Election night themed party food

October 27, 2016 9:48 AM

Some family friends through an election night party every year and everyone brings a potluck dish. Doesn't have to be themed, but where's the fun in that? Looking for ideas that are punny but nothing that would cause real offense. Trumpkin pie territory.
posted by LKWorking to Food & Drink (48 answers total)

What about some sort of "stronger together with gin" themed alcoholic drink?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:52 AM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Make sure your finger food is sized appropriately for very small hands.
posted by phunniemee at 9:53 AM on October 27, 2016 [28 favorites]

There must be something that can be done with "a chicken in every pot."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:02 AM on October 27, 2016

OOOH, you need the Trump sandwich: white bread, full of baloney, russian dressing, and a small pickle.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:04 AM on October 27, 2016 [36 favorites]

You could make a dish of roasted red potatoes and blue potatoes - divided.
posted by Mchelly at 10:04 AM on October 27, 2016 [12 favorites]

Cheetos

Tacos
Lots of bottles of hot sauce
posted by areaperson at 10:09 AM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Desserts:
Tim Kaine-dy corn (or other candy).
Not a pun, but elephant ears.

Savory food:
Election poll bean salad (just a green bean salad if you can't find pole beans).
Ten bean Chillary Clinton (chili)

Drinks:
Black Russians could be Black Hat Russians (if your crowd will know what a "black hat" is )
Or anything chilled, and again use "Chillary" in the name
posted by alligatorpear at 10:12 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Maybe a fish market would have some Grouper.
posted by jamjam at 10:14 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Canadian Whiskey, labeled helpfully, "Escape to Canada."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:18 AM on October 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

I feel like 'looking for ideas that are punny but nothing that would cause real offense' precludes a lot of these suggestions (baloney, small hands, grouper, etc).

That being said, I think mini taco bowls would be pretty good to represent Trump.

Since they're both New Yorkers, you could also pick from a vast array of NYC foods, finger-food-ized - pastrami sandwiches, bagels and lox, General Tso's chicken, cheesecake, egg creams, black and white cookies...

For a dessert, maybe orange-frosted cupcakes topped with whisps of spun sugar hair would be a fun visual to represent Trump. And then maybe blue or white ones with shards of sugar glass for Clinton, to represent the glass ceiling?
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:20 AM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Make one of Michelle Obama's recipes, print out a nice little card with the recipe, then clumsily scrawl "MeLaNia tRuMp" over "Michelle Obama."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:21 AM on October 27, 2016 [28 favorites]

Baby carrots, like tiny orange fingers.
Tacos, obviously.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 10:27 AM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

PigTrumpDucken with ballot box stuffing, wedge issue salad and Stump Peach pie.
posted by bz at 10:30 AM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Expanding out from the candidates:
Ivanka (vodka) martinis.
Anderson Cooper-ihnas (caipirinhas)
Ken Bone-in chicken (if your crowd is wonky)
Nutmegyn Kelly cheesecake

On preview: I like Stump peach pie!
posted by alligatorpear at 10:31 AM on October 27, 2016

Elephant ears and donkey tails!
posted by janey47 at 10:31 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If you go the chili (Chillary Clinton) route, you could have, among your fixings, a big block of cheddar cheese and a box grater: Make America Grate Again.
posted by vunder at 10:34 AM on October 27, 2016 [23 favorites]

Red and Blue corn chips with a white dip?

A layered dessert that has stripes of raspberries and blueberries with vanilla yogurt in between?

These are less about political parties than about patriotic themage...
posted by acm at 10:35 AM on October 27, 2016

Maybe put a "private" label on all the serving trays.
posted by bondcliff at 10:36 AM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Zesty nominee and cheese grits.
posted by bz at 10:45 AM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: First, get a basket. Then fill it with all kinds of junk food. Basket of deplorables. I suppose depending on the crowd, that could be offensive. But now I really want to make a basket of deplorables.
posted by freezer cake at 10:47 AM on October 27, 2016 [14 favorites]

I'd have a big spread of Canadian cuisine, since after this clusterfuck of an election you're all going to want to run away to Canada to escape the insanity. Best get used to our foods now...

