Bettina's "Girlfriend" Luncheon, and Pink Foods (Nice and not so nice)

"Absolutely, positively not a Primrose Tea!" she said.

"I hear you, Kavanagh!"

"....[But maybe] something cold, like lemonade, or a lovely punch with an ice ring of lime sherbet....and a beautiful cake, three or four layers with white icing--and wedding cookies, don't you think? Except they're so messy, all that powdered sugar falling on your shoes..."--Jan Karon, A New Song

In the next chapter of A Thousand Ways to Please A Husband, Bettina gets to show off her housewifely skills when she invites her five bridesmaids for a "Pink Luncheon."

But I bet if I asked you to guess what pink foods she served, you wouldn't include salmon timbales and beets! Tastes have changed since 1917. (Also we don't peel tomatoes for salads.)

So I asked around...what would pop into your head for a pink party?

Crayons: "Lollipops, pink gummies and licorice. Something strawberry?"

Crayons' doll: "Pink violet petals."

Ponytails: "Pink lemonade or cream soda, dragonfruit, a luncheon meat sandwich, and for dessert...strawberry-banana-yogurt muffins. Or strawberry milkshakes."

The Apprentice: "Pink wafers and strawberry cream cheese."

Crayons: "Strawberry ice cream!"

Mama Squirrel: "Raspberry or rhubarb jam?"

Ponytails: "Ham."

The Apprentice: "Pink lemonade, raw steak, cold cuts, Pop Rocks, pink cake or cupcakes."

Ponytails also thought of raw meat...yum...

The trouble is that most foods just aren't meant to be pink, so you have to monkey with the food, like dying hard-cooked eggs pink with beet juice, which I don't think Bettina thought of; or making the 1950's-style maraschino-cherry-juice-cream-cheese rolled-up sandwiches Mama Squirrel remembers from childhood "teas."(You want to see REALLY colourful pinwheel sandwiches? Check out the photo on this catering website. Bettina would never believe it.)

Or, lacking food colouring, you have to settle for less-appetizing but more natural foods like...beets. (Sorry, not Mama Squirrel's favourite for a girlfriend get-together.)

So the most sensible thing to do would be to worry less about making food a particular colour, and more about overall taste. But occasionally you might find yourself planning a "fairy party" or another "girl" occasion that requires some dose of pink. Mama Squirrel doesn't recommend the raw meat suggestion, but strawberries or other pink/red fruits are always nice.

And what can we learn from this chapter?

1. Party meals don't have to cost a lot if you use seasonal foods and arrange things nicely. You might also like to check out today's Frugal Hacks post, Joyful Frugality, from the Deputy Headmistress, about food and fun with families.

2. Choose make-ahead recipes whenever possible. Or use make-ahead appliances like slow cookers. Stephanie O'Dea says she wouldn't be able to entertain without letting her slow cookers take care of the side dishes. ("At least not without completely losing my mind."--Make it Fast, Cook it Slow)

3. Fresh fruit can make a great appetizer.

4. My own suggestion: if most of what you have is kind of the same-old and that's the way it's going to be, try just one for-fun or different thing to make things seem more like a party. Like the fruit bouquet we made last summer, or strawberry mice, or a Peter Rabbit salad plate, or tomato ladybugs on crackers. In this case, I'd say that the star of the show would have been the ten fresh strawberries arranged in a ring on each person's plate. In a way, I think Bettina could have just stuck with the strawberries and then passed some sandwiches (pink ham?) and cookies and called it lunch (excuse me, luncheon); but I guess that wasn't considered fancy enough.

5. One other thing I noticed: Bettina obviously knows a lot about cooking and homemaking, and her friends obviously do not. Assuming that all these young ladies are from similar backgrounds, how is it possible that she is so well trained but that they admit they don't even know how to make salad? Somebody's mother has some 'splainin' to do.