Food/Beverage Ideas for Preference
 

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I have only one suggestion...please serve something sugar free in the beverage area! Diet pop, Crystle Light punch, something! If you've got a diabetic PNM, it makes her feel more comfortable. I hated having to refuse refreshments at parties, but when your options are regular coke and cake, you're backed into a corner. It makes us appear rude...some diabetics (like myself) are pretty upfront about their condition/reasons for not accepting, but some don't feel as comfortable.

Chocolate covered strawberries are fun, sugar cookies with icing in your sorority's colors, sparkling grape fruit juice for a drink with a strawberry in it is cute too...I think at Ole Miss they can only serve a drink during preference round now but I remember chocolate covered strawberries were very nice. Also you could do a chocolate mousse in a small glass or even tiramisu.

(sorry if I spelt anything wrong, my brain is about dead!)

The time of day is a factor. I LOVE the breakfast food idea.
Also, how long is your party, how much time do you give to the food/conversation portion and do you have china and silverware that you use or do you want to stick to finger foods? Budget is also a major decision maker.

In the sweet category, the traditional Chocolate dipped strawberry is always nice as long as the strawberries are small enough to eat in one bite. Brownies cut into an attractive shape with a cookie cutter and then dusted with powdered sugar are cute and usually fit into every budget.
If you have enough time you can begin with a cheese and fruit tray on each table and then right before the ceremony serve something sweet. I know petit fours are extremely popular, and are just the right size usually.

we didn't serve food during our pref. party last year (no frills), but i belive we served ice water and sparkling wine

Ok I feel really bad that that never occurred to me, as our philanthropy is focused on research for juvenile diabetes...but GREAT point. Thanks for posting it.

We usually have very small squares of three different kinds of cheescake, maybe two strawberries, and some other tea-like finger food. Some sororities on campus have alums that make a little cake or cookie with each PNM's name on it in icing.

I agree on making sure there's something that diabetic PNMs can enjoy - even if it's just water. During formal recruitment at the start of my junior year, I was talking to a PNM who offhandedly remarked that she was diabetic. We only had water and regular soda to offer (same as the other chapters), so she was drinking water. When I saw her name on the invite list for pref, I talked to the day chair and mentioned that we had a diabetic PNM. Diet Coke materialized. It must have worked - she joined AEPhi and became my little. :) I made sure there was diet soda at bid day as well.

As for food and drink, it's been a looooong time since I was an active, and I don't remember what we did for food, but we offered non-alcoholic sparkling cider, water, and soda to drink. Most people went for the cider.

i'll bet you served sparkling apple or grape juice. npc recruitment forbids alcoholic beverages.

we always served something we called ant hill pie,others call it oreo peppermint sandwich- you crush a large pkg. of oreos and sprinkle half of the crumbs in the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan. spread softened peppermint ice cream on top, sprinkle the top with the remaining crumbs and freeze. you can either slice and serve on a chilled glass plate or serve in an ice cream dish. it is delicious.
my family loves me to make this at christmas time-when we can get the peppermint ice cream.

We usually serve non-alcoholic sparkling beverages--apple cider, grape juice, apple juice. As for food, the year I went through recruitment, my chapter served little slices of cheesecake. This past formal recruitment, we served various flavors of mini creampuffs.

My chapter usually does several sparkling wines, lemonade, and water. We have a cheese&cracker tray, veggies&dip, mini-cheesecakes, and cupcakes. :)

I agree with having a diet option, but don't have that as your ONLY option. I have reactions to anything containing aspartame (NutraSweet) and back when I was going through recruitment we had beverages for second parties and preference. Anyway, at one house, they served flavored sparkling water in cute cups- well the sparkling water was sweetened with aspartame and I was fine at that party, but it hit me halfway through the party at the NEXT house and I ended up puking in their formal bathroom. Needless to say I was cut by that house (But not the house that poisoned me):rolleyes:

Anyway, for food we had a bowl-mold that looked like a rose and we would make the rose chocolate bowls and then fill them with mousse. I think we got the mold from a cake decorating store. (we had a Mom make them, so I don't know how hard they would be to make as a chapter).

Wow. How Awful. You poor thing!!! I get sick from Aspartame as well -- it gives me migraines. At least everything worked out with the "poisoners."

As for the food question, I think the cupcake idea is a great one. Especially if you made those mini-cupcakes--easy to eat and so very cute.

