Wedding Reception Food Ideas: Stretch Your Budget With A Gourmet Salsa and Chip Station

Wedding reception foods do not have to be expensive. A gourmet salsa and chip station is a fun way to stretch your wedding reception food dollars.

If you are looking for some help with stretching your food dollars for your wedding reception, you might want to consider offering a gourmet salsa and chip station at your wedding reception. Not only is this idea very inexpensive, it is super easy.

Perhaps you are thinking, "Chips and salsa at my wedding... are you kidding?"

No, I am not kidding at all!

The truth is chips and salsa can be dressed up to appear quite appropriate for wedding reception fare. By designing an attractive multi-tiered station - you will have the makings of a crowd pleasing snack without using more than maybe $25.00 or so of your reception budget.

A gourmet salsa and chip station is as simple as:

1. Determining the look of the station. You will want the station to compliment the look you are trying to achieve. Keep that in mind as you consider the design of the station.

2. Collecting interesting tablecloths, beautiful rustic baskets and bowls, interesting props, and some lifts to raise food to varying levels. Your lifts can either be covered by fabric or if they are attractive and match the mood, they can be used as part of the overall design.

3. Playing with the different pieces. Have fun! You can set the pieces up on your dining room table or kitchen table months in advance as you work on coming up with a look you like. Then just snap a picture, take some notes, and store the details away in a file folder.

4. Packing a box with everything you need for recreating the station at the wedding reception venue. If you don't need to use the decorative items and dishes you have collected until the wedding, then go ahead and save yourself some time later and put everything for your gourmet salsa and chips station in a box that will be delivered to the reception site at the appropriate time. If it is several months in advance, hold off on buying your salsa and chips. You will want to buy those closer to the wedding month.

5. Buying the chips and salsa in bulk at a wholesale warehouse like Sams or Costco will help you save additional money.

6. Adding to the visual appeal of the salsa is so easy. Shredded cheddar cheese, chopped green onions, confetti chopped fresh veggies and iced baby shrimp are a few gourmet touches you can add to the top of the salsa. Send along a cooler to the wedding reception with ziplock bags of each garnish that you are offering. You can limit the garnish to an inexpensive sprinkle or if you prefer, you can offer your guests bowls of options for hands-on sprinkling. If you want your guests to sprinkle their own toppings, keep in my mind that you will need to buy considerably more quantity of each item.

This station is based on a very simple concept of designing, collecting, packaging, transporting and ultimately pouring, sprinkling and serving. How easy is that?

A wedding reception station does not get much easier or less expensive than this. When a food station such as this is so rich with personality and panache, no one will even realize that this station cost you somewhere around $25.00 or so, depending on the quantity of chips, salsa, and toppings you purchased.

© 2006 Kathi Dameron, Kathi Dameron and Associates

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Abundant Blessings!

Kathi Dameron

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http://www.kathidameron.com 850-422-3599

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Today, Kathi shares her wedding reception expertise that she gained during her tenure as the owner, chef, and event designer of Canopy Rose Catering, a high end catering and special event company that was located in Tallahassee, Florida. Brides and other interested individuals who want to learn the secrets to creating a dream wedding on any budget can attend Kathi's Wedding Reception Teleseminars.

Brides can learn more about attending these teleseminars from the comfort of their own home by visiting http://www.kathidameron.com or contacting Kathi Dameron at 850-422-3599

Taste Test: Chips and Salsa

In honor of the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, F&W editors tasted over 25 kinds of tortilla chips and just as many varieties of jarred salsa to create this buying guide. While they found fantastic chips on the market, processed salsas didn’t fare as well, with tasting notes like “Stale spice flavor” and “Wish it had salt and tomatoes didn’t taste rotten. Fresh salsa is easy to make, but if you prefer to shop for it, there are a few brands to look for below.

Top Pick: Trader Joe’s Restaurant-Style White Corn Tortilla Chips, $1.79/ 8.5oz
“Great crunch.” “I’d buy these!” “Nice corn flavor.” “These are my new favorite tortilla chip—perfect thickness and crunch.”

Xochitl Totopos de Maiz,
$5.99/16 oz
“Love these. So thin, taste homemade and are salted nicely.” “Light, crisp, mild but good flavor. Too thin for dipping, though.”

Tostitos Restaurant-Style White Corn, $3.99/13 oz
“The chip many of us grew up with.” “Thin and crispy! Good saltiness.” “Little greasy aftertaste, but nice sweetness.”

