One of the reasons why I have had so little time the last couple of days for the blog, except the obvious reasons of course with Christmas and more spent family time, was that we were throwing a late Christmas dinner for Chris's platoon. He and his shift were working on Christmas, and we wanted to throw them a great dinner on the first day off. We have always done this, inviting a few of the marines over when there has been a holiday or special occasion. Many of the younger ones that doesn't have families yet, work and then go back to their rooms, or barracks as they are called here in the military. Not much of a Christmas feeling there! So when we lived in North Carolina, we used to have some of the younger ones invited over so they wouldn't have to sit alone or eat pizza for dinner on Thanksgiving or Christmas. It used to be only a few people, or the ones that had shift working, would swing by the house in their patrol cars and pick up a plate of the meal for later. It was very much appreciated and we always saw this as something we wanted to do and that we wanted to share some holiday spirit with the marines. During our years of recruiting duty in Kansas, we didn't really do it in the same way, as the "kids" that were joining most likely had their families there. We did though have some over for dinner anyway.
This year, was going to be the same. A few of the single marines living in the barracks, without families here to celebrate with. To give them some Christmas feeling, some of the spirit and a good meal! Somehow, things turned out differently, and when Chris gave me the headcount two or three days before the party, it turned out to be around 15 people that were coming! That was a little bit more than I had expected! Still, we wanted to make something special as we didn't have a "real" nice Christmas dinner either this year, so we prepared a great meal for this evening instead.
Chris was off on the 26th, and then we went shopping some more, as we couldn't really un invite people that took for granted that they could come too. It's so difficult, as sometimes when things like this is done, it's a BBQ and everyone brings something and their own drinks. Like this, we were inviting people, and therefore in my book, you don't ask people to bring anything. It wasn't going to be that kind of party. I started to get the tables and chairs ready, to polish the wine glasses and to clean the house. We also had to get started on some of the preparations for the food. Chris had also "promised" the marines that I was going to make something typical Swedish, and after a lot of thought, (and great input from a lot of you here, thank you!), I decided to make a Swedish Smorgastarta (Sandwich cake). After some thought, I realized that I had never done one I think, and I googled a lot of recipes and got some helpful input from my older sister, and we got the ingredients for it. I decided to do an all seafood version in addition to the Swedish meatballs, pigs in a blanket, cheese and crackers and deviled eggs that we were serving as starters.
I had planned to start the Sandwich cake the night before the party too, but after a lot of consideration and lack of space in our fridges due to the meat, I had to do it in the morning of the party. I was glad that I took care of the tables and had them all done the night before, only needed to do some finishing touches there later during the day. With young kids, you can't take for granted that you can spend all that time that you want where you want/need to, and I was happy to have as much as possible done anyway. I was pretty grumpy in the morning, as my little ones decided to give me a long sleepless night with a lot of crying and calling for mommy....sigh, always something and always again when you think that you got them to sleep better during the nights.
Anyway, I did three layers, two fillings. First filling with a fine chopped smoked salmon/creme fraishe/mayo mix and the second layer with a fine chopped crab salad mix. Covered everything up in the fridge for a couple of hours and let it soak up in the thick "Texas Toast" that is much thicker toast than normal.
Decoration is always the fun part with all kind of cakes and also here. I like being creative and make it look festive. I chopped some ice berg salad for the sides To add a darker frame, I layered baby spinach leaves around the cake. Then I added; shrimps, bouquets of smoked salmon, sliced eggs, cucumber and for the center, lobster tail pieces topped again with a "volcano" out of rolled salmon with added shrimps and lemon. To be my first one, I was pretty happy with the outcome!
Well, the deviled eggs, the pigs in a blanket and the meatballs were a hit, the Swedish sandwich cake unfortunately didn't seem to please our guests, only about five people tried a very small piece...Me myself had the biggest piece myself. So much time in planning and making invested, so much yummy ingredients and not apprechiated. Sigh.
One of the wives that was there asked if I wanted her to take one of us, and sure, I always like to be able to get family pictures. Here above, unfortunatley, she missed to get Cassie in the picture.
