Aspen Catering > Articles by: PJ

Author: PJ

Catering Tips UncategorizedBy PJ

Breakfast Catering Checklist

Planning an office breakfast catering?office breakfast catering

Here’s an easy Breakfast Catering checklist to help make your catering a success.

What time will the guests arrive?

Catering should be scheduled for delivery and set up to be complete 15-30 mintues prior to guests’ arrival.

Is this a VIP guest list?

NO

    • Use company provided disposable plates, cups and utensils.
    • Use your own caterer’ basic disposable place settings
    • Buy your own disposable place settings

YES

Options

    • Use higher quality disposable place settings. Ours are sturdy acrylic plates, cups and coffee mugs, silver colored disposable utensils and a high-quality paper napkin.
    • Use china, flatware, glassware and cloth napkins
      • Tips
        • Set up will take longer as will clean up and you’ll need to have more than your head count. You should have about 5-10% more place settings than your guest count should someone drop a napkin, not wish reuse a glass or want a second fork.
        • Place settings – plan for more than your headcount.  You should have about 5-10% more place settings than your guest count should someone not wish to reuse a glass, or want a second fork.
        • Glasses – you should plan on about 1.25-1.5 glasses per person along with the same for coffee cups/saucers or mugs. Some people won’t reuse these so depending on the duration of your meeting, these are a must for beverage refills.
What breakfast menu should you serve?

Did they stay at a hotel the night before and does that hotel offer a free continental breakfast?

Yes
Your breakfast menu should be on the lighter side and more of a meet and greet menu like a simple pastry assortment, some fruit or yogurt. Coffee, bottled water and juices would be appropriate to have available too.

No
If your guests had no access to some sort of breakfast prior to your meeting then a more substantial breakfast should be offered and include:

Main entrée – eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausage or a breakfast casseroles like quiche, frittatas and/or oatmeal

Breads – pastry, bagels and cream cheeses, coffee cake and muffins

Fruit – either a fruit tray, fresh bananas, berries or fruit cup should be included not only to round out the meal, but for those who prefer not to eat sweets or need a gluten-free option. Yogurt along with granola or cubed fruit is a great alternative addition.

Beverages – Coffees, assorted juices and bottled water are must haves for your menu. Though people will have had coffee more than likely prior to arriving, it’s always a good idea to have some available for the meeting.

Bottled water – plan on at least one bottle of water per person as a minimum. The longer the meeting, the more you’ll need.

Other beverages – if your meeting is a bit longer and will last up until a lunch break, adding iced teas, soft drinks and more juices would be wise

Ice – you will need plenty of ice not only to chill the drinks but also to put in the glasses used for tea and soft drinks. Some people will have juice on ice so plan on providing plenty of ice. If you only have access to a small ice machine, ask your caterer to provide more.

continental breakfast delivery dallasReady to order your breakfast catering?

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Box Lunch CateringBy PJ

Extraordinary Box Lunch Catering

Box Lunch Catering can be more than a sandwich and chips!

We were asked to create some upscale and unique box lunch catering menu ideas usingbest box lunch catering Bento boxes as the container. Since the request included offering three different entrée choices, an accompanying sauce, one starch, a vegetable and a salad, and some sort of bread, we first had to find the boxes that would hold all of that.

We sourced the boxes, got the dimensions of the compartments and then developed the recipes for the rest of the meal and created an extraordinary box lunch. For dessert, something simple was requested so we put two cookies tucked in a bag  which were placed on a napkin by the side of the box, not in the box. The end result: an upscale, jazzy box lunch that makes a statement visually, and that was tasty and perfect for an executive working lunch.

These can also be served when you want to make a big impression with prospective clients and customers, or for executive bus tours, air planes, jets, or when a catered plated meal or buffet service isn’t an option.

 

Hbox lunch catering beeferbed Rubbed Beef Tenderloin

Herb rubbed grilled beef tenderloin steak served on a bed of spring lettuce with horseradish sauce

Grilled Orange Chickenbox lunch catering with chicken

Grilled marinated chicken breast served on a bed of spring mix with orange garlic marinade

 

Grilled Chipotle Jumbo Shrimpbox lunch catering shrimp

Jumbo chipotle marinated grilled shrimp served on a bed of spring mix  and a mild chipotle sauce

 

 

Orzo Pasta

Seasoned orzo pasta with green and red pepper accents

Grilled Oiled Flat Bread

Composed Salad

Asian Cucumber Salad accented with fresh peppers, carrots, edamame and toasted sesame seeds

Watermelon Feta Salad

Watermelon sprinkled with feta cheese served with balsamic vinaigrette

Gourmet Rocky Road Cookie

Chocolate cookie with white and semi-sweet chocolate chips, marshmallow bits and walnuts

Gourmet Sugar Cookie

Old fashioned buttery and sweet sugar cookie

Do you have an extraordinary box lunch
you need created and catered?

Just tell us a bit about what you need and let our team go to work for you too!

 

UncategorizedBy PJ

Outdoor Wedding Catering

Breakfast Wedding Catering

Outdoor Wedding Catering created for another happy couple!

outdoor wedding catering

This week we had the honor of creating an outdoor wedding reception for Josh and Jessica and luckily the weather cooperated. The ceremony area was created with a path way of flower petals creating the aisle leading her to her soon-to-be husband. And a giant tree, decorated with a beautiful, draping floral garland created a very special spot for the actual ceremony. To coordinate with her outdoor theme, she chose burlap looking floor length linens, and redwood chairs to compliment the “woodsy” look.

Since the wedding was in the morning, the bride chose a breakfast menu featuring mini chicken and waffles, breakfast casseroles, biscuits, bacon, sausage and gravy. She also wanted mac and cheese, fresh fruit along with a great variety of breakfast breads and pastries. Beverages included coffee, juices, iced tea and mimosas all of which were served from an outdoor cabana making it easy for the guests to take.

best wedding catering

And for the cake?  Doughnuts of course.  Their favorite – good old fashioned glazed doughnuts created the “cake” while the chocolate cake doughnuts and white iced doughnuts were arranged on surrounding platters for variety.  A sweet way to celebrate their “I do’s”

A beautiful day, a beautiful venue, a beautiful new life! Congratulations Josh and Jessica!

wedding cake catering

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Catering Tips WeddingsBy PJ

Wedding Catering with a Breakfast Menu

Wedding Catering with Breakfast

breakfast wedding catering

Last week we had the privilege of creating and serving a Wedding catering at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. What did the bride want? Breakfast! So we cooked up some great breakfast Casseroles with plenty of eggs, cheese, sausage and ham and for those who can’t eat meat, a vegetable frittata. Baked French Toast and Breakfast Potatoes rounded out the hot portion of the menu. To that, we added an array of fresh baked pastries, mini muffins, coffee cake,  party size bagels and fresh fruit. To compliment the breakfast menu, beverages were coffee, iced tea, fresh juices and mimosas.

Most wedding celebrations include a cake, and because this wedding catering dallaswas a breakfast, we suggested a doughnut cake to keep with the breakfast theme. The bride was thrilled with that idea and asked if we could use her choice of flavors – plain cake doughnuts, blueberry cake doughnuts and chocolate cake doughnuts. But, she also wanted a two tier cake with her cake topper on it so, that’s exactly what we used.

To create the cake, we layered the doughnuts on a cupcake tower and topped that off with a simple white two-layer cake, which created a show piece, just what wedding cakes do. To tie the white cake into the doughnut look we sliced several doughnuts in half and pressed those onto the tiers to complete the wedding “cake”. And then to make it easier for guests to select their doughnuts, we placed the cupcake tower on a lazy Susan so they could spin the tower around and select their perfect doughnut.

You can do the same with muffins, bagels, croissants or any other breakfast pastry you want for your breakfast wedding catering.

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs.! May you have a very happy and wonderful life!

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Catering TipsBy PJ

How to Grill Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes can be prepared so many ways: mashed, baked, whipped or grilled and we’ve served them all. Having recently served these as grilled wedges, we wanted to share

How to Grill Sweet Potato Wedges:

how to grill sweet potatoes

Here’s how we made ours:

More info on this mighty potato

  1. Select medium size sweet potatoes with no bruises or blemishes and with as few curves as possible.
  2. Wash and if desired, peel them. Peeling the skin off isn’t necessary and you can do this step ahead of time since sweet potatoes don’t turn brown like other potatoes would.
  3. To cut sweet potatoes into wedges start by cutting the potato in 1/2 lengthwise
  4. Turn halves cut side down and cut in 1/2 again creating a quarter of a potato
  5. Take each 1/4 section and flip so the peeled or skin side is on the cutting board and the thin side is up and then cut in half again. Once you’re done you should have at least 8 potato wedges per potato. You can also slice the potato into coins or circles if you prefer that shape. Because you don’t want all the food being served to be the same shape, cut your potatoes to compliment the rest of your menu.
    See how to cut potatoes compliments of North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission.
  6. Place wedges in a bowl and drizzle with some oil (we used canola oil). Do not drench them or the oil will make the potatoes gray once on the grill.
  7. Turn the grill on high to get the grates hot. Once the grates are hot, place the potato wedges directly on the grill grates for about 3 minutes. Flip the wedge over and grill the other side for 3 minutes. This is just to get the grill marks on the potato but not to completely cook them.
  8. Once the wedges are grill marked on both sides, place grilled wedges in a heat safe pan, dish or an aluminum foil pouch. Bake in a pre-heated oven until the potatoes are soft – about 20 minutes.  You want the potatoes soft which depends on the size of your wedges. Thicker potatoes will need more time, thinner ones might only need 10 minutes in the oven.
  9. Once they’re done, remove from the oven, toss with a little melted butter, brown sugar and a hint or cinnamon sugar.
According to our client, we had a home run, and we hope you will too!
Catering TipsBy PJ

How to Create an Outdoor Wedding Catering Menu

The Outdoor Catering Area

Catering an outdoor wedding menu starts with the actual outdoor area.
Where is it? What does it have there? What do you need to be able to serve a catered meal? Is there any cooking equipment like a grill? Running water? Work tables? If not, those things will have to be either rented or provided by your caterer in order to prepare your food.  And what is needed will depend on the menu you select.

The Weather

Weather is always a factor when planning an outdoor reception, so a rain plan should be developed for the just-in-case moments Mother Nature might provide. Some sort of shelter should be in the plan whether the venue you chose has an indoor area available that can accommodate the number of people you’ll have or if you have to rent a party tent, some consideration should be made for your guests…just in case. The same applies to areas with no real shade. On a bright and sunny day, guests will want to get under some shade after a while so consult a party tent rental company first to see what your local ordinances are for erecting tents and the do’s and don’ts of hosting a party using a tent.

The Outdoor Catering Menu

Just about any catering menu is suitable for outdoors provided the preparation equipment is available and the necessary staging and food tables are there or can be brought in. Guest tables and seating also need to be set up and once all that is situated, any menu should be able to be prepared and provided.

We recently were asked to catered an outdoor wedding anniversary party at a client’s home who was lucky enough to have plenty of space for guests to go inside should the weather turn inclement and an outdoor kitchen complete with a pizza oven! With the weather on our side, we created a custom menu to take full advantage of the oven and outdoor grill. The client allowed us free reign on the menu so we decided to start with some flatbread pizza slices as the appetizers, providing entertainment for the guests as they watched us prepare and bake those outside.

We selected three varieties of flatbread pizzas:

outdoor catering appetizerFresh Pear and Gorgonzola Cheese

On warmed flatbread, we sprinkled mozzarella cheese, fresh pear slices and candied pecans then baked for a couple of minutes. Once out of the oven, we topped with fresh baby greens and house made balsamic glaze

outdoor wedding cateringHerbed Portabella Mushroom with Fresh Mozzarella

Chock full of fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage and parsley, we sautéed the sliced baby portabella mushrooms and refrigerated those overnight. The day of the party, we layered the pizza with fresh mozzarella, then the mushrooms and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and baked.

Open Faced Smoked Salmon

Flatbread toasted with sesame seeds and when cool, layered with Greek yogurt, very thinly sliced tomato, onion and cucumber. On top of that we placed the client’s favorite smoked salmon and then garnished with capers.

On to the dinner menu using the outdoor grill, we served a wonderful and tender fresh herb marinated beef tenderloin which the client wanted made into sliders on our freshly baked rolls.  With that we also prepared lemon pepper shrimp, grilled sweet potatoes and vegetable kabobs. A dinner salad of baby greens, dried cranberries, feta cheese and walnuts was served with balsamic vinaigrette and desserts completed the meal.  Since the husband loves coconut, a two-layer coconut cake was sliced and served. And because the wife’s favorite is chocolate, a triple chocolate mousse tart enrobed in semi-sweet chocolate was created just for her. Sweet endings to a sweet celebration. Congratulations Tom and Dorothy on 30 years of marriage.

And what our client said:
…just wanted to let you know that your team knocked it out of the park last night. Everyone raved about the food, especially the appetizers – just wonderful. Dinner was great too. The beef was perfectly cooked, the rolls were just right, all the veggies delicious and everyone did a great job servicing and cleaning up. I would love to know how the sweet potatoes were prepared….