All In The Family - Big Y® World Class Market®

Your Stress-free Guide to the Perfect Family Reunion
Has it been way too long since you’ve seen your favorite uncle — the one you grew up with? And you know you’re dying to meet your cousin’s new baby — and how old are the twins again? Could it possibly have been five years since you’ve seen them? That means one thing: It’s time for a family reunion! These days, many families live in different cities or states, making it hard to get together on a regular basis. A once-a-summer family reunion may be a great way to keep in touch, strengthen family ties, make some great memories and, of course, share some delicious food! Just follow our suggestions for simple, stress-free planning.

• Start at the beginning and make a guest list. It’s your family — you know the guest list, right? Not so fast. Which side of the family are you talking about? How “deep” do you want to go? First cousins, second cousins or fifth cousins twice removed? Are you going to invite your long-lost relatives from Norway, or are you only going to go as far as Norwich?

• Now take a quick poll of a few key family members about possible dates. You’ll want to make sure that your chosen date isn’t too close to other major family events (weddings, graduations, etc.). Tip: Depending on how large and spread out your family is, you might want to send out a “save the date” notice ahead of time, to give folks ample opportunity to make travel arrangements, etc.

• Location, location, location. Once you have your date and a rough idea of the number of people involved, pick your site. You’ll want it to be someplace that is easily accessible to the majority of your family. Is your family small enough — or your yard big enough — to have it at your house? Or is your family so large that you could commandeer your local community center? You may also want to consider a local park or campsite, that has amenities like swimming pools, barbecue grills, bathroom facilities or even campgrounds that your party could take advantage of.

• The most important consideration: The menu! Obviously you’re not going to prepare the entire meal yourself. That’s where Big Y can help! Make it easy on yourself by leaning on Big Y’s party-planning experts for most of your meal. Whether you have 20 people or 200, they have exactly what you need: fresh fruit and vegetable platters (with the dip included!), deli trays with all
the fixings, six-foot grinders that feed up to 35 people each...even crispy, juicy homestyle fried chicken. To round out the meal, just ask everyone to bring a dish to pass — try one of our delicious recipes, or bring one of Big Y’s homemade Just Like Mom’s salads.

• Put together your invitation. Contact some of the key members of your family. They are usually the best sources for gathering contact information. You can send invitations through regular mail. Or, if most of your family have e-mail addresses, consider sending your invitations through E-vite (www.evite.com), a free e-mail invitation service that offers free templates and lets everyone on the list see who has responded. Make sure you include such essential information as:
- Date and time, and rain date if applicable.
- Location, along with a map and detailed directions for those who will need them.
- What guests will be responsible for. Will there be any park or location fees? What about food costs? What kind of food should they bring? Spell out what everyone should bring to the party so that everyone comes prepared.
- Contact info and a respond-by date.
- Also let them know to forward the invitation on to other family members who may have been excluded from the list.

• Don’t feel like you have to handle every detail yourself. You have an entire family’s worth of workers to help you out! Make sure to have someone for every key area — guest list, accommodations, menu, entertainment, taking pictures and/or video and cleanup. Organizing a reunion can be a big task, but it’s definitely a worthwhile one. With a bit of planning, you’ll be well on your way to a wonderful family gathering.

Celebrate Your Big Day with Big Y!
Our party-planning experts are always ready to assist you and your catering needs with a wide variety of foods, perfect for any occasion. It’s always our pleasure to provide you with World Class service, selection and quality. Come see us when you’re planning your next party — and find out how Big Y will make it easier to celebrate. Just go to www.bigy.com and print out your order forms to get started.

Keeping the Faith
Putting together a keepsake from your family’s big party is a great remembrance of every year’s feast. A few ideas:
- Gather those classic family recipes, take them to your local copy center, and voila — a family cookbook.
- Put together all of the contact information for your family members and assemble a family phone book!
- Make commemorative T-shirts for everyone to wear the day of the reunion. Find a local T-shirt shop or try Cafepress (http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/), a Web site where you can design your own shirt and everyone in the family can simply go online and purchase their own.
- Invest in a dozen or so disposable digital cameras. When you get photos back, you can post them online on a photo-sharing site like snapfish.com or have inexpensive albums made.

Vinaigrette Coleslaw

Waldorf Salad

Double (or Triple) Trouble
So everyone wants you to make your world-famous potato salad for the reunion. No problem, right — you can make that in your sleep! Sure, when you’re making it for six people. What about making that cherished recipe for 60? Can you just multiply your ingredients by 10, use a really, really big bowl and hope for the best?

In a word — maybe. Cooking is a kind of science, and it’s the delicate balance of ingredients that makes each recipe work. To be absolutely certain your recipe will work, try “batch cooking.” That is exactly what it sounds like: Just prepare several batches of your recipe in advance. It might take you a bit longer, but you know it will work; this is especially effective for foods that can be made well ahead of time and then frozen.

If you really only want to cook once, consider these suggestions:
• Adjust seasonings and spices by flavor, not by measure. For example, if your recipe calls for a tablespoon of minced garlic and you are quadrupling it, four tablespoons of minced garlic could overpower the rest of the flavors. Add seasonings in increasing increments and taste frequently.
• Cooking times and temperatures might need to be altered as well. If you’re baking a larger, deeper pan of a recipe, it will need to cook longer and possibly at a different temperature.
• If you are increasing your recipe, the general rule of thumb is not to multiply it more than four times.

Let Big Y save you some time! Come to our Deli department for homestyle salads that taste , using only the finest ingredients. Made fresh daily! Choose from potato salad, macaroni salad, egg and potato salad, coleslaw or red potato salad.