Prep began the night before in the Goodwin's kitchen. I arrived @ 6:30 and I think we made it to the store a bit after 7:30. Because it was more cost effective, we decided to get just about all of the produce at Monnette's Market. This way, we could ensure freshness and save ourselves a few dollars in the process. For those of you who don't know about the more recently remodeled Bowling Green, OH Kroger store...its incredible. I lived in BG for 4 years and shopped at said Kroger for the same amount of time. When I walked in, it was a completetly different layout. I felt lost, but was really impressed with it overall. A good fresh salad bar, sushi, and 'Natural' food section. THe two complaints I have overall:
1) Starbucks. come on now. There's one in the student union on campus and directly off exit 64 on Wooster. We don't need one in the grocery store. I love my Italian Roast as much as the next extra bold fanatic, but seriously.
2)The aisles. They run in a way that hinders traffic slow in the store. Just positioned awkwardly.
I'm sure being the self professed foodies Anna and I are, we could have easily spent about 2-3 hours just poking around in the new layout. However, we were on a time schedule and thankfully, with a list. Therefore, we only spent about an hour gathering our menu ingredients. From there, it was decided to make a jaunt down Main Street to South Side Six; quite possibly the BG 'Diamond in the Rough.' Its a teeny party store that sells offbeat beer as well as the normal libation selection. However, the most fantastic thing about it lies behind the cash register. A small food prep area where they make (right when you order) Mediterranean food! Fresh made pita chips, using Soybean oil, oregano, garlic salt, and black pepper...Hummus that's to DIE for...and we think, one of the best falafels we've ever eaten. It was later in the evening though, so it was light salad time. They were gracious enough to make us Fatoush without dressing and lemony smelling Taboulleh. We also picked up three freezer bags full of pita chips and hummus for the picnic while we were at it. Reasonably priced too. I think we may have spent about $80-$90 on food total in BG.
Back to the kitchen in Perrsyburg to eat then get to really cooking for the party.
Pie crusts came first. Using the HG Recipe for Topless Cherry Pie, we processed the Fiber One in a minichopper. Next time, just to save minutes and to get a finer crumb, I think we'll use a larger processor. Mixed the crumbs with lite butter and egg substitute and made two crusts that went into the 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. While those were baking and cooling, we decided to get the Strawberry Short-Cup-Cakes out of the way. They involved the most amount of prep time and bake time. Being the health conscious folks we are, we decided to use tofu for this recipe instead of oil, water, and eggs. We also made two batches of cupcakes to accomodate the amount of people we were expecting.
I pressed the blocks of Silken Lite Tofu for about 10 minutes, then crumbled them into a large bowl. I then blended in two packages of white cake mix with a hand blender. The only other item added to the batter was about 1/2 cup of water (necessary for a smoother texture for mixing. By pressing, I drained some of the natural moisture out of the tofu). After I reached the consistency I wanted, Anna had finished dicing up 16 oz. of fresh strawberries. We had mulled over the ideas for these Short-Cup-Cakes considering baking full strawberries inside or even a puree center, but we really like the idea of looking at the cupcake itself and seeing little bits of berries all over. They went in at 350 in the oven for about 30 minutes and we had golden topped Strawberry Short-Cup-Cakes! That was the perfect time for them to go in at because it baked the cake all the way through and left warm strawberry pockets throughout. A slight browning on top also gave the cupcake the appearance of angelfood cake that had just come out of the oven.
My lovely sous, Anna, was hard at work making the filling for the two pies we were preparing. One Cherry and one Blueberry. Once the filling had set up properly, we left it to cool for @10 min before putting it in the cooled pie crusts that smelled amazing!
That night, all we wanted to get done was complete by about 12:30am.
The next morning, I went straight to the market about 9:30am to buy the rest of the produce we needed for salads, etc. Overall, I spent around $30 on a laundry basket full of fruit and vegetables that probably would have cost us twice as much if we would have purchased it at the regular grocery store. I'm sure the gang at Monnettes is going to miss me when I'm in NYC and not shopping there every Sunday morning. With my basketfull of produce, we got the big cooler packed with the other items we purchased, then headed to BG for the rest of the day.