That was soon fixed, and a new picture was taken and here we are - all of us! Cassie did a wonderful job helping out (as always) with the little ones, when Chris and I was busy in the kitchen all day. She is just amazing!!
After dinner, I cleared everything, and got coffee and cookies ready. We had decided on NOT doing a dessert, as there were so much food as starters and the meal itself with the meat was so big, that we didn't think that anyone would manage to eat a dessert too.
So how can I now sum everything up? Well, I don't know the people very well yet, and even if everyone was nice and everything went smooth from our side, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed afterwards. There were so many little things, that I might be too silly about, but actually to me does make a difference when you have put so much time into making it a great evening. People were invited to be here for starters and drinks at 4.30pm and then have the hot meal served at 6pm. Keep in mind, this meat needs to be cut and served right away when it comes out of the oven, or it will get too well done as it continues to cook and therefore will be pretty much spoiled..
At 5pm, the first single guy arrived. He actually called and apologized as he had missed a turn and "got lost". He was just as us, surprised to see that noone was here. After that, one after one showed up. The last guests were here 6.30pm. Then after a lot of talking, getting drinks and a few starters, the meatballs, pigs in a blanket were all dried up and cold by now...we had to get the meat on the plates. Chris was a bit dissapointed that the meat got a tiny bit too much done, and the honey glaced carrots and beans with bacon and onions didn't look as great as they would have if people had followed the time schedule that was given to them. I think it's pretty bad showing up when you feel like it, when it's a sit down dinnerparty and not an evening like a BBQ (which everyone ofcourse was very well aware of).
The Sandwich cake wasn't a hit. Not apprechiated, not made any comments about at all. One person said it looked and tasted good, and that was my husband. Of course that was upsetting to me. As the guys had really requested something Swedish, and here they don't even bother to try?? I had even explained all the layers and what it was filled with and Chris had even asked before at work if people ate seafood or not. There was no comments made about the food, the effort put in, the nice looking tables etc etc.. Sure, I might be very sensitive, but when you put so much effort into something like this, you kind of hope that people would show some apprechiation. Not throw their napkins all over the table, pushing decorations to the side, drinking their sodas out of the cans on the table, OR spend most of the dinner texting on their phones!!! A few of them stood up after finishing their plate, calling out a random bye over the table and left. Nobody wanted coffee or cookies, that I especially had decorated with "God Jul", to make it "Swedish". Thank goodness I hadn't bothered with a big dessert! One person didn't even bother to try anything, as she had had a big lunch.. I don't know, but to me that is just polite to atleast try something. Ask for a small portion or something? It's not that it was a surprise that they were invited to be here to eat at 4.30pm either.
Sigh. Sorry for the somewhat complaining undertone in the post. But, I'm honest, and sure, I was dissapointed. Is it also just me that brings fresh flowers, bottles of wine to the hosts when we are invited to a dinnerparty? I don't think that it's only a Swedish thing is it? To me it's showing apprechiation of being invited. Am I overreacting? I don't know, probably, maybe also because it was a lot put into this, as we as a family hadn't had a big Christmas dinner either this year as we said that we'll have such a great dinner and night on the 27th. Also because we are never invited anywhere, we don't have that cirkel of friends here in Yuma, and I do miss it a lot. I miss socializing, I miss being invited somewhere myself, being able to enjoy sometime without the work...When then we do host party and dinners, I want them to be something special.
Well, except a very dirty kitchen, a lot of dishes and a lot of cleanup the next day, (late at night it was no time for much cleaning as we had to get the little ones into bed after everyone had left) we had enough leftovers to say the least for Chris to take to work for two days. You can only eat so much Sandwich cake for lunch - today half of it had to be thrown away. Ashame sure, but I won't risk it another day in the fridge with all that seafood.
Next time, if we do a next time in the near future...it's going to be "only" a BBQ again, then people can show up when they want, throw their own brought hotdogs on the grill and drink their sodas/beers out of the can and I won't have any dishes, as I will be putting out a bunch of paperplates and plastic cutlery on the table! Voila - it can also be easy to be a host! I'm being very ironic here btw...
