Menu Recommendations Archive
4 Creative Wedding Reception Menu Ideas
Wedding party catering can sometimes seem like a rerun. Caterers are capable of making some amazing delicacies, but too often it follows the same simple formal dinner setup. More and more, couples seek to make their reception stand out as something memorable and unique; and, hopefully, as a truly fun experience for everyone invited. Sometimes, that means going off the beaten path and trying something just a little bit different.
There are lots of ways to plan your reception menu without falling into the doldrums. Here are four of our favorite suggestions to leave your friends and family talking about your wedding for years.
1. Themed food stations. Going with a buffet-style wedding reception is a great way to save on cost and to encourage your guests to circulate and mingle. However, that doesn’t mean it has to make the meal less exciting. Consider having several different stations around the reception area, each dispensing different kinds of food, each with their own theme. For example, you could have a fondue station where guests get to try out different bites with different dips, or a Spanish station with an assortment of tapas to try.
Wedding Receptions to be Remembered
2. Mingle-friendly food. Life is more fun when you can not only eat, but socialize. Not all food is easy to eat while walking about the room, or to move from table to table. Let your guests be more mobile by using small, disposable plates and offering bite size foods. You can go beyond normal hors d’oeuvres and provide sushi, mini shrimp cocktail glasses and a variety of sliders. When guests can wander and interact, the buzz in the room really picks up.
3. Dazzling display. Sometimes it’s not just how the food tastes, it’s the experience of seeing it made. Exhibition stations at a wedding reception are an instant hit. Consider having a station where a chef hand-tosses pizza and bakes it on the spot, or a Mongolian barbeque station. You can also make this idea work with drinks if you have a flair bartender who can toss bottles, juggle mixers and pour multiple drinks at once as part of his stunts.
4. Unique dessert. Dessert can easily depart from the classic wedding cake. Multi-tiered displays of gourmet donuts can be far less expensive than a multi-tiered wedding cake, and they give guests the excitement of choosing which ones they want to try. In general, more assortment is the key to more fun with any dessert, whether it’s an ice cream cone bar, a chocolate dipping station or hot chocolate shooters. If you want to keep the cake cutting ceremony, you can use a smaller wedding cake alongside your unique desserts.
These are just a few of the ways that an experienced caterer can help you make your wedding reception menu stand apart. Do you want help making your reception memorable? If you’re in the Northern VA or Washington, DC area, you can’t go wrong with Saint Germain Catering. Saint Germain has been in the business for years and has made hundreds of wedding dreams come true.
What was the best wedding you have ever been to and why?
We’ve Got Low-Carb Catering Options!
Call it whatever you want: Atkins, Paleo, South Beach, Ideal Protein, or just a plain old, low-carb diet. Let’s not get too hung up on the details of who owns the simple concept of cutting back on bread in order to lose weight or promote overall health. What matters is that you have an event to plan, or a meeting to hold, and you know that there are going to be people in attendance who follow this diet and take it quite seriously.
Chicken Cacciatore: A Wonderful Low-Carb Selection
For some, this could even be a health imperative, so you definitely want to make sure that you not disregard these requests in every case.
If you have this problem hanging over your head, we’ve got some good news for you: You can relax. Saint Germain’s Catering has a full menu with a wide array of options available which focuses exclusively on low-carb options. The best part is that you can mix and match across multiple menus, so if you have a big wedding to plan, and know half of the guests are on a low-carb diet, you can provide for their needs without forcing the entire party to be low-carb for a night. Everybody gets exactly what they want!
Just because your menu includes low-carb options doesn’t mean that you have to pay an arm and a leg for that service. We strive to make all of our menu items, including our low-carb options, as cost-friendly as possible for our customers, so you can provide excellent food to all of your guests, without compromising their dietary needs—or your wallet.
A wide range of options are available, with egg dishes, chicken dishes, steak dishes, and sausage dishes. We even have a low-carb variant of our burger bar available! It’s a hearty assortment of food sure to entice even the pickiest of appetites and satisfy every stomach. One of our favorites is the chicken cacciotore. With perfectly cooked, all-white meat chicken in a tomato and mushroom sauce, beautiful grilled asparagus, and fresh Cesar salad, it’s a little taste of the Mediterranean that is sure to impress.
Do you have a favorite low-carb dish? Make a comment and let us know.
