The Remains

What a weekend. In the eyes of our people, our first baby turned into a man. And about a hundred people from both near and far, descended upon Schenectady to see it happen. Slidin’ Dirty was there to make sure people were fed. MopCo came to make sure they were entertained. Bella Napoli donuts were served to make sure our guests left with something sweet on their lips.

To help show off our region, local breweries were featured, including Shmaltz, Brown’s, and Chatham. Plus we had Lamoreaux Landing riesling so my Californian friends could experience a good wine from New York’s finger lakes.

The lunch reception after the service was the easy part. Hiring a caterer to do everything really takes all the worry out of the equation. You don’t have to think about how much food to get, or making sure food displays remain full.

I took on those chores for the after parties which we hosted back at home for the out of town guests. After taking stock of Saturday night’s leftovers, I cut my meat order at Chester’s in half Sunday morning. And that was a good thing.

If you’ll recall, I made seven pork shoulders. Six were boneless, and one was bone-in. The boneless ones were all about three pounds each. I had the bone-in one cooking while the bar mitzvah was going on, with the idea it would be done in time for the festivities later that evening.

It was. But it never got shredded. Of the remaining pork shoulders, we pulled four of the six.
That meant we had two full ones left over. Plus the bone-in one. Plus about half of one that had been pulled.

Now they have been portioned, wrapped, and placed in the chest freezer for future meals.

I also got way too many of the veggie burgers. There was one family that didn’t eat pork, so I made one round of eight veggie burgers. Mrs. Fussy saw how quickly the plate of veggie burgers vanished, and she saw this as a high demand for more. So I went out and grilled off another eight, which went on to sit out for the rest of the night.

Oops.

There is also a metric crap ton of slaw left. I had made about a gallon of the stuff, and only about a quarter of it got consumed. Beer was another one of those things in which we barely made a dent. Nor did we go through much wine.

And somehow people left before I was able to break out the six half gallons of Stewart’s ice cream. Part of the problem was all the donuts we had the day before. Almost everyone was pretty much done with sweets after that.

There were still a shocking number of donuts left at the end of Saturday night. So I put them out for brunch again on Sunday morning. Boston cream donuts and old fashioned cake donuts hold up remarkably well after a couple days.

But I promised bagels, so bagels there would be. Plus I had called in a meat order to Chester’s. And Mrs. Fussy really wanted to make sure there was smoked salmon.

Sunday morning I made a Price Chopper run and picked up two dozen bagels, four blocks of cream cheese, and two jugs of orange juice. Fortunately, when I arrived at Chester’s, the meat order had not yet been filled, and I was able to cut the smoked breakfast sausage order down from four pounds to two pounds. I also only left with 24 smoked chicken and bacon pierogi.

Based on the sheer volume of food on hand, I also decided to only get enough smoked veal loaf and cheese for Little Miss Fussy. Previously I had entertained the notion of putting out some of these cold cuts for guests.

My brother-in-law brought over a pound of smoked salmon at my request. It was enough for everyone to get some, but that and the pierogies were the only things we finished at any of the events. Although there were only a few sausages that remained after the last guests left.

We also ate all the bagels but for three sesame ones.

It also turns out that one batch of cold brew coffee makes a giant pitcher of the stuff. And when you’re only having a few dozen people for a late brunch, that and one pot of hot coffee, is more than enough.

As people left, I pushed them to take bags of donuts for the road. We started on Saturday morning with sixteen dozen donuts. Now we are down to the last seven.

What a whirlwind of a weekend. I got to watch my son take on the mantle of adulthood, while surrounded by my oldest friends, and closest family. They got to experience probably the most gorgeous weekend we’ve had in the Capital Region this year. And while the food and drink never took center stage, they kept everything rolling along.

Thanks to those who helped make this happen, and thanks to everyone who made the trip from near and far. It would have been nice if I had taken some more pictures of the food and such. But I was totally in the moment, so I regret nothing… except maybe that last cocktail on Saturday night.