Christmas Party Catering

There is a good friend of mine that owns and operates a tutoring company that specializes in offering limited group instruction for home school families. She has a small staff and a few volunteers that really do an amazing job. Her name is Rebekah.

She wanted to throw a really nice Christmas party to show her appreciation for all their hard work. (Did I mention that this was their first 6 months of operation?) Rebekah and I co-conspired a really amazing and beautiful Christmas party that would look really swanky but be very cost effective.

The Menu

We started the meal with a simple appetizer of shrimp and cocktail sauce. I poached the shrimp in a briny, acidulated water. They were delicious. They were served three to a glass in what were actually votive candle holders. They were unused, of course, and the perfect size.

Next was a starter of potato and leek soup. I served this in a white mug with a sharp cheddar cheese medley, green onions, and ham croutons. People couldn’t get enough of the soup. Seriously. Good.

Soup was followed by a pallet cleanser: cranberry salad. Most peoples version of cranberry salad is either boring or gross. My family has a recipe that includes oranges, pineapple, cherry jello, walnuts, and a ton of fresh cranberries. It is amazing. This was served in tiny bowls. Technically they were individual salt containers, but they worked perfectly.

Finally there was the main course. We labored over various ideas from a crown roast of pork to steak. We finally decided on a stuffed chicken breast. I did my version of chicken cordon blue. There is a local meat shop called Macs Meats (macsmeatmarket.com) that has amazing beef, poultry, pork, rabbit, etc. I am a huge fan. With my pairing knife I made a small opening in the side of each breast and then cut a pocket inside. I filled them with a mixture of stuffing, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, and ham. The texture was very fine of course. Then I baked them until they were moist and delicious. A thing of beauty. I served the chicken with a Gorgonzola cream sauce from Ina Garten and glazed carrots.

Dessert was my grand finale. I made cream puffs with a candy cane cream filling. I drizzled them with white chocolate and crushed up candy cane. They were meant to be a croquembouche, but I did not have enough for the right affect. People ate it all the same.

The decorations, well, they speak for themselves. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. I owe much of this evening to my good friends V and O. They did a monster amount of work. They are the best.