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Saint Germain Catering is a (certified) woman-owned business staffed with talented chefs who proudly use the freshest natural ingredients, and drivers/staff who deliver exceptional service with a smile to Washington DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia. If you’re in the area, we want to cook for your next event or corporate meeting. Call us at (703) 506-9396 or submit an online event inquiry here to get started.
Food: The Language of Love!
It is as true a statement as you can make to say that food – the sight, smell, thought and description of it – has a uniquely powerful way of igniting the senses, making a fast and furious impression, and bridging any language or communication gaps between people. You may not speak Spanish, but I bet you speak fajitas. You may not have tried our Fried Chicken Waffle Cone yet (see here), but see it on Facebook, and your’ ‘Gotta Have It!’ siren will likely start to wail. So when it comes to holidays, it’s important to understand food’s magical place in each special occasion, and how to leverage that to your advantage. Enter Valentines Day.
Valentines Cookie Assortment from Saint Germain Catering
Ahhh, the day of love. And day of chocolate, flowers, Hallmark cards, dinner out…and with the explosion of the Social Web…E-cards, Facebook and Twitter messages galore. In some Latin American countries Valentine’s Day is known as “Día del Amor y la Amistad” (Day of Love and Friendship). It’s common for people to perform “acts of appreciation” for their friends, which is a growing trend here in the States as well. But don’t let that overwhelm you. Relax. The important people in our lives – spouses, girl/boyfriends, children, friends, colleagues – aren’t grading us like the defiant Olympic judge from the former Soviet Union. It IS the thought that counts. Especially if you put some simple, creative thinking into the mix.
Valentines Day ranks near the top when it comes to food-oriented holidays. The only days that are as busy for restaurants are Mother’s Day and New Year’s Eve. And when it comes to sweets, chocolate and other treats are never more popular than around this February holiday, save for Halloween. Nothing says “I Love You” like a heartfelt V-day card AND an assortment of deeply delicious chocolate, cookies and other sweets. Take that same train of thought if you want to surprise colleagues, staff, students or extended family and friends. Nothing says “just thinking of you”, or “I love your work and dedication” or “I appreciate your friendship” like special, surprise treats that induce smiles at the mere sight of them.
The thought of using a professional caterer for Valentines Day or other holidays may never have entered your mind. But think of us as the gift and happiness provider at your service, on wheels, able to lovingly craft any number of heart-pounding, mouthwatering food items that will please any palate, and make any special occasion a creative smash. A flower van pulling up is nice. A Saint Germain delivery van arriving with fully prepared, tastebud exploding meals and V-day dessert specials for the family or office, is spectacular!
When we first posted the assorted cookie image on Facebook about two weeks ago, the response was fast and furious: “Almost immediately, we got a bunch of orders for five or more dozens of cookies per order,” says Sarah Miller, Vice President of Saint Germain Catering. A simple image, triggering ‘A-Ha’ moments of glee. No more worries and stress over what to do, what to order, where to go, etc. Let the pros do all the work! But we want you to take all the credit. We think we make a pretty good team, no?
See some of our carefully crafted Valentines-oriented dessert goodies here … here … here and here. Call us at (703) 506-9396, or email us at info@saintgermaincatering.com.
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Saint Germain Catering is a (certified) woman-owned business staffed with talented chefs who proudly use the freshest natural ingredients, and drivers/staff who deliver exceptional service with a smile to Washington DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Visit our homepage at www.saintgermaincatering.com. Call us at (703) 506-9396, or submit an online event inquiry here. Known as corporate catering specialists (Food That Means Business!), we exceptionally cater events of all size: weddings, bridal/baby showers, birthdays, anniversaries, Bar/Bat-Mitzvahs, graduations, wakes, BBQs, holiday parties and more.
The Boxed Lunch: Giving Business A Boost
Gourmet Sandwich, Bursting With Flavor, From Saint Germain Catering
If you’ve ever enjoyed a delicious, catered boxed-lunch, you know the feeling you get when spotting an array of choice, boxed food offerings on an office or conference room table. It’s a feeling of child-like glee, similar to the days you discovered mom went over-the-top with your bag lunch at school, slipping a Twinkie (squeal!) and bag of your favorite chips in to accompany the sandwich, and balance the ever present apple. Nothing takes a humble business lunch meeting mood up several notches like a well catered boxed lunch, custom ordered to your liking. In fact, don’t power point presentations scream for a good meal?
