# 103 Catering Trial #1

Wew brought back 4 buffet pans so I could see if they would fit in our chaffing pans and in our oven. They do. Score! Our (hot) foods menu thus far: Roast Pig, DF, C&R, Zea's corn grits, Fresh Green Bean Casserole, Vodka Cream Pasta, Roasted Red Potatoes. This whole self-catering is kind of crazy. What I am trying to aim for is to follow catering companies' model of cooking ahead of time so the day of you just reheat it and serve it.
Results:
Zea's corn grits
--- Instead of buying yellow grits, I bought the Quick Grits from wal-mart. The recipe also calls for heavy cream, and 2 cups of it too. Wow.. I certainly didn't have that when I figured that out at home. I used 1/2 water and 1/2 2% milk instead of 1/2 water and 1/2 heavy cream. I also added 2 sticks of butter, salt, and the corn. When it was finished, I poured it into the buffet pan, topped it with freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese, and fresh green onions. The grits were supposed to be yellow due to its type, NOT the butter so next time I'll have to buy the yellow kind, plus a lot of heavy cream. I specifically love Zea's grits so I'll do that in the next trial.
Fresh Green Bean Casserole
---I boiled the green beans instead of using canned(gross). The entire dish shrunk in half. How the heck do you mess up GBS?! Next time, I won't cook the beans and let the oven do the talking. But, the grilled garlic and onions that I added in the mix were delish.
Vodka Cream Pasta
---Epic Fail. Epic I say. The pasta I made the night before to see how well it stayed overnight in the fridge. The sauce- I forgot to buy crushed tomatos- instead, i relied on the tomato sauce at home which resulted in a watery mess of vodka. Also, to be adventurous, I used Absolute's Mango flavored vodka, and realized that 1 cup of Absolute was not cheap so I added Viking Ford to the end. The result? The mango flavor overpowered the vodka taste which wasn't good. Darn you Absolute, making the best flavored vodkas there is. Darn you. Anyway, whatev. Fine as a cold dish?
Roasted Red Potatoes
 ---Didn't have red potatoes and used chopped Idahos. Flavor amazing, but way undercooked even though we left it in the oven 20 min longer? Should I have wrapped it in aluminum foil? IDK...

---Trying to figure out what Meat dishes we'll have on there. I love fish and it cooks fast, plus baked is delish...Olive oil & Lemon... yummmmm.