Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Creating A Food Or Drink Station



Hi all,
Welcome to another Pinterest Challenge, where a group of bloggers take a photo chosen by the fabulous Cindy of County Road 407. This month we are sharing food station ideas based on an inspiration photo from Celebrations At Home


If you are coming from, Create And Ponder, welcome. Her baked potato bar is adorable. She has the best ideas. 
I am a big believer in the art of the buffet. It makes my life a little easier and I hope that I have some tips that will make your party a success. 


Tip #1 
Preparing the meal in a pretty dish adds to the cuteness of the buffet line and cuts down on the need to transfer it to a pretty dish.I really don't want to transfer food from a pot or pan that I've cooked in to a different bowl for serving. Don't get me wrong, I love pretty serving bowls and have several to go with my various sets of china but many of them never get used because I don't want to do more washing. 
If there are 40 million dishes to wash after a party, I would rather not wash more dishes just for the sake of a darling presentation. 
Are you with me on this? 


 Tip #2
Set the table beforehand with all the pretties. Allow your guests to go pick their plate which in turn allows them to pick their seat. That way they don't have sit next to Great Aunt Sally. 
Just kidding, we do not have a Great Aunt Sally. We had Great Aunt Jean who used to chase after us to give us "kiss bugs" after she'd had too many Scotch on the rocks. True story. 
It was TERRIFYING! 


Tip #3
Elevate, elevate, elevate. 
Adding different heights adds interest but it also makes food easier to see and it creates a charming display. It was one of the first things I noticed about the inspiration picture. I also noticed a variety of pretty serving bowls. Mine are not necessarily Christmas but they give off that vibe because of the red and green. 


Tip #4
Pretty up the space by putting utensils in a cute vessel. This checked tin becomes a silverware server with the addition of a cute napkin. I noticed that the inspiration picture has silverware in an urn of some kind.


Tip #5 
I love putting out different cute napkins to coordinate with my tablescapes and buffet ideas. 
Tuesday Morning has a great selection of napkins. 
These plaid napkins came from Hobby Lobby. 
They coordinate with the plaid moment we have going on right now. 


 Tip#6
Keep it simple. 
My favorite winter recipe is for a Minestrone soup. It's super easy. 

Brown sliced Johnsonville Italian Sausage in a skillet. Set aside. 
Brown winter veggies in a skillet. I've used carrots, onions and Brussel sprouts - really anything that you like. 
Once tender, add about 2 cups of water and one beef bullion cube.
Stir in 1/2 jar of Prego Traditional Spaghetti sauce, 
1 can of Delmonte Whole Green Beans (chopped) 
1 can of beans. We like pinto or Navy.
Add the sausage. 
 In a separate pot, boil your favorite type of pasta. 


We don't add the pasta to the soup until serving time ever since the great minestrone disaster of 1976.
Trust me on this. If there are leftovers, nobody wants to eat mushy pasta for days on end. 


Tip #7
Separate different types of stations to cut down on congestion. 
I don't have a huge kitchen but it seems we are always congregating in the kitchen.
Put colder stuff on one counter and hot food somewhere else. I forgot to do this at Thanksgiving. Separating cold and hot food speeds up the line. 
You don't want the whole line bogged down because someone is picking the cherries out of the Jello salad. 
Coffee and beverages have been taken out of the kitchen all together. It makes for a more fast paced line. I was at a wedding recently and the person in front of me was left handed. Buffet lines are right hand dominant. Every time she set the utensil down on the table, the handle was pointed to the left instead of the right. I almost couldn't cope with turning the handle back the way it's supposed to be. 
 Poor lefties.






Well do you serve from the table or a buffet line? 
How do you like our darling egg nog bowl set? We picked that up at an antique store in Cleburne, Texas last week. 
It's so adorable. 
That's it for now.
I hope you will stop by all the links in this hop. 
Katie


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15 comments :

  1. That egg nog bowl brings out my heart eyes! Your soup looks so yummy, I'll take a bowlful please. Merry Christmas!

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  2. I love your tips for creating perfect stations, Katie, and I loved seeing all your decorating ideas. Yes please, I'd love a bowl of your soup before I leave.

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  3. Perfect ideas, Katie! Thank you for the tip about keeping cold foods with cold, hot with hot. We have a party for IOOF this weekend and I have been thinking about where and how to put out different foods. Hot cocoa, of course, is still where it was last Pinterest Challenge. ;) Love how you've set up your pasta bar (and the recipe)!!!

    Happy Christmas to you!
    Barb :)

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  4. I am excited to try your Minestrone soup recipe. We heart soups! And your station on the counter is a great idea! Shows us we don't always have to have a separate place to make things special. I'm with you on the transferring of pots too! Ain't nobody got time for that. And your new vintage finds are precious! Thanks so much for joining in today. I really appreciate you! Merry Christmas.

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  5. Lefties unite! Now I will forever be conscious of setting the serving spoons the 'right' way. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Love the idea of setting up different stations to cut down on congestion. We are hosting Christmas dinner, and I think I'll do this! Is that a Nespresso coffee machine you have? We bought one for Christmas. It's wrapped under the tree. We can't wait to start using it.

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  7. I've got that same Egg Nog bowl and mugs; think it was my Grandma's. So fun to pull out at Christmas! I'm drooling over your marble tile backsplash; totally want to do that in my kitchen. Have a Merry Christmas, Katie!

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  8. These are all great tips on making stations for serving different foods. I love that Egg Nog bowl and mugs adorable! Merry Christmas Katie.
    Hugs,
    Kris

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  9. so cute Katie, I love all the fun vintage pieces you've used. I agree, a buffet line is so much easier, we also do this. no more dishes than needed!

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  10. Great ideas, Katie! We always do a buffet line. It's just so much easier with a crowd. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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  11. This is just darling, Katie. I loved all the set-ups. And your tips are excellent, of course. Love the vintage, too. Buffet can just be so much easier!

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  12. Setting up separate stations for hot and cold food is a great idea. I love your new egg nog punch bowl. So cute!

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  13. Your drink/food station looks great. It is fun to create little vignette like those. Thank you for sharing with #omhgww. I have socialized your post.

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  14. I love the punch bowl drink station! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm--pinning!

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