At Saint Germain Catering, we simply love delivering box lunches (and breakfast, and buffet-style meals!) to our business clients each day in the DC Metro region. We love playing a small but important part in someone’s work day, and really love getting feedback after a catered office event like “Dude, they went all out on this sandwich”, and “It’s like eating at a gourmet restaurant in our Conference Room” (comments on our Facebook page). Our slogan is Food That Means Business, and for good reason. We’re the premier corporate caterer in DC, MD and NoVA, and our staff knows how to give each meeting and office gathering a subtle, yet all important boost. Like a gourmet cookie you find nestled next to the tastebud-blowing sandwich when you open your delightful box from Saint Germain.
When companies are looking to feed everyone attending a lunch meeting, a key thing those in charge look for are meals that meet a variety of tastes and diet requirements, and that everyone can easily eat over a lengthy period of time (here comes the power point presentation!). It could mean a deli-type sandwich, stacked high with carved meat, some chips (our hand made Parm chips, it’s said, are amazing) and another tasty side, like pasta salad. It could mean one of our delicious salads, like Chicken Ceasar or Chicken Cobb, or another offering from Gourmet Box Lunches menu, like a Mesquite Beef Box, with sliced strips of mesquite beef marinated in fresh herbs and peppercorns, served with a horseradish cream sauce…including a side scoop of Yukon Gold potato salad and steamed vegetables. Mouth watering yet??
A huge benefit of boxed-lunch catering over, for example, delivery from a restaurant, is individualization of each meal. Our online ordering system is custom built to make ordering for 10, or 200, a snap, with a variety of specially crafted boxed offerings – full of the freshest ingredients – to please any palate. Our boxed lunches provide an extremely wholesome meal that’s more likely to leave your colleagues feeling refreshed and satisfied throughout the meeting. And that, friend, is important. Because we all know that keeping everyone smiling, and focused, and happy…is good for the bottom line. So give your business a big boost. Order boxed lunches for your next meeting, from Saint Germain Catering! It’s Food That Means Business, for your business!
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Saint Germain Catering is a (certified) woman-owned business staffed with talented chefs who proudly use the freshest natural ingredients, and drivers/staff who deliver exceptional service with a smile to DC, MD and Northern VA. Visit our homepage at www.saintgermaincatering.com. See our Gourmet Box Lunch menu here. Call us at (703) 506-9396, or submit an online event inquiry here. Known as corporate catering specialists (Food That Means Business!), we exceptionally cater any event, large or small: weddings, bridal/baby showers, birthdays, anniversaries, Bar/Bat-Mitzvahs, graduations, wakes, BBQs, holiday parties and more.
Plan a Healthier Meal for Your Team
Every day we cater delicious meals to Washington, DC-area businesses and offices. Whether it’s breakfast or lunch, meetings or celebrations, you always need your team to be focused, healthy and full of energy. This week we are going to help you with planning a healthy meal for your team to keep them going strong!
Healthy Breakfast! Having a healthy breakfast is a great way to start your day; a nutritious start can prevent overeating and snacking later in the day. Try our Epicurean Breakfast with farm-fresh scrambled eggs blended with spinach and mushrooms and served with sliced vine-ripened tomatoes, turkey sausage links, SGC breakfast potatoes and a seasonal fruit platter.
Healthy Lunch! Treat the office to lunch. Our Gourmet Organic Cookout includes fresh apple pecan walnut salad, grass-fed beef burgers and organic grilled chicken served with cinnamon sugar baked beans, grilled asparagus and sweet potato salad.
Healthy Dinner! Is the team staying late in the office? Not a problem, fuel up with our Heart Healthy Balsamic Chicken, with delicious herb-roasted chicken breast, fresh garden salad with balsamic dressing, steamed green beans, roasted new potatoes, and wheat and grain dinner rolls!
Have any suggestions for a healthy meal for your team? Share it with us! Let us know and respond in the comments below, tweet us at @SGCatering or post on our Facebook Fan Page! (Image from foodswings.)
SGC is ServSafe Certified!
Have we told you lately how much we love catering? Whether we are hosting a corporate catering event or a wedding event, one thing is certain — we’re having tons of fun helping our clients throw the perfect event. While it may look like all fun and games, we’re extremely serious and cautious about food safety and handling. Did you know Saint Germain Catering is one of the few ServSafe certified catering companies in the area?