This year, was going to be the same. A few of the single marines living in the barracks, without families here to celebrate with. To give them some Christmas feeling, some of the spirit and a good meal! Somehow, things turned out differently, and when Chris gave me the headcount two or three days before the party, it turned out to be around 15 people that were coming! That was a little bit more than I had expected! Still, we wanted to make something special as we didn't have a "real" nice Christmas dinner either this year, so we prepared a great meal for this evening instead.
Chris was off on the 26th, and then we went shopping some more, as we couldn't really un invite people that took for granted that they could come too. It's so difficult, as sometimes when things like this is done, it's a BBQ and everyone brings something and their own drinks. Like this, we were inviting people, and therefore in my book, you don't ask people to bring anything. It wasn't going to be that kind of party. I started to get the tables and chairs ready, to polish the wine glasses and to clean the house. We also had to get started on some of the preparations for the food. Chris had also "promised" the marines that I was going to make something typical Swedish, and after a lot of thought, (and great input from a lot of you here, thank you!), I decided to make a Swedish Smorgastarta (Sandwich cake). After some thought, I realized that I had never done one I think, and I googled a lot of recipes and got some helpful input from my older sister, and we got the ingredients for it. I decided to do an all seafood version in addition to the Swedish meatballs, pigs in a blanket, cheese and crackers and deviled eggs that we were serving as starters.
Chris was preparing the Rib Eye Steak Roasts with a rub of mustard,
fresh herb and lots of other spices the night before.
I had planned to start the Sandwich cake the night before the party too, but after a lot of consideration and lack of space in our fridges due to the meat, I had to do it in the morning of the party. I was glad that I took care of the tables and had them all done the night before, only needed to do some finishing touches there later during the day. With young kids, you can't take for granted that you can spend all that time that you want where you want/need to, and I was happy to have as much as possible done anyway. I was pretty grumpy in the morning, as my little ones decided to give me a long sleepless night with a lot of crying and calling for mommy....sigh, always something and always again when you think that you got them to sleep better during the nights.
Anyway, I did three layers, two fillings. First filling with a fine chopped smoked salmon/creme fraishe/mayo mix and the second layer with a fine chopped crab salad mix. Covered everything up in the fridge for a couple of hours and let it soak up in the thick "Texas Toast" that is much thicker toast than normal.
Decoration is always the fun part with all kind of cakes and also here. I like being creative and make it look festive. I chopped some ice berg salad for the sides To add a darker frame, I layered baby spinach leaves around the cake. Then I added; shrimps, bouquets of smoked salmon, sliced eggs, cucumber and for the center, lobster tail pieces topped again with a "volcano" out of rolled salmon with added shrimps and lemon. To be my first one, I was pretty happy with the outcome!
Well, the deviled eggs, the pigs in a blanket and the meatballs were a hit, the Swedish sandwich cake unfortunately didn't seem to please our guests, only about five people tried a very small piece...Me myself had the biggest piece myself. So much time in planning and making invested, so much yummy ingredients and not apprechiated. Sigh.
Some of the starter buffet...
Decorated tables
Very good looking and tasting deviled eggs!
Pigs in a blanket - always a success
I couldn't fit 14 adults around one long table, so I had to make two tables, one with gold and one with black underplates. Space wise we would have made it with two tables in a row in our dining room, but as our dining table and our outdoor patio table that I had to use, have different heights, it was no way I could put them together without it looking odd, so I decided to rather split the two up. Worked out well in the end.
Swedish meatballs
I was busy getting the potato gratains, the veggies and the sauces on the buffet, so I missed taking a nice picture of the wonderful meat. I only quickly got this one from Chris cutting it up. It was delicious!
While I was running around making sure that everything was served, that all our guests had drinks and getting the kids organized, I managed to get a few pictures taken of our filled tables. Not making the pictures as big, as I don't want to name anyone by name.
One of the wives that was there asked if I wanted her to take one of us, and sure, I always like to be able to get family pictures. Here above, unfortunatley, she missed to get Cassie in the picture.
