August 13th, 2006

So, my menu for the meal at Beorn's Bar Mitzvah has been cut way back. I'll have about $500 to spend on about 100 guests. I have guests with wheat allergies, low carbers, and people who do not eat fish, eggs, onions, garlic or mushrooms due to religious restrictions.

Here is what I am planning as of now:

Challah for HaMotzi

Appetizer Table:
Deviled Eggs
Individual Mozzarella Caprese
Gefilte Fish with Horseradish (canned or jarred)
Spinach and Feta Puffs

Main Meal:
Lasagna {using egg replacer for the eggs in my recipe and making my own sauce substituting hing (asafoetida) for any onions or garlic and leaving out the mushrooms}
Eggplant Lasagna (same recipe, substituting lightly sauteed slices of eggplant for the lasagna noodles)
Tabouli (sub quinoa for the bulghar wheat)
Tossed salad with a selection of salad dressings (I love the one with craisins and diced fruit, I think it's mangoes?)
Platter of roasted vegetables consisting of colored peppers, asparagus, green beans, portabello mushrooms, potatoes, etc.

We are having the dessert buffet outside the shul after services for about half the guests. Do you think I need to serve a small cake at the shul dinner anyway since not everyone is coming to the dessert buffet?

My FIL may pay for a small liquor selection during the meal. I know I won't have the budget to buy any.

It looks like I'll have about $800 total for this part of the weekend, but I am planning on putting together an explanatory booklet of the services and indivudal prayers for my mostly non-Jewish guests and about 50 small indivdual havdalah kits using the following items so every few guests can do the ceremony along with Beorn.

Havdalah Candles
Disposable Candle holders (I'll need to cut holes out of the bottoms to slide up the candles)
Guaze bags to hold the herbal tea packet for the spice
cheap cigarette lighters to light the candles
I'll use a nice ribbon to tie all of these things together into a nice packet.

So, that is why I'm figuring about $500 for the ingredients.