BOY do we have leftovers.

[cjsmith]

Attrition was high on the morning of the party. This is partially due to the "people with small children" demographic intersecting with sniffles season; folks' kids would get sick and they'd let us know they wouldn't be coming. At least one guest sent regrets because he was not feeling well himself. Then there were the people who simply didn't come. We had twenty-eight, not forty.

We would have had way way way too much food even if we'd had forty. We're talking five TIMES too much food, here.

I estimate people ate:

About 1/8th of the fancy olives
About 1/20th of the hummus
Less than 1/8th of the jicama
Maybe 1/8th of the baby carrots
None of the celery sticks
About 1/8th of the provolone and the salami
Maybe 1/16th of the cheddar and the pepper jack
About 1/8th of the crackers
Most of the chocolate chewy cookies with nuts
About 1/4 of the TJ's truffles
Maybe 1/8th of the gingersnaps
Maybe 1/4 of the butter cookies with sprinkles
None of the pfeffernuesse
About 1/3 of the contents of the crock pots
About 1/2 of the rolled-up lavosh sandwiches
1/12th of the sodas
1/6th of the beer
Most of the fruit juice
All of the wine (except they brought some, so I do have a few bottles now)

I bet a lot of this was due to the layout of the food vs. chairs, the fact that the party wasn't very formal (thus people were wearing clothing that was comfortable to sit down in), and the fact that everyone there had a big interest in common. Eventually everyone sat in big groups, some folks in chairs and some on the floor, and had lively conversations. People didn't get up to go fetch food.

Next time: less food, food closer to where people will sit down, and buy more wine. :)

Comments

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

extra food is ok. sounds like it was a success if people were sitting and talking and stuff. cheese, meats and cookies can all be frozen, if you don't eat them up before then.

i hope YOU had a good time, and didn't over-do it too much. *hugs*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There's an incredible pile of cheese and cookies in my freezer now! :-) Sadly the veggies were pretty much a loss, and I'll have to find someone to give those olives to (I'm not fond of olives).

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

*wave*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Are you free to drop by my work (appx. Wolfe & Central) before 5pm today? I have them here.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

Drat. Got the message after 5.

By way of note, deedeebythebay's middle child's favorite food in the whole world is black olives. I suspect that there are folks who are getting food over to them (Darla is having surgery on Tuesday) who would be willing to transport any food you might have to offer.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh darn; that evening I gave the olives to a flight instructor pal who adores olives.

Thanks for the idea. It's not Meal Food but it's a lot better than nuttin' when you're stuck not able to cook.

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

At least you won't have to worry about food for several days. :)

It seems like you ALWAYS need more wine than you have for parties. That's the item that always runs out first.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's for sure! We leave for the east coast on Wednesday. I have a lot of rolled sandwiches to eat in two days.

Next time I'll know about the wine. At least it doesn't require cooking and slicing and arranging!

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

The Rabbit Warren is having an all-night Solstice party on Wed night. The rolled sandwiches (and anything else you might want to unload in their direction) would probably be welcome.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The rolled sandwiches are getting really droopy (I ate a plate of them for lunch yesterday). But the Li'l Smokies and the cheese, perhaps? I'll post asking who's heading that way.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Statistics from the party:

28 people (including us)
0.7 wine glasses/person
0.33 bottles of wine/person (mainly reds)
0.07 cracker boxes/person
0.035 cheese+meat plates/person
0.035 crock pots/person
0.035 hummus dips/person
1.2 sodas+water/person (Coke, 7-Up, Diet Coke, Kern's, root beer are all good, Diet 7-Up and beer is bad)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

How are you counting those cheese+meat plates? Let's count a set of two plates as one "unit", because there were different things on the plates.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

I'm counting a plate as having all 4 types of cheese/meat on them. So if you had 28 people and 2 plates with 2 types of food each, people would eat half of each plate.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

OK, cool. So 0.035 cheese+meat "units" per person.

Each cheese+meat "unit" had a pound of meat, and the meat went twice as fast as the cheese, so they ate 0.07 pounds of meat per person. I haven't yet figured out how many pounds of cheese were in each "unit", but I do know the cheese consumption was largely provolone.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

random thoughts, based on having had parties...

You're right about bringing the food to where people are. Also put it in more than one place, and don't duplicate the setups. That will (a) allow you to use smaller tables, which will help with traffic flow, and (b) encourage mingling, if needed.

. . . . .

Get a bunch of cheese slicers and leave (some of) the cheese in blocks. People like to have something to do with their hands.

. . . . .

Do you know anyone with a responsible teenager whom you can hire for the night? Tell them to wear black and white, and they can do wonders for you in terms of saving you running-around steps. (They could help with prep, too.) (I have been that teenager, lo these many years ago.) Even a mature 12- or 13-year-old can do a lot. This all assumes you like kids, though.

. . . . .

This last one seems like a lot of work, but it can really help. Consider having food out in three waves, as such. (This is assuming a 3-4 hour party.)
I - Already out when people arrive:
Half the drinks; all the veggies, olives, hummus, etc; some of the cheese/meat platters; some of the sweets.

II - Set out ~45 minutes after party start-time (or when a large-ish chuck of people have arrived):
The rest of the cheese/meat platters; the rolled sandwiches; the crockpots; some more sweets if depleted; more drinks ditto.

III-set out ~an hour after II:
The rest of the drinks; the rest of the sweets. Pull any empty serving dishes off the tables.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

We were soooo ready for those waves (except that the rolled sandwiches and crock pots were in wave 1). Sadly, waves 2 and 3 were simply never needed. (Except for the wine. That had two or three or maybe more waves!)

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

sounds like it went well :) i always end up with too much food too, but it beats the alternative!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The guests enjoyed it, which is the truest measure of "went well"! And yes, too much is better than too little. At least there wasn't much that couldn't be frozen for later.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Randy's home alone all this week. Invite him over to help eat some of the leftovers. He has at least one hollow leg. ;) He can even bring his own wine...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Next time I'm home (except to sleep) is early January. He'd be very welcome. Anything that can be frozen has been.

[layer.livejournal.com]

hahaha... i was trying to restrain myself from eating too many of the butter cookies and the gingersnaps... if only i'd known!

and thanks again for having us over. had a really nice time and even talked to a few strangers. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh man, ALWAYS eat free food! ;-) Glad you had fun. Many of the people were strangers to me too, and I enjoyed talking to them, which means Rob has good taste in friends.

[kennita.livejournal.com]

Tonight is Quads party night -- maybe somebody could drop something by?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Aw, missed this! Drat!

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

Damn that we don't live closer! Those are some of my favorite nibbling/snacking/lunch foods! I'd help you out!

Sounds like a great time was had by all - yay!

And damn, now I'm hungry!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I would SOOOOOOOO trade for cake! 8-)