Top Pick: Whole Foods 365 Yellow & Blue Corn Tortilla Chips, $2.69/16 oz
“Corn flavor is nice in these.” “Blue are particularly good.” “They have great crunch.”

Laurie’s Buffalo Thick & Hearty Toasted Corn Tortilla Chips, $3.39/10 oz
“Yum, I like these. Nice and toasty and corny, though I want more salt.” “Almost a popcorn flavor.” “These would be great for nachos or with thick dips. Good!”

Bearitos Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips, $4.29/16 oz
“Love how hearty the texture is. I also like that they’re organic and have no GMOs.” “I like this one, though it tastes kind of like a Frito.”

Top Pick: Tostitos MultiGrain Tortilla Chips, $3.99/9 oz
“Sweet and crisp. I like them especially because the buckwheat flavor really comes through.” “This is a nice chip. I like the multigrain with corn.” “Very crispy. Me like!”

Food Should Taste Good MultiGrain Tortilla Chips, $3.69/5.5 oz
“Nicely corny and crispy.” “I taste the flax and sesame.” “Good, but doesn’t taste like a tortilla chip.” “It’s a cracker, too!” “I love these.”

Bachman MultiGrain Tortilla Chips, $3.99/10 oz
“Tastes a little like a wheat thin. Hearty.” “Very salty, a little greasy, but I like the corn-to-grain flavor ratio.” “I like the round shape.”

Top Pick: Trader Joe’s Salsa Autentica, $4.95/12 oz
“I like the acid! I prefer this smooth texture. Big chunks weird me out in these jarred salsas. This is my favorite so far!” “It’s a little tomato sauce-y.” “Love the smooth texture.”

Green Mountain Gringo Truly Natural Medium Salsa, $4.59/16 oz
“Cooked tomato-y.” “Tastes like apple cider vinegar. Good heat, though.” “Thin, really nice heat. It has a good tang.”

Tostitos, $3.39/15.5 oz
“Good heat.” “For this style of jarred salsa, it’s not that bad.”

Top Pick: Muir Glen’s Medium Chipotle Salsa, $4.79/16 oz
“A little sweet, but good heat.” “Very smoky. Nice bite.” “Nice spice.”

Frontera’s Chipotle Hot Salsa, $4.79/16 oz
“I like the chipotle flavor! I wish it had more texture, but this works for me. Nice burn.” “I’d like this on a taco. Seems closer to ‘authentic’ than the others.”

D.L. Jardine’s Medium Texacante Salsa, $5.69/16 oz
“This tastes like chili to me.” “Very cuminy! Seems like Texas, though.”

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Fettuccine con salsa di cipolle, salsiccia e piselli

Questa ricetta costituisce una variante della più tipica pasta alla genovese campana, preparata con carne e cipolle. Premesso che è diffusissimo in tutta Italia il condimento a base di salsa di cipolle, in questa preparazione arricchiremo il piatto con l'aggiunta di piselli e sostituiremo la carne a pezzi utilizzata per la genovese, con dell'ottima salsiccia sgrassata.

Facciamo pertanto stufare le cipolle affettate sottilmente in un tegame con l'olio e l'aggiunta di qualche cucchiaio di acqua (per evitare che friggano)

Le lasciamo appassire per circa 20 minuti a fiamma media aggiungendo, se necessita, ancora una tazzina d'acqua

Aggiungiamo, poi, i piselli. Saliamo e pepiamo

e la salsiccia sgrassata a parte, spellata e sbriciolata

Cuociamo quindi le fettuccine, le scoliamo e le amalgamiamo alla salsa bianca

Mantechiamo per qualche minuto e serviamo con una spolverata di parmigiano grattugiato al momento. Buon appetito!

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Salsa di pomodoro e pancetta

Ingredienti :

7 cucchiai di olio

una cipolla

200 gr di pancetta affumicata

mezzo bicchiere di vino

300 ml di passata di pomodoro

Preparazione :

In questo procedimento vediamo un condimento molto simile alla salsa per la pasta all'amatriciana, ma, dato l'utilizzo della pancetta al posto del guanciale, avremo la salsa pomodoro e pancetta

Facciamo brasare la cipolla nell'olio

Poi, vi aggiungiamo la pancetta tagliata a listarelle

Sfumiamo col vino e aggiungiamo la passata di pomodoro

Lasciamo cuocere per circa 20 minuti e...avremo la nostra salsa pronta per condire il formato di pasta che più ci aggrada!

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