learning from past Archives - Feeding the Masses

Homemade Salad Dressings and Croutons–plus Costco Thoughts

March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 by Debi Simons

This image is copyrighted, but hey! I’m pushing people to go there!

Jim and I made our way to Costco yesterday morning, the first big shopping trip since everything started shutting down. It was my first venture out for maybe two weeks. I had made the prediction that either the parking lot would be empty or that there would be a line out the door waiting for this magnificent place to open at 10:00, and, as usual, neither of my predictions was accurate. Instead, the whole experience was perfectly normal, with the exception of limits on certain items, the fact that a smiling woman was handing out packs of toilet paper, and that other items were missing entirely, notably chicken parts and regular pasta. (I was tickled to see quite a bit of gluten-free pasta on the shelves. Since this snarky comment is in parentheses, please feel free to ignore it.) The lines were no longer than usual; everyone was friendly and efficient, and we were in and out in under an hour. They had even opened early. I came home encouraged that the great engine of American capitalism is probably not going to grind to a halt any time soon, even as many are suffering from its slowing. We’re going to get through this, folks!

Breakfast For a Crowd—Lessons Learned and a New Recipe

September 9, 2019 by Debi Simons

This previous Saturday the Cherry Creek Chorale held the first of four special Saturday-morning rehearsals as we prepare for our October concert. To add a note of conviviality—and to encourage attendance—breakfast is traditionally served at 8:30 before we get to work at 9:00. It’s always hard to know how many attendees to plan for, as it seems to be the case that since Saturday counts as somewhat of a “makeup” rehearsal that can replace a regular one (and we’re supposed to miss no more than two regular rehearsals for any given concert), some people

Party Post-Mortem

October 8, 2019September 1, 2019 by Debi Simons

Saturday night we had the annual Cherry Creek Chorale picnic. I’ve been in charge of this event now for six or seven years and every one has been a learning experience. This year, as for every one except the first three, we’ve had the event at someone’s house and those people did the setup and drinks. Whew! The first picnic I did was pretty traumatic, back six or seven years ago, as it was held at a park. The amount of schlepping we did was a sight to behold. I said, “No more of this!” So for the next two years we had it at our house, which cut down on the schlepping but meant that we had to do the setup. We borrowed tables and chairs from our church and I made most of the

Plans for the Par-Tay

August 23, 2019 by Debi Simons

Tomorrow is the annual member picnic for the Cherry Creek Chorale, with about 75 people attending. I went to Costco this morning to pick up the food for the items I’m making, and I had the same experience that I’ve had many times before: going ahead and getting started on the preparations gave me a shot of adrenaline. I’d been going around in a state of low-level anxiety about this event, but now that the fridge is loaded up with the food and I have a plan for tomorrow I’m looking forward to it.

Use Food to Promote Conviviality without Promoting Indulgence

June 19, 2019 by Debi Simons

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about party food, even more than usual, because I’m working on a cookbook about such stuff (working title: Tiny Bites). Lately I’ve been testing my take on Swiss buttercream frosting. (Yesterday’s version was root beer. The batch is now in the freezer awaiting its use as a topping for root-beer brownies at the wedding reception I’m helping with in August. It was pretty good, but I’m still tweaking the basic recipe.)

So, as I’ve often said, food can be a tool that promotes conviviality. People aren’t eating because they’re hungry

The Thanksgiving Post-Mortem

November 30, 2018November 24, 2018 by Debi Simons

Roast Turkey just out of the oven How was your Thanksgiving? I have to say that this was one of the nicest I can remember in an unbroken string of enjoyable holidays. We had our 15 people who ate, played games, talked, watched college football, and hung around for a long time. That’s always my yardstick for measuring how successful a party is.

But since I’ve been writing about the food, I’m going to tell you how that part went. Also, if you don’t particularly care about my results, at least scroll down and read about the two things you shouldn’t do when cooking a turkey. As I said in an earlier post, this is a bit late for Thanksgiving but you may end up having a turkey for Christmas too. (I’m hoping to be asked to do some cooking for that meal, too.)

Post-Party Analysis

December 18, 2017December 19, 2016 by Debi Simons

pile of utensils, ingredients, and bowls on a cluttered kitchen counter Although I’ve temporarily discontinued my posting on the “Intentional Hospitality” blog I’m still cooking away. Last night I provided the desserts and punches for my church’s Christmas banquet. This turned out to be yet another one of those “I-thought-I-was-going-to-have-an-easy-time-of-it-but-I-was-wrong” episodes in my life. I had made my famous orange-almond biscotti before the Cherry Creek Chorale’s concert over a week ago with the intention of putting them together into tree shapes held together by frosting, but I just ran out of steam and time, so I ended up putting the baked biscotti into the freezer with the intention of building the trees for this party.

I kept thinking, ‘I have the biscotti made, so all I have to do is make the cranberry tarts and the chocolate peppermint crunch cookies. I’ll do that Sunday afternoon and still have time to clean up the kitchen.’ What was I smokin’? I worked like a dog all afternoon just to get everything made and still ran out of time for making the frosting for those blasted biscotti. Some very helpful people who came early pitched in, and one woman suggested that we could stack the biscotti plain. I wish I had a picture of the beautiful platter she made. People were saying, “You’re doing Jenga!” It was great.

Well, all was well in the end. I could have done a lot more prep on Saturday and saved myself having a nervous breakdown Sunday. But the important thing is that everything was on the tables, ready to go, and that people had a good time. I’ve now gotten through my two big parties for December, but there’s more to come on the family front. My sister- and brother-in-law get here Friday, and we’ll have many get-togethers during the week they’re here. So I’ll have lots of opportunities to either a) procrastinate or b) be proactive (pro-acticate?).

If the items mentioned above sound intriguing, I do have posted recipes for three of them. Here are the links:

For the biscotti trees: “A Beautiful Celebratory Dessert”

For the cranberry tarts and pink egg nog: “Second Time Is the Charm!”

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