ServSafe is a food safety training and certificate program administered by the National Restaurant Association. The program is accredited by ANSI and the Conference for Food Protection. Every employee at Saint Germain Catering is ServSafe certified to ensure the best service and top quality food for our clients. The courses our employees take to become certified discuss foodborne illnesses, including information on specific foodborne pathogens and biological toxins such as shellfish poisoning, contamination, and food allergens. Prevention is also covered, with information regarding purchasing and receiving guidelines, food preparation, holding and serving guidelines, food safety management systems, sanitation guidelines for facilities and equipment, and integrated pest control, as well as food safety regulations and employee training. In fact, we have a ServSafe administrator that completes monthly walk-throughs with our staff, helping guide them throughout the kitchens to ensure best practice standards.
Try one of our many delicious August Monthly Specials handled careful in SafeServ standards!
Have any safety tips? Let us know and respond in the comments below, tweet us at @SGCatering or post on our Facebook Fan Page!
Showing your Team USA Pride with SGC!
USA! USA! USA! The Olympics are finally here, and we couldn’t be more excited! While we all gather around our TVs with our families cheering on Team USA, what better of a way to celebrate than with a few traditional All-American dishes? Here are a few dishes the SGC Team from the Summer Barbeque & Picnic menu for inspiration for all your Olympic themed events.
Western BBQ Buffet: Tangy BBQ chicken quarters, pulled BBQ pork with baked potatoes served with fixings. Sweet corn on the cob, wholesome cornbread muffins and fresh summer pasta salad!
All American Picnic: Juicy grilled 1/3 burgers, bratwurst, and hot dogs served in freshly baked buns and rolls along with a condiments station. Also comes with delicious baked beans and a summer picnic potato salad with creamy coleslaw.
Classic Red, White & Blue: Delicious all-beef lean burgers, turkey burgers, black bean veggie burgers as well as all-beef franks, all served in homemade brioche buns with a French fry bar with choice of sweet potato and Idaho French fries along with condiments and fixings. Fresh sweet local corn on the cob with juicy seedless watermelon wedges and summer themed iced cookies!
Want to spruce something up yourself? Here is an interesting recipe we loved that we found online for Stars & Stripes in fruit & cheese form from Brit.co.
What other meals will be eating as you support Team USA in the Olympics? Let us know and respond in the comments below, tweet us at @SGCatering or post on our Facebook Fan Page! (Image from brit.co)
Creative Summer Treats
At Saint Germain we like to have fun when we cook for our friends and family and this usually means lots of delicious experimenting. We are very passionate about pushing the boundaries of conventional dishes with our creativity. You may recognize some of these inspired dishes if you are one of our amazing Facebook fans; we love to frequently showcase them. Here are of our recent creations:
- Mini Pancake Skewers
- Piña Colada Dessert Shooters
- Buffalo Chicken Party Cups
- Seven-Layer Dip shooters
Sometimes we find interesting inspirations online like these watermelon grilled cheese bites from the Brit.co.
Ingredients
- 1/4 watermelon, seedless
- 8 ounces halloumi cheese (firm, Greek cheese found at gourmet supermarkets)
- 1 cup arugula
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil to coat grill racks
- Special Equipment: Grill
Directions
- Preheat your grill to medium-high. Toss arugula with balsamic vinegar.
- Cut off sides and ends of the watermelon to create a rectangular cube; slice into thin pieces, about 1 centimeter in width.
- Trim your block of halloumi to match the size of your watermelon slices.
- Then slice halloumi to match the width of the watermelon slices.
- Line a plate with paper towels to catch the juices of the watermelon after grilling. Place the watermelon slices on the grill and cook for 2 minutes.
- Turn slices over and add the halloumi to the grill. Flip halloumi after 1 minute. Cook for 1 more minute and then remove both watermelon and halloumi slices from the grill, and place on the plate lined with paper towels.
- Now it’s time to assemble! Place halloumi slices on half of the watermelon slices. Top halloumi with arugula and then another watermelon slice. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Have any creative inspirations you would like to share? Let us know and respond in the comments below, tweet us at @SGCatering or post on our Facebook Fan Page! (Image and recipe from brit.co)
Healthy Summer Foods with Secret Health Benefits
It’s a beautiful summer in Washington D.C. and we’re spending it being healthy and active outside. Of course, your favorite DC caterer has an abundance of fresh, delicious and healthy choices. We thought this week we would focus on the many summer’s fruits and vegetables that are full of with secret health benefits. Here are some of our favorites and why they’re a particularly good choice in the summer.
