bow to your superior expertises, and await with cautious glee.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

we served simple snacky foods cause it was a middle of the day reception and we were all more concentrated on the boozing.
but we had stuff like:
-meat platter- rolled salamis, prosciutto, dried sweet salami, that kind of crap
-cheeses- some kind of ale cheddar, brie, blah blah(just don't buy the cheap crap, go for the good stuff)
-caprese salad
-some of those roll things (like wraps but sliced into smaller pieces)
-pickled stuff- olives(kalamata and big green ones), marinated mushrooms, pickled asparagus, olive tapenade w/ crackers, marinated mozzarella balls
- one of those prosciutto and mozzarella roll things sliced into little wheels

i shopped at one of those "bulk" places (yes i got lazy, i had a bunch of other shit to do) and got all this crap for well under 200 bucks
easy stuff, cheap and nobody complained- also there was none left over

and cupcakes= good idea
who doesn't like cupcakes?

[Jasper]

Putting forward my summery potato salad in the neighboring thread.

[Darth Cupcake]

I make a mean spinach and artichoke dip, but because of the quantity of cheese in it, it really needs to be served warm, otherwise it is a bit too solidified to be dipped easily. However, if you were to buy some little pre-made pastry cups (like for bite size quiches and stuff), you could put the dip into the cups while it's warm, then refrigerate and have tasty little bite-size spinach and artichoke snacky thingies.

If you want recipe, I will gladly type it up.

[LMNO]

Cheeze Whiz on Ritz.

[AFK]

Ours was catered and it was super yummy, though I don't hardly remember anything that was served.  I think something had bacon on it. 

[Darth Cupcake]

Ours was catered and it was super yummy, though I don't hardly remember anything that was served.  I think something had bacon on it. 

Good call.

Stripey, just put out giant platters of bacon. Anyone that complains is uninvited.

[e]

Meat platter, potato salad, fancy cheeses, spinach and artichoke quichecakes, and a big platter of Bacon.  With cupcakes for dessert.

I don't see how we can lose!


D-cup: I'd love the artichoke/spinach dip recipe, thanks!  Little mini-quiches sound good, because quiche = awesome.

[Darth Cupcake]

Spinach dip! This is fun because I sort of improvise it every time. This dip is my one claim to fame of a personally invented recipe, so, there are no real measurements.

Ingredients:

1 8 oz package of frozen chopped spinach
1 small jar of artichoke hearts, I like the kind marinated in olive oil and spices
2 of those packages of 6 cheese Italian mix grated cheese
some 1/2 + 1/2
a fuckton of garlic, minced or put through a press
ground black pepper
some sour cream

Defrost the spinach.

Get a medium sauce pan and fill the bottom with half and half, maybe like a quarter inch or so. Bring it up to a boil and let it thicken a bit.

Dump in lotsa garlic! Since I just got a nice press, I'd put in huge amounts. I usually use about three or four cloves. Stir it in with the half and half, then grind in a bunch of black pepper to taste. Stir a little more.

Throw in a couple handfuls of the grated cheese. This is going to be the "glue" that holds everything together, so you can it thick and sticky, but not TOO thick. Add more half and half as needed to thin it out.

Once it seems a good consistency, dump in the spinach. Get it nicely covered in cheese 'n' garlic, adding more cheese and half and half as needed to get a good texture and consistency.

Once things are nicely mixed, throw in the artichoke hearts. To make it easy to eat, I generally shred the artichoke hearts and throw in only the leafy parts. Do the same as above with getting it coated in cheese glue, adding more cheese and half and half as necessary.

Give it a taste. Add more garlic and/or black pepper to taste.

By this time, you should've put almost all of the two bags of cheese in, and things should be difficult to stir, pretty thick, but not impossible. If you lift the spoon, you should get nice long strings of cheese trailing off it.

Add a spoonful or two of sour cream, just enough to add a little flavor and smoothness.

Mix it all together and drain any excess liquid--there's generally some fluid that was still in the spinach, a little excess half and half, etc. Toss in just a tidbit of corn starch if you want to thicken it, though I don't usually bother.

Grind a little more black pepper on top, if you want, or a little red pepper. Throw it in a dish, serve with pita chips, and enjoy!

Or, in this case, put it in little pastry cups and have bebeh quiches.

It's really simple, but also a good arm workout cause of all the stirring of thick cheesiness. Delicious!

[Suu]

You might be surprised at what your local supermarket can do for you catering wise with platters, etc. I'd check them out.

[Triple Zero]

what's "half and half" ?

[e]

what's "half and half" ?

A kind of cream/milk/&c.

[Jasper]

what's "half and half" ?

Have you seen 2girls1cup?

[Darth Cupcake]

what's "half and half" ?

Half milk, half heavy cream, I think. It just keeps it from being quite as heavy as cream, but thicker than milk.

It would probably actually be better with heavy cream, but I try to avoid making it TOO much of a heart attack.

[e]

Mmm, heart attack in a flaky pastry crust.