That was soon fixed, and a new picture was taken and here we are - all of us! Cassie did a wonderful job helping out (as always) with the little ones, when Chris and I was busy in the kitchen all day. She is just amazing!!
After dinner, I cleared everything, and got coffee and cookies ready. We had decided on NOT doing a dessert, as there were so much food as starters and the meal itself with the meat was so big, that we didn't think that anyone would manage to eat a dessert too.
So how can I now sum everything up? Well, I don't know the people very well yet, and even if everyone was nice and everything went smooth from our side, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed afterwards. There were so many little things, that I might be too silly about, but actually to me does make a difference when you have put so much time into making it a great evening. People were invited to be here for starters and drinks at 4.30pm and then have the hot meal served at 6pm. Keep in mind, this meat needs to be cut and served right away when it comes out of the oven, or it will get too well done as it continues to cook and therefore will be pretty much spoiled..
At 5pm, the first single guy arrived. He actually called and apologized as he had missed a turn and "got lost". He was just as us, surprised to see that noone was here. After that, one after one showed up. The last guests were here 6.30pm. Then after a lot of talking, getting drinks and a few starters, the meatballs, pigs in a blanket were all dried up and cold by now...we had to get the meat on the plates. Chris was a bit dissapointed that the meat got a tiny bit too much done, and the honey glaced carrots and beans with bacon and onions didn't look as great as they would have if people had followed the time schedule that was given to them. I think it's pretty bad showing up when you feel like it, when it's a sit down dinnerparty and not an evening like a BBQ (which everyone ofcourse was very well aware of).
The Sandwich cake wasn't a hit. Not apprechiated, not made any comments about at all. One person said it looked and tasted good, and that was my husband. Of course that was upsetting to me. As the guys had really requested something Swedish, and here they don't even bother to try?? I had even explained all the layers and what it was filled with and Chris had even asked before at work if people ate seafood or not. There was no comments made about the food, the effort put in, the nice looking tables etc etc.. Sure, I might be very sensitive, but when you put so much effort into something like this, you kind of hope that people would show some apprechiation. Not throw their napkins all over the table, pushing decorations to the side, drinking their sodas out of the cans on the table, OR spend most of the dinner texting on their phones!!! A few of them stood up after finishing their plate, calling out a random bye over the table and left. Nobody wanted coffee or cookies, that I especially had decorated with "God Jul", to make it "Swedish". Thank goodness I hadn't bothered with a big dessert! One person didn't even bother to try anything, as she had had a big lunch.. I don't know, but to me that is just polite to atleast try something. Ask for a small portion or something? It's not that it was a surprise that they were invited to be here to eat at 4.30pm either.
Sigh. Sorry for the somewhat complaining undertone in the post. But, I'm honest, and sure, I was dissapointed. Is it also just me that brings fresh flowers, bottles of wine to the hosts when we are invited to a dinnerparty? I don't think that it's only a Swedish thing is it? To me it's showing apprechiation of being invited. Am I overreacting? I don't know, probably, maybe also because it was a lot put into this, as we as a family hadn't had a big Christmas dinner either this year as we said that we'll have such a great dinner and night on the 27th. Also because we are never invited anywhere, we don't have that cirkel of friends here in Yuma, and I do miss it a lot. I miss socializing, I miss being invited somewhere myself, being able to enjoy sometime without the work...When then we do host party and dinners, I want them to be something special.
Well, except a very dirty kitchen, a lot of dishes and a lot of cleanup the next day, (late at night it was no time for much cleaning as we had to get the little ones into bed after everyone had left) we had enough leftovers to say the least for Chris to take to work for two days. You can only eat so much Sandwich cake for lunch - today half of it had to be thrown away. Ashame sure, but I won't risk it another day in the fridge with all that seafood.
Next time, if we do a next time in the near future...it's going to be "only" a BBQ again, then people can show up when they want, throw their own brought hotdogs on the grill and drink their sodas/beers out of the can and I won't have any dishes, as I will be putting out a bunch of paperplates and plastic cutlery on the table! Voila - it can also be easy to be a host! I'm being very ironic here btw...
