Showing posts with label festivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label festivity. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

How to Host a Kentucky Derby Betting Party


Ask guests to dress up for your Derby betting party. Women can wear ornate hats featuring flowers and pair them with pastel sundresses. Men can don their finest seersucker or light-colored suit -- and they shouldn't be too shy to wear pastel, either. Or, for a more literal interpretation, someone can choose to come dressed up as a jockey. Dressing in your Southern best adds a bit of festivity to the party and will make your guests feel like they're at Churchill Downs.
Design a menu featuring traditional Kentucky dishes. The Kentucky hot brown, first served at Louisville's Brown Hotel, is a hearty entree to serve to guests -- create open-faced sandwiches with turkey, bacon cheese and Mornay sauce. Pair the hot browns with Southern fixin's like potato salad or hashbrown casserole. For dessert, serve the aptly named Derby pie, another Kentucky favorite, a chocolate nut pie that also originated in Louisville.
Serve cocktails for adult guests. For the mint julep, combine bourbon, simple syrup and fresh mint to create the classic Derby concoction. Serve in julep cups, which are stainless steel cups, that are sure to keep your cocktails cold. Offer other types of Kentucky bourbon to build an authentically Kentucky bar. Offer sweet tea and lemonade as nonalcoholic options.
Ask each guest to draw a horse's name out of a hat and contribute $1 for a friendly wagering game. Write every horse's name and starting position on a piece of poster board and write the guests' names next to the horse they drew. After the race, the winner gets to take home the pot.
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