General Logan's Reception!

I serve on the board of directors of a small community museum, the General John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro, Illinois.   The General is a notable Civil War Union General who was later on the ticket as a candidate for Vice President of the United States.  He and I share home towns and I am delighted to work to preserve the history of the Logan family and the fact that Logan created Memorial Day.

I had the honor of catering a reception a few weeks ago and I'm sharing a few pictures from our event.  My daughter, Nicole ... and our friend Stephanie, who I claim as a second daughter ... prepared the food and hosted the reception.  We had about a hundred people attend ... and that is a really good number for our small town events.

I created a menu that showcased the foods of the Civil War era ... but made in somewhat contemporary ways!  The recipes will be in the next cookbook I publish!

 A variety of 

cheese wafers and cheese Spritz ... lots of bold flavors to go with local wines ...

 Sweet potato focaccia
topped with caramelized onions, pecans and almonds

Goat Cheese Balls

made with a combination of cream cheese and goat cheese, rolled in pecans.   

Tiny biscuits filled 

with chicken salad

made with

pineapple and almonds

Sweet potato hummus flavored with cumin and chili pepper ... atop a cucumber slice, garnished with a radish and cilantro

I like to send guests away with a treat ... even 

adults at a special reception!  So, we packaged 

jelly beans in cute little paper bags 

and tied them with twine ... here's why: