My last farewell to Nashville was anti-climactic to say the least. If anyone ever thought having a broken/mixed/remarried/extended/whatever-your-situation family was easy, imagine hosting 18 in town at one time. Yet, as soon as they departed I wished they would come back and help me clean and pack - Nashville friends, I am sorry I didn't get to say goodbye, I miss you! I do, however, have one last food recommendation for anyone still there, or headed there - Park Cafe in Sylvan Park. After seeing it several times and hearing it recommended by locals as an "oldie but a goodie," my mom and I went to check it out for some mother-daughter time amidst the graduation madness. I am so glad that we did - it was awesome. I am ranking it, start to finish, among the top 5 meals I have had in Nashville. For one, their bread is this awesome like cornbread-loaf bread hybrid and comes served with chimichurri - sounds weird, tastes phenomenal. For an "oldie," their entrees feature bold flavors and creative plating. My mom had the 5-Spice Masala and I had the Coconut Curry Chicken. Despite being full, we split a Tres Leche cake with homemade strawberry ice cream. My apologies on the lack of photo evidence, we couldn't put our forks down to get one. Go check it out and see for yourself.
You're probably thinking, okay that's nice, but can we go back to the beef jerky? Yes, but only briefly as I will come back to it in a later post. Basically, before I could commit to doing Paleo, I had to know whether I liked beef jerky or not, as it is a Paleo staple snack. I gave my jerky virginity to Epic Beef Steak Cranberry & Siracha bites and could not stop eating it. It is so delicious, but it also costs $7 for 2.5 oz, which is just not sustainable for anyone, let alone someone currently without salary. So, I decided to make my own. It came out great and I've been snacking on it, but it was a full 2-3 process that I will get into in another post.Speaking of 2-3 day processes, I mentioned preparing food for a party of 60 people. No, I have not opened a catering business (yet). The event was the CDPA Senior Tea honoring my namesake, Caitlin Sharp. Caitlin isn't actually named after me, which is actually good because at 18 she has far surpassed me in the goodness and sweetness of her spirit; I was thrilled to be able to contribute to her celebration through the gift of food. My mom opened Centre for Dance & the Performing Arts when I was but 2 months old. Part dance studio, part family, we are a very close-knit community. For the past 16 years, my family has hosted a Senior Tea, honoring the graduating seniors from our dance studio each year. As I have fallen more and more in love with food, we have moved farther and farther away from catering and for the past few years I have done the planning and cooking. This year was my last for some time, because well... real life is coming fast. I am truly happy to do it and enjoy the planning and the cooking, but when it gets down to the wire and something goes wrong (like a recipe not coming out as planned or the AC in the venue being out), it becomes EXTREMELY stressful and I lose my ability to be nice. I do not know how professional chefs do it day in and day out. The silver lining is that whenever I get tired of studying and feel like I wish I could just have a Cafe and not be a lawyer, an event like this makes me thrilled about my chosen career.
Anyway, how does a non-professional caterer pull off food for 60 people? 1. Planning and 2. Help - these two factors are of equal weight. I put together the menu over a month prior to the event, the shopping list a week prior and began cooking/baking three days prior. The menu is so important to get right because you have to consider a host of factors - time of day, type of event, location, size of party, age of party, variety, color, things that can/will go wrong, etc. For example, a 4 pm tea is not a dinner, it is for the most part, light-medium finger foods. Yet, our tea is compromised primarily of middle school and high school aged girls, who are not only picky but also persnickety eaters. In addition, this year we held the tea at an indoor venue instead of hosting it outdoors in our garden. I was thrilled, because this meant the food would hold up much better and I wouldn't have to worry about using a frosting that might melt under the Florida sun. I did not however plan for the AC being out in the building, which wiped that perk completely off the table.
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| #1 Icing painter |
To get to the part you care about, the food and the pictures of food...
I think of a Tea menu this way Fruit, Veggie, Cheese, Meat, 2 Desserts and tea/punch.
This year's menu with links:
- Watermelon Feta Mint Skewers
- Tip: If you use wide two-pronged skewers your feta will crack. Use pretty toothpicks instead.
- Pimento Cheese Pretzel Crackers
- Tip: If you live in the South where there is good store bought pimento cheese available, save yourself one step and purchase the pimento cheese. Sprinkle with a green herb like Parsley or Dill to add contrasting color.
- Ham Salad Tarts
- I tripled this recipe and served it in pre-made Athenos Phyllo tart cups available in the freezer section. Sprinkle with paprika for color.
- Tip: Your food processor makes this so easy; grind up your diced ham and hard boiled eggs, and chop your celery and onion it.
- Summer Salad
- So this is the recipe that did not work. I'm not sure I feel like mandolin-ing enough vegetables to try it again to figure out where it went wrong. The good news is that a mere salad bowl and some forks turned this catastrophe into a wonderful tossed salad.
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
- I doubled this recipe, but only made an extra half of the royal icing recipe. This was WAY too much icing. Honestly, you only need half of the original recipe for a double batch.
- Lemon Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting
- Pink Lemonade Sparking Fruit Punch
- Sweet Tea
- Water
You outdid yourself! Everything was beautiful.
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