After some necessary catching up with guests, it was time to get down to business.
We started in on chopping the ingredients for the Grilled Sweet Potato Salad.
Just to make things easier on ourselves, we modified the recipes for the salads, etc. slightly. As far as this recipe is concerned, we didn't use the peanuts or cilantro AND in the glaze, no cayenne or cumin, butthanks to a delightful measuring booboo, maximized the cinnamon to 2 tbsp. Overall though, it made for a GREAT smell and taste! We planned for more people than we had as well. We bought for a double recipe of everything, but only ended up using half that. We did notice that cooking this in the oven takes WAY longer than right on the heat of the grill. Roasting in the foil packet has a effect of the texture of the end result. Everything is tender, but still really moist and flavorful. No dry potatoes here! The sweetness of the onion, mango, potato, and red pepper meshed together so well!
Once that was all prepped and in the oven, it was time to dive headfirst into the Texas Cole Slaw.
Again, we bought enough for a double recipe, but this time, used 3/4 of what we had. So a 1.5 recipe yield. The salad part couldn't be easier to prep. Napa cabbage, Granny Smith apples (which is the reason we chose this recipe in the first place. Anna and I LOVE the tartness of the apple and thought it was a brilliant addition to the slaw) shredded carrots, toasted pecans, and red onion. We decided to leave out the mint...probably because we couldn't find any in the store, haha. The true modifications were made in the slaw dressing. No cumin or cayenne and Fat Free Sour Cream. It made a wonderfully light and creamy (didn't think that was possible...but probably because of the citrus) dressing which we were able to use sparingly to just lightly coat everything. A little went a long way, which was a good thing because normally, I avoid cole slaws because of the way the dressings weight down in your stomach. The slaw is bright in color and in flavors and its something I WILL be making again.
Rounding out the sides portion of the feast was the gloriously crispy and tangy South Side 6 pita chips and their house hummus. We also prepped a salad bar with mixed greens, stuffed olives, bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, and red onion. All these items could also multitask as burger toppings. We always think ahead like that. A giant seedless watermelon was sliced and plated alongside everything. Check the slideshow for photos and let me know if you want individual photos of things for a closer look.
You can also see photos of the dessert table in the above show. Aren't the Short-Cup-Cakes adorable? The frosting was made using a Dannon Light N Fit vanilla yogurt cup, 1 package of sugar-free Strawberry Jell-o mix, and 1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip Free. I found that this provides a super light texture and flavor to the 'frosting' while still having a more substantial consistency. We didn't want to do a buttercream or anything like that because Strawberry Shortcake generally uses a whipped cream frosting. Not to say that you can't go all out and use whipping cream and confectioners sugar, haha, this is just our calorie counter friendly recipe. This version held up marvelously in a little bit of heat and piped really well through the pastry tip.
The pies were a hit as well. The Fiber One crust was slighty sweet and chewy. Really like a granola bar-esque feel in your mouth. We only ended up cutting the blueberry pie, which left everyone with purple toothed smiles afterwards. The cherry pie was saved and brought back specifically for Anna's dad to eat.
The standard BBQ meats, i.e. hamburgers (or Anna's dad's special Donnie Burgers) and hotdogs, were unphotographed. For the ovo-lacto-pesca veg crowd, we tossed some portabello mushrooms on there as well. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my boca soy burgers...but there's nothing like the taste of a fire-grilled mushroom cap. With a little of the sweet potato salad on there...C'est Magnifique!
At the end of the night, everyone left with their bellies and hearts full. It never going to cease to amaze me how good food can bring friends together. Toss a bit of alcohol, dice, and a basketball game in there, and it makes for the perfect Memorial Day picnic.
I'd like to thank Anna for brainstorming this WHOLE thing, supplying the ingredients, and being in town for a lil bit. For that weekend, I was HER sous :)
If you want/need any of the recipes or further photographs, just ask. Ms Jones always aims to please.
Next up, the SPA munchies...
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