The year that I came through recruitment, my chapter served finger foods and pink lemonade. They bought deli rolls and made up fruit skewers and put some cheese on the plates. This year we actually had an oven so we served a version of beef wellington, some quiche (sp?) and a dip. For the dessert round, we had banana pudding in martini glasses, mini eclairs, and a fruit salad. It seemed to go over pretty well except for the fact that no one really knew how to eat the beef wellington. But it went well.

If the "finger food" being served contains meat, remember not all girls can eat it. Some might be vegans/veterinarians, too. Like me!

I'd try to think about the ease of eating it and the preparation required vs. the help and room you will have that day. Many amazing ideas might not work on the scale you have to provide them.

We always have a variety of foods, veggies and dip, finger sandwiches, small cookies, etc., along with water, punch, or tea drink options. My favorite thing we had though were petite fours with our letters on them and they were iced with our colors. The bakery that made them closed down this year though so can't get them any more. :(

These are all such good ideas! Thanks and keep 'em coming!

It's important to also think about the overall presentation of the food. If you are serving plates that are already prepared (rather than buffet style), lay a leaf of nice green lettuce (cleaned and dried) on the plate and arrange the food on top of it. Some things that we have used in the past:

Non-sweet:
- spoonful of chicken salad on a nice cracker with a half grape on top
- cheese straws (like long cheese crackers)
- fruit skewer (melon, grapes, strawberries, pineapple)
- mixed nuts sprinkled on plate (be aware of allergy possibilities though)
- half of a chicken salad croissant

Sweet:
- small brownie with dollop of chocolate icing, topped with strawberry slice you can get the pre-made "Two-Bite Brownies" if you don't have time to bake.
- Lorna Doone shortbread cookie with dollop of cream cheese/sugar dip and piece of fruit on top. Vary the fruit - mandarin oranges, strawberries, blueberries, grapes.
- mini-eclairs (pre-made from Sam's Club)
- mini-cheesecake (pre-made from Sam's Club)

Beverages:
- ice water with lemon slice
- tea / lemonade punch

Some PNM's are vegetarian also. I know many recruitment processes don't allow time to prepare for those sorts of things ahead of time. So possibly including a question on the forms PNM's fill out when recruitment begins for them to indicate special food needs would be helpful.

For orgs that don't do a structured formal recruitment you could include on the invitation to the preference party a request to make accommadations for special dietary needs (diabetic, vegaterian, food allergies etc)

It's just something extra that can be done to make the PNM feel welcome.

I just remembered...

My sophomore year was our first time participating in formal recruitment. At the time, we were a local sorority. For pref, we made vegetarian sushi. My big knew how to make sushi, and I wanted to learn, so it was just the two of us making rolls with ingredients like shredded carrots and cucumber. IIRC, we made them the morning of pref, to serve that evening.

The problem is that it's time-consuming. (For the life of me, I can't remember how we found the time to go off and make sushi.) You could buy sushi, but it can get expensive - you might blow your recruitment budget. Hmm, maybe if you had a few alums with some time on their hands?

My chapter used to serve slices of cake and sparkling cider. Last fall we nixed the cake because it was awkward to eat with no tables, and added slices of strawberries to the sparkling cider. This spring, though, I decided to not put the strawberry in because it would get stuck in the glass and it wasn't cute seeing girls trying to get it out. It did make a really lovely effect in the glass though.

WOW! These are great ideas! I really like the small brownie, mini eclairs and mini cheesecakes ideas!! Maybe some kind of tea sandwiches would be nice too... Thanks!

One sorority's preference really stood out to me because they had a beautiful, ornate cake prepared for everyone. The icing was bright pink and trimmed in white with flowers...it was spectacular! They put a fresh flower on it, as well, if I remember correctly. It looked so elegant. The only problem was that it was enormous and very rich, so you couldn't really have more than a couple bites.
I know another sorority did PNMs names with the sorority letters beneath them on bite-size cupcakes, as well as buffet style spreads of cheese, fruits, veggies and little sandwiches. It looked really classy and the stuff was perfect for munching--not too filling and not too messy.
Last year, my chapter did mini cheesecakes, fruit, and ginger ale. Another chapter did red velvet cake.
Desserts are very popular here since it's done mid-day, but I absolutely love the breakfast idea.
I was thinking something like tea and finger sandwiches would be really cute. I love the chocolate strawberries idea.
I'm not sure if this has been done before or if it would be far too pricey, but fondue would be really fun.

my chapter uses a chocolate fountain for our pref rushes and its fantastic. we buy fruits, pretzels and things like that to eat with it and is always a big hit