82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 28, 2002
Shirley Orfanella, a regular contributor to the recipe
column, pauses in a room filled with fruits and vegetables
she has preserved from her garden. Of Shirley’s outstand
ing cooking and decorating abilities, many of her friends
say, “She’s better than Martha Stewart (well-known food
and decorating guru).”
The cookies and candy, shown at right, are made in ad
vance and frozen until the party.
LOU ANN GOOD
Food And Family
Features Editor
QUARRYVILLE (Lancaster
Co.) When Shirley Orfanella
throws a party for 150, it’s a
stunning affair, from the decora
tions to the elaborate foods pre
pared by her.
Almost every year for the past
30, Shirley hosts a holiday party
in her home during December for
an average of 125-175 guests.
“She's better than Martha
Stewart,” several guests re
marked as they admired her ar
tistic touches and savored the
food.
“She makes Martha look sick,”
said another guest.
While Martha has a staff of
hundreds to help her, Shirley
does everything herself. During
the summer months she raises a
large garden and preserves food
and dries flowers to be used for
her magnificent party.
But the main work begins six
weeks before the party, when
Shirley cleans everything in the
house. That in itself appears to be
a year-long job. She has an exten
sive collection of glassware,
china, and collectibles that re
quire careful cleaning “every
thing but pewter and Hummels,”
she said.
“My goal is to have 10 china
closets,” Shirley said. She has
nine filled with glistening clean
antique treasures.
She lives in a 3,300 square-foot
Victorian-style farmhouse with a
wraparound porch. The house
was built in 1817. The house is
These are a few of the hundreds of angels Shirley has
collected and puts on display during her holiday party.
decorated from top to bottom for
guests to explore during the
party.
Even the basement with its ex
posed timber beams with wooden
pegs serves as a place for guests
to gather. The basement features
an ice house pit, which serves as
a perfect spot to put a huge tree.
A collection of antique ice tools
hangs on the wall.
Paper snowflakes and bells
hang from the basement rafters.
Beverages are stored in ice in old
washing machine tubs.
Each room of the house has at
least one tree, from nine to
12-feet tall. Even the bathrooms
have trees. Each tree is uniquely
decorated, many with antique or
naments.
Two weeks before the party,
Shirley makes extensive “to-do”
lists for each day leading up to
the party.
“No matter how late it is each
night, I must get each thing on
the list crossed off. You don’t
want to carry anything over to
the next day or you’ll end up
with too much to do,” she said.
She bakes 20 varieties of cook
ies and candies. She writes the
recipes on index cards and tapes
them to the kitchen cabinets. She
mixes up each batch, places the
dough in heavyduty plastic bags,
and refrigerates. When all the va
rieties are mixed, she begins the
baking marathon. Even that has
a plan.
When she finishes baking one
batch of cookies, she selects the
next batch that is to be baked at
the same temperature. When fin-
ished baking, she packs the cook
ies into tins and places them on
her porch where the cold weather
freezes them.
During the last week, Shirley
concentrates on the food. She
makes meatballs ahead of time
and freezes them. Pasta, broccoli,
and chicken salads can be made
two days ahead and refrigerated
in heavy duty plastic bags. That
way, when serving dishes need to
be refilled, another bag of salad
can be opened and served.
The extensive menu includes
ham, meatballs, crab soup, mari
nated mushrooms, hot peppers,
chicken salad with grapes and
cashews, broccoli, pasta salad,
and much more.
Like most hostesses, Shirley
fears not having enough food.
Even after careful calculations,
she always adds extra and al
ways ends up having the extra
plus some from her original cal
culations left over.
She also fears the weather,
which can play havoc with
guests’ ability to attend the party.
One year super thick fog, like pea
soup, kept many guests away.
“We had so many leftovers,”
Shirley said.
This year’s snow the week be
fore the party required much
clearing to make room in the
field around the house for guests
to park their vehicles.
Shirley generally serves the
same menu, but makes occasion
al substitutions. Until this year,
she served fresh strawberries with
dip. This year she saw the berries
cost $5O a flat, so Shirley decided
to substitute fruit salad for the
berries.
“I ended up with about as
much money in the fruit salad,
and it didn’t go over as big as the
berries,” Shirley said.
Some things are learned
through trial and error. Shirley
said that she learned that it is
hard to keep the flame below
chafing dishes lighted. So a few
years ago, she invested in roaster
ovens which work much better.
The first year, the roasters kept
blowing fuses.
“I learned they can’t be
plugged into the same outlet,”
Shirley said.
She takes care of details
such as renting two big racks on
which to hang guests’ coats.
The task Shirley enjoys most is
the food presentation.
“On the final day, I want noth
ing to do with cooking. It’s time
to make sure the candles are lit,
the silver spoons are with each
serving dish,..,’’ ' ~' ’ ,
Guests often meet at the party and form lifetime
friendships. Here are some guests that have been attend
ing for many years.
As a former window dresser,
Shirley revels in putting the fin
ishing touches to the tables.
“I do this (party) because I get
to decorate the tables,” Shirley
said.
“I use the same principle I fol
lowed when I was a waitress. I
try to think if t am the guest,
what will I need to eat with this?
Ice? Salt and pepper? Mustard?
A round or flat dish?”
Shirley said of throwing a suc
cessful party, “Organization com
mon sense and lots of charts are
the secret.”
In the final countdown, Shirley
vows never to do it again, but
after the party, many guests write
thank you notes about how much
they really look forward to the
annual event and how much they
enjoyed it.
“So by next year. I’m ready to
start over again,” Shirley said.
Here are some recipes from
Shirley, whom our readers will
recognize as a regular contributor
to this paper.
PASTA SALAD
Boil your favorite pasta shape
or use vermicelli broken into
fourths. Drain and rinse under
i \.
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cold water. Set aside.
In the meantime, dice red, yel
low, and green bell peppers. Cut
grape tomatoes in half dice a
couple zucchini and cucumbers
with rind on, several celery ribs,
minced onion, and black olives.
Cut slices of pepperoni into small
pieces. Add some garlic salt,
poppy and sesame seeds, and mix
into pasta.
Pour Italian dressing (not
creamy) over all. Refrigerate.
May also add good quality Par
mesan grated cheese.
But a good grade of ground
round beef, as much as needed.
Mix with a few slices of white
bread, torn into pieces and
soaked in milk. Add minced
onion, salt and pepper, and chop
ped parsley, and several eggs.
When it is a nice consistency,
form into small meatballs and
bake in medium onion on a cook
ie sheet with sides, approximately
20 minutes. Drain well. In the
meantime, make your favorite
barbecue sauce or sweet and sour
sauce. Pour over and refrigerate
ip
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MEATBALLS
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