1. Corn: There’s a reason why we place corn is in so many of our summer meals besides it being so delicious. Corn has plenty of healthy antioxidants, like lutein and zeaxanthin—which help against the sun’s damaging rays and help lower your risk of developing age-related macular degeneration—the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 60 .
2. Iced coffee: Start your summer mornings with a refreshing pick-me-upper and one of our many delicious breakfast items. Did you know drinking a single cup of coffee daily may lower your risk of developing skin cancer? A recent study by the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, determined those who drank one cup of caffeinated coffee a day reduced their risk of developing nonmelanoma skin cancer by about 10 percent.
3. Tart cherries: Sweet, tangy and they deliver a host of health benefits. You may have heard that drinking tart cherry juice can help you get a better night’s sleep and subdue post-workout pain. But did you know the anthocyanin in tart cherries activate a molecule that helps rev up fat burning and decrease from fat storage.
4. Tomatoes: The perfect addition to any meal for when you’re out laying by the pool! There’s no question that sunscreen should be your first line of defense against the blazing summer sun but did you know eating tomatoes could give you a little extra protection and protect your skin from sunburn.
5. Watermelon: Try our wonderful Classic Red White & Blue from our summer menu which comes with juicy watermelon wedges. Watermelon is 92 percent water so it keeps you hydrated with your memory sharp and your mood stable. It also helps you feel more full with less calories.
6. Raspberries: Have you tried our Brie & Raspberry Tarts? Raspberries are a great source of fiber—some of it soluble in the form of pectin, which helps lower cholesterol. One cup of raspberries has 8 grams of fiber—and a study in the Journal of Nutrition suggests that eating more fiber may help prevent weight gain or even promote weight loss.
7. Iced tea: A tall glass of iced tea on a hot day is not only refreshing, but good for you. Studies show if you drink tea regularly, you may lower your risk of Alzheimer’s and diabetes, plus have healthier teeth and gums and stronger bones. Tea is rich in a class of antioxidants called flavonoids. Iced tea would be perfect to wash down our irresistible roasted sirloin salad from our July monthly specials.
8. Blueberries: July is national blueberry month so it’s a great excuse to indulge in juicy, fresh blueberries which coincidently are full of antioxidants that may help ward off muscle fatigue.
Have some deliciously healthy summer foods we have missed? Let us know and respond in the comments below, tweet us at @SGCatering or post on our Facebook Fan Page!
Spice Up The Grill!
Tired of regular old hamburgers and hot dogs for your outdoor party? You are just in luck; here are some alternative choices and tips for cooking and grilling for your outdoor summer parties!
Corn on the cob: Having trouble getting corn out of the husk? Use a microwave to help. Just chop off the first row of kernels from the stalk end — the part that was attached to the plant — and then throw the whole thing into the microwave, and 30 seconds later, you can slide both the husk and the silk off. If you are boiling corn, make sure it’s no longer than a minute or two.
Short ribs: Short ribs aren’t typically cooked on a grill because they’re a tougher cut of meat full of connective tissue, which takes a really long time to break down. But you can always cover your short ribs in foil and pop them in an oven at a low temperature for a couple of hours. That helps the tough connective tissue break down into gelatin, which gives meat a silky texture.
Grilling veggies: Vegetables need to be cut into large shapes so they don’t fall through a grill onto the coals. Red onions, zucchini and sweet potatoes, with half-inch thick circle cuts are great choices. Try not to place them directly over the coals, and leave them on the grill for about 20 minutes or so. The grill brings out the natural sugars to caramelize it for so much more flavor than any other way you can cook those vegetables.
Grilling fish: The biggest complaint about grilling fish is that it sticks to the grates. To solve this, just take a wad of paper towels dipped in vegetable oil, and use tongs to rub them all over your grill grates several times. This will form a temporary nonstick surface on the grill grate, and then you put the fish down diagonal to the grill grates, which keeps it from falling through. This makes it a little easier to get a spatula underneath when it’s time to flip the fish.
Easy summer desserts: Try our Georgia’s Best Peach Cobbler, fresh Georgia peaches swimming in their own nectar and enveloped in a golden brown crumb crust. Served warm and dolloped with sweet whipped cream. Try our Key Lime Island Pie; the refreshing original Florida pie is a sweet and tangy dessert. Our authentic recipe uses real key lime juice and a graham cracker crust and is finished with a layer of whipped cream piping.
Have a great tip on alternative choices for a summer meal? Let us know! Respond in the comments below, tweet us at @SGCatering or post on our Facebook Fan Page!
