Welcome Home Feast, American Style

Part I of Family Celebration, Summer 2010

For the occasion of my parents' 55th wedding anniversary, my three siblings with our spouses and children (except for some young adult males) gathered in Colorado for several days of family fun. As is usual for family occasions, especially a Socolofsky gathering, food figured largely in the celebration plans The number of diners varied from between 17-20, depending on the meal, so we planned food that was relatively simple and would please most in any crowd. Each of the three large meals we shared reflected the talents and preferences of the "Head Host."

For the first evening, we gathered at my sister's house. She and I had worked during the day to do some final preparation for the meal, which was the quintessential American summer picnic menu. It was the perfect welcome home dinner for our daughter, Jen, who had arrived back in the states the day before from a six-month study-abroad experience in the Netherlands. She added a flavor of Holland to the meal with several Dutch cheeses she had bought a few days before from the open-air cheese stand in the Leiden market. She was excited to have some of the traditional American foods, some of which she had to describe to her international friends while she was abroad (what are deviled eggs???)

What you should know about my sister, Gina, is that she is a do-ahead cook. She likes to plan food that can be prepared in advance and be ready with just a stir or an addition of an ingredient; or food that can be made in a crock pot early in the day; or desserts that can be baked or frozen ahead of time. Once the advance prep is done, she is free to clean up the kitchen, lay out the serving dishes, and not be troubled by last minute preparation and mess.

By the time I arrived, the evening before the picnic menu, she had already done a majority of the preparation. She had boiled and cubed all the potatoes for a potato salad, hard boiled the eggs and made the dressing; all that was required was mixing the parts together. The eggs for the deviled eggs had likewise been boiled, and only needed stuffing. The two ice cream desserts were already in the freezer. We put beans in the crock pot, and she had her husband out on the patio grilling the burgers well before the guests arrived. The grilled patties were then stored in another crock pot till ready to serve.

It's a good thing all this was done ahead, as I had brought along three dozen ears of Iowa sweet corn for the meal. Several people pitched in to shuck and clean the corn, but boiling all those ears took numerous pans. As they were done, I transferred them to a cake pan coated with butter, and rolled each ear in the butter, added salt and pepper, then piled them in a roasting pan placed on a warming tray. The pre-buttering reduced the mess and delay in a serving line for all the diners. There was a little bit of last-minute preparation involved in slicing and arranging relishes on a tray for the burgers. But by the time the rest of the family arrived, we had everything ready and laid out. Barely had people walked in the door than we were gathered for the blessing and sent through the line for the food.

A quick survey of left-overs showed that there wasn't much to store and put away. There was a bunch of corn, which a couple of us worked to remove from the cobs and put into freezer containers. The dishes went in the dishwasher, the pans were washed, and we all had a chance to sit down with each other and look at photos, listen to Jen share her travel stories, and let the younger kids watch a movie together. It was nice not having to spend hours in the kitchen after the meal cleaning up, since so much had been done earlier in the day and week. We got to have our cooking fun together with the few things that needed last minute preparation, and no one minded that the hamburgers weren't flipped onto the buns straight from the grill. It was a study in American epicurean efficiency, and a fitting Welcome Home Feast for any traveler.