By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Some home cooks get a high from making succulent fare for holiday gatherings. But others think cooking for crowds is a tension-inducing experience to be avoided like the flu.
For Clarksvillians who fall into that latter camp, several local food purveyors offer crowd-pleasing dishes for stress-free meal planning.
Jane Burney, the owner of Lovin’ Spoonful Café at 128 University Avenue, offers a menu of home-style foods gleaned from her family’s recipes. Ordering one of her family-sized casseroles for a big dinner is a culinary no-brainer.
“Tomorrow this couple is picking up a Vegas chicken casserole and enough Nan’s fruit salad for 15 people,” she said on a recent weekday.
Burney’s catering menu includes a variety of her café’s favorites, such as chicken divan casserole, “ranch hand casserole,” Vegas chicken casserole, squash casserole, Nan’s fruit salad and dressing. Desserts, such as pecan-crusted orange cake or fudge pie, are also available for order. Customers can order by calling 931-553-4080. More information at www.lovinspoonfulcafe.com.
I recently attended a Christmas dinner party with a Hispanic theme. The host had cooked some of the dishes, including delicious tamales wrapped in corn husks. But for the flaky baked empanadas, he turned to Mami Chachis Empanadas.
Mami Chachis Empanada is a cottage business that opened last spring and sells at farmers markets and through Anne Marie’s Artisan Bakery. Its specialty is baked Latin American style empanadas filled with either steak, chicken or spinach and cheese.
The company also offers fruit empanadas, including apple, strawberry-blueberry and pineapple-coconut versions. Customers can order by calling 931-546-9425 or emailing mamichachis@gmail.com. More information at www.mamichachi.com.
Gingham Café is another new business that offers catering possibilities for a crowd. Located at 1955 Madison Street, the café’s catering menu features squash soufflé, turkey tetrazzini, corn pudding and an almond, chicken and wild rice casserole. The menu also includes sides and desserts.
Brooke Hill, who manages the café’s catering, said, “You can bring in your own dish and we’ll bake something in that for you.”
Customers can order by calling 931-919-4986. More information at www.ginghamcafe.com.
There’s no way around it: holiday gatherings remain a popular ritual. But if you phone in your cooking duties, someone else can do the heavy lifting while you simply uncork the champagne.
Another one of Lovin’ Spoonful Café’s decadent desserts is the pecan-crusted orange cake.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.