Vintage Cocktail Party Success!

vegaslounge

So about a month ago I asked the board for recipes for a vintage "Mad Men"-style cocktail party. Happy to report that we held it Saturday and it was a roaring success! We eventually had about 35 people...it started at 2pm and the last guest didn't leave until after midnight.

My menu finally consisted of:

COLD DISHES

Pimento cheese
Fresh dill/chive cream cheese spread
Deviled eggs (Dad made these)
Open-faced cucumber/herb cream cheese sandwiches (these are ubiquitous at any fancy party in my little pocket of SE Georgia)
Mini cheese/nut balls
Fresh tomato-avocado salad with red wine vinegar dressing

HOT DISHES

Grilled fruit/vegetable skewers
Grilled stuffed mushrooms

DESSERT

Key lime pie squares
Sugared strawberries
Fresh whipped cream

Plus nuts, pickles, olives, crackers and OMG ALL THE BOOZE. Because nothing says "retro cocktail party" like day drinking.

And yes, I did make all of this from scratch. I'd also made a pineapple upside-down cake but it overflowed in the oven and was basically unsalvageable (although Dad ate it later).

The timing of all these dishes actually turned out great because I premade as much as I could the day before so much of it was just assembling the next day rather than actually cooking. And even for the things that needed cooking on-site, my lovely boyfriend was the perfect host and mingled the HELL out of everyone so I could hide in the kitchen.

I didn't get a ton of pictures (again, hiding in the kitchen...I love to host dinner parties, I just hate talking to people) but the sunlight was being nice to me by the time I could snap a few.

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed a recipe or insight!

~VL










(Special guest: my boyfriend, who arrived in a suit and immediately asked, "do you have a straight pin? My pocket square keeps slumping." This man is a keeper.)






And, because I can't help myself, my favorite shot of the evening...I bought this dress nearly 10 years ago in college and have only worn it a handful of times because it's beautiful but it shows every lump on me. I hadn't tried it on in months until right before the party started and I was praying it'd zip up because I didn't have time to run back to my apt. Whaddya know. Damn thing was loose.

DeviatedNorm

That looks like so much fun! Were any of the vintage recipes new to you? Which was your favorite?

And congrats on fitting in to that dress, you look great!!!

DananaNanas

Awesome!

L1zardQueen

Love it!

positivepowers

Fantastic! What a great idea!

ETA: You look amazing!

lkpducky

Very nice! and you look wonderful!

vegaslounge

DeviatedNorm wrote: »

That looks like so much fun! Were any of the vintage recipes new to you? Which was your favorite?

And congrats on fitting in to that dress, you look great!!!

Most of it was stuff I was at least aware of (I'm a historical tour guide with a huge interest in food and mid-century Americana, so this party was right up my alley) but it was fun using truly vintage recipes. I did tweak them a bit if I thought the tweak would make them taste better, and, I've been a vegetarian over half my life so although I planned on having a few token meat dishes I just didn't have the time to make either them or my usual fare and opted for what I knew.

I actually ate very little of what I made, I was too busy making it! I'll actually say my favorite dish was the simplest, the herb-cream-cheese-and-cucumber sandwiches. I've, for some reason, had a lifelong aversion to cream cheese and until the last few years cucumbers made me nauseous (I loved them as a kid, then hit puberty and apparently my hormones decided they didn't like cucumber anymore). I was scarfing those things down like nobody's business. I even stopped by the grocery the next day to buy cucumbers and cream cheese so I could make them for myself.

@nickssweetheart recommended a cookbook from 1964 that was EXACTLY up my alley, with 12 different menus broken down into not only recipes but when you should start prepping them to be exactly on time. I followed the advice and it worked like a charm! As soon as the cold menu was done the hot menu was on the table, and as soon as that was done I had dessert ready. Hell, I even had time to clean up the kitchen as I went along! I felt like I earned a hostess merit badge, lol.

~VL

Kelkat405

Kelkat405

Well done!!

nickssweetheart

I'm so glad you had success and liked the cookbook!