Dcarch, you have the most interesting parties! Pretty plates of pasta!

Sally

Sally, I agree, that's very cool pasta. Hey, it would be good for Ashley's "black and white" wedding pasta bar, thanks dcarch!

Annie

What time should I be there?

When is the wedding Annie? Has a date been set?

Ann

WOW! !
What can I say?
You've really outdone yourself this time, Dcarch.

Beauriful food,
Artfully arranged.
As always.

I could almost kill for those wings,
Left, right, or both.

And where in the world do you find pasta like that?
Is it as yummy as it looks? ?

Fantastic! ! !
All of it!

Rusty
(can you tell I'm hungry as I write?)

I had a similar pasta and the black part was squid ink. Is that what your pasta is?

Nice photos! And the wings look tasty.

Ann T, the wedding is May 21. She wants a pasta bar. For 400. At least one choice must be vegetarian. At least she made it an easy meal. Bruschetta and garlic bread to start, pasta and caesar salad, a vegetable I haven't decided on yet. The traditional fondant monstrosity for a wedding cake, with half a dozen Texas sheet cakes as second choice because the fiancee only likes white and yellow cake.

Just black and white, I told her it would look like March of the Penguins with all those guys in black and white tuxes...

That black and white pasta would be nice, though, with some kind of a carbonara or alfredo sauce.

Annie

Oh Annie....you are biting off a big one this time!
Will you have pasta "casseroles"? or a bar and heat up small servings and sauce them as needed?
Ceasar salad for 400 makes me numb....150 I can do....but 400? Holy Cow!!
And what will you do with an empty nest????

What will I do with an empty nest? Sell it, and move to the farm, LOL, and then I'll be right next to the Princess and Bruvver and they'll visit me all the time. (grin)

Yeah, I know, it's a big job. We'll do big pans the day before, and just bake them. I can't figure out how to just have sauce and pasta, because the wedding is at 3 pm and dinner at 5:30. The wedding cake can be done two days in advance, the pasta can be sauced and the salad ready for dressing, so it can go together quickly. I do have two people plus Elery to help, I did all of Amanda's plus cleaned the kitchen, and it was a bit much, so I know I need at least that much help.

It'll work, but I did put my foot down about dishes. They were going to use the "real" dishes at the hall and I told them they could find someone else to wash dishes and flatware for 400, because I wasn't going to do it. She changed her mind promptly and decided that disposables would be OK...

Annie

I think you could hire someone to wash "real" dishes more cheaply than you can buy disposable.
Where do you keep the stuff you cook ahead? I mean for 400 at even a conservative estimate it's 40 to 50 pounds of dry pasta.....and kettles and boiling water!
I was on the crew that cooked pasta for 1000 for RAGBRAI about 6 or 7 years ago.....and that was a boatload of pasta. Even considering lots of other food, you are thinking about cooking 50 pounds of pasta!!
Oh my! You're a good momma!!

May 21st? You have help....two from Chicago....

Very good looking wings, dcarch. I especially like that there are no drumettes. (Personal preference. Wife prefers them, so like Jack Sprat and his wive we lick the platter clean!)

Posted by sally2 "Dcarch, you have the most interesting parties! Pretty plates of pasta! Sally "

Thanks Sally. "Interesting" can have many meanings. :-)

Posted by annie1992 "Sally, I agree, that's very cool pasta. Hey, it would be good for Ashley's "black and white" wedding pasta bar, thanks dcarch! Annie"

Thanks Annie. A black and white theme works great for a wedding. I went to one last year. Stunning with decorated with black roses. "March of the Penguins with all those guys in black and white tuxes... "LOL!

Posted by dgkritch "What time should I be there?

Thanks dgkritch. How about during halftime?

Posted by therustyone "WOW! ! What can I say? You've really outdone yourself this time, Dcarch. Beauriful food,
Artfully arranged. ------------And where in the world do you find pasta like that? Is it as yummy as it looks? ? "

Thanks Rusty. I bought the pasta some time ago in a store when I was traveling. I forgot where. Very good quality pasta. It has a very nice al dente texture.

Posted by teresa_mn "I had a similar pasta and the black part was squid ink. Is that what your pasta is? Nice photos! And the wings look tasty."

Thanks teresa. I don�t have the label with the pasta to read the ingredients, but I think squid ink is in it. BTW, on a recent Dr. Oz show, he talked about the many amazing health benefits of squid ink.

Posted by foodonastump "Very good looking wings, dcarch. I especially like that there are no drumettes. (Personal preference. Wife prefers them, so like Jack Sprat and his wive we lick the platter clean!)

Thanks FOAS. You are good. Not that many people know "Drummettes" Everyone I know just call them small drumsticks.

dcarch

"Not that many people know "Drummettes" Everyone I know just call them small drumsticks."

Here they are called "Drummies".

Just the flat pieces are called 'wings'.

Rusty

How about humerus sections?

dcarch :-)

"How about humerus sections?"

I think I'll try that one next time I order wings out.

Do you 'spose anyone will know what I'm asking for?

:>)

Rusty

here the big parts are drummettes and the smaller end pieces are "wings". If I have to peel the skin off one part or the other, I'll go for the drummettes, LOL, and only one bone in those too, as opposed to those two small bones in the end pieces.

No one seems to pay much attention here to which "part" they get, they're all about the sauce.

dcarch, the flowers are white hydrangeas and white lilies, with black ribbons. She doesn't much like roses. Figures, those would be easy....

Annie

Ha! I didn't know they were called different things in different places. Here they are all wings. The drumstick looking half is a good wing, and the thing with the meat in between two bones is a sucky wing :-P

The drumstick looking half is a good wing, and the thing with the meat in between two bones is a sucky wing :-P

Well at least the second half of that statement makes sense to me. The sucky wing is the part that you simply grab one end of, stick the wing in your mouth, and in one quick step SUCK off all edible portions. Why the the other part with all the annoying cartlidge that you have to gnaw around would be considered the "good" wing is beyond me though.

:-P right back at ya! :-)

I disagree with jessicavanderhoff completely!

I've been a wing fan for 30+ years...raised and went to college in upstate NY so I know what's going on...the "double-bone" part (as my 10 yr old son calls them....) are the best. A way better platform for the flavor that defines wings..that is the crispy skin, the sauce and the bleu cheese dressing (not ranch...never).

The "single-bone" part is an overgrown drumstick...any true wing fan would never object to a plate full of "double-bones" any day of the week...we just realize that the damn things tend to come in pairs in nature so we are sort of stuck.

I disagree even more vehemently with your choice of dressing. Blue cheese looks like mold, tastes like poison, and even makes the inside of my friend's mouth itch. By all reasonable measures, it's a toxin, not a condiment!

Of course, I'd be happy to eat wings with either one of you. As long as they're saucy and spicy and you keep your vile sludge on the other side of the table!

LOL - it's a date! I've never heard of bleu cheese dressing described so eloquently!

They are "drummettes" here and they are the favored piece. DH is like a buzzard around my plate; he says I leave enough meat on the bones to feed another person. That's one thin I can say about him...he can polish bones like no one else.