This is where we try to answer your questions. Here are a few. Please email us at lasagnanight@lasagnanight.com if you have any questions that aren't addressed here..
Where is it?
3313 Wade Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
GPS: 35.800911, -78.680268
35°48'03.1"N 78°40'48.6"W
What Do I Need To Bring To Lasagna Night?
Please donate a bottle of wine, or some other adult beverage, to the cause. You may also bring desserts in lieu of drinks. The donation monkey will also take cash and checks.
How Do We Do It?
1. Research Venues
Lasagna Night used to be a house party, but we outgrew our houses years ago. When seeking a location, here are some things we ask.
- Are beer and wine allowed. (Some places may allow beer and white wine, but no red wine. Lasagna with no red wine? Unthinkable!)
- Is a security officer required? This could be another added expense.
- Are tables and chairs provided?
- Is there a kitchen facility? Oven, sink, fridge are all very desirable.
- Is setup time included in the rental time? How much setup time is available?
2. Secure Location
We have done this as early as 3 months prior to the event and as late as 3 weeks before the event. Earlier is preferred. If you know of a location where we should hold the event, or if you would like to invite 200 of our closest friends over to your house - please let us know.
3. Invitations
Send invitations to guests about 3 weeks prior to the event. Most recently we've used Evite and prior to that we used email. If you like, send a "save the date" message earlier.
4. Gather Recipes/Select Recipes/Make Note of Other Needed Items
Ask friends for recipes and certainly use recipes that have been successful in the past. At a meeting between co-hosts about 1-2 weeks prior to the event, we determine which recipes we will make. At this time, we also check our supplies of paper goods, sterno, etc.
5. Prepare for shopping
We keep a spreadsheet of recipes and ingredient quantities needed and update it before grocery shopping.
6. Shopping
A big run to Costco for purchase of bulk ingredients helps keep the cost down. We coordinate this with friends who have memberships as we do not. Any warehouse type store would do. Take a calculator as some quantities will need to be converted (ex. cups to ounces) depending on the packaging.
Most all other ingredients come from our local grocery, Harris Teeter. A few specialty items will need to be picked up at a specialty grocery (ex. Whole Foods for nutritional yeast).
Shopping is not all done in one day as we all have lives (work/kids). Keep in mind that you will need refrigerator space for all this stuff. Shopping is done 2-4 days prior to the event
7. Cook
Prepare bulk ingredients the night before the event (ex. chop onions, brown ground beef). Make any specialty or difficult recipes the night before too. Assemble these recipes, but wait to bake until the day of the event. Prepare all the other recipes the day of the event. Bake all recipes just before serving. We use our ovens (co-host), neighbors’ ovens, and the ovens at the venue.
8. Prepare venue
Arrange tables and chairs. We cover tables with rolls of paper for easy clean up. We set up a lasagna serving table (we use disposable pans/chafing dishes) and any other serving tables (dessert, beverage). We also have the following at our venue: nametags, guest book, music, crayons for the kids.