- maple syrup everything. Maple icing on a cake. Maple syrup on breakfast sausages is the stuff of legends. Maple candy and maple butter is awesome. Hell, we dump hot maple syrup on snow and eat it off twigs. Maple syrup rules.
- Tourtière (NOOOOOOMMMMM NOM NOM NOM NOM) This is a mainstay at every potluck, esp. Christmas/Thanksgiving.
- poutine (use actual cheese curds, please. Don't embarrass yourself.)
- ketchup flavoured potato chips (which I personally think are nasty but are a big deal here in Canada)
- Def. Canadian whiskey (Canadian Club is not terrible and usually my rye of choice for a rye and ginger)
- butter tarts. Delicious delicious butter tarts. MMmmmmmm....
- garlic fingers (REAL garlic fingers, not shitty cheater garlic bread. You want garlic fingers with donair sauce to dip)(NOTE: I am from Atlantic Canada so, yeah, they are more of an atlantic canadian thing but jesus h christ are they delicious and so party perfect. message me if you want some tips, esp. on the donair sauce)
- nanaimo bars
- grapenut ice cream (so bloody delicious)
- Coffee Crisp chocolate bars (possibly the most delicious candy bar ever)
- I've been told that we Canadians are oddly obsessed with cinnamon. We have cinnamon gum, cinnamon toothpaste, and tons of different cinnamon candies. So maybe get some cinnamon stuff?


God damn, now I'm hungry.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 11:03 AM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Trump roast with orange sauce?
posted by bz at 11:05 AM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: (I wish I had copyedited well enough to fix the word "through" in my title. I usually have the best words!)

You guys are good at this! "Make America Grate Again" made me laugh out loud.

Mild offense is fine, just nothing outright racist. "Basket of deplorables" and jokes about small hands are on the okay side of of things.
posted by LKWorking at 11:05 AM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

A make your own "Bernie Sandos" platter with an array of sandwich fixings (vegan if that joke will go over well with the crowd and not make them crave deli meats). Provide little slider buns because they are inexplicably appealing to millennials (and makes it easier to have a few different kinds of sandwiches).

I was gonna make a Grate Again joke but I see that's already been done. For a lighter option than the chili, what about all the stuff for caesar salads (get it) with a block of parmesan to be grated? Pack it all up separate, lettuce, croutons, lemon wedges, and dressing (for bonuses you could do some shrimp or chicken, too) so nothing gets soggy.
posted by Mizu at 11:17 AM on October 27, 2016

Wikileeks salad?
posted by bz at 11:24 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Risotto a la Podesta.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 11:25 AM on October 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

Donald Duck a l'Orange
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 11:28 AM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Get it?
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 11:28 AM on October 27, 2016 [6 favorites]

If you have crudités, I think you want the carrots with their tops still on. To simulate the odd "tan"/crazy hair.

A selection of the cruddy beer we export from Canada (...sorry!) next to classic Americana like Old Milwaukee?

Tic Tacs and Skittles?
posted by kmennie at 11:43 AM on October 27, 2016

these recipes are rigged against third party candidates

I'm potlucking my conscience and refusing to eat the lesser of two evils

Make a creamy dill dipping sauce serve it in a beer stein. Dill Stein

Poached/fried eggs on toasted English muffins w/ American cheese obviously

Muhammara made with real Aleppo peppers for Gary Johnson

Mixed nutz
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:47 AM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I'd put some sort of wall between the Mexican food and the rest of your snacks, made out of tortillas.
posted by cardboard at 12:08 PM on October 27, 2016 [14 favorites]

Pig in a blanket
posted by holborne at 12:16 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cardboard wins for best suggestion. Having a wall between the mexican food and everything else is just... brilliant. And very apropos. Maybe taco shells would work as a wall?
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 12:19 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Courtesy of vfbg in the next-to-last election longboat thread, this is all you need.
posted by Liesl at 12:31 PM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

On a large platter/baking sheet, sculpt Mexico in bean dip or guacamole.
Lay a large, I dunno, wall or something of corn chips.
On the other side sculpt the US out of some other kind of dip.
posted by plinth at 12:49 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think I'd make red(fruit punch & bourbon) and blue(blue raspberry & vodka) and green(lime & tequila) and orange(also tequila)and jello shots and do some sort of election results game. Make the shots weak. Maybe an appropriately-colored shot as any state is announced. Also - mini-cupcakes in the same icing colors. Or, a cake iced to represent the latest polls is doable. Should be a white cake, and dye some batter red, some blue, swirl to make it better together.
Hillary-of-beans dip/ soup/ salad
Roast Donald Duck
Can you set up a taco bar to represent taco trucks?

You're wearing a pantsuit, right?
posted by theora55 at 1:09 PM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Ample Hills Ice Cream in Brooklyn (just voted "Best Ice Cream in New York" in the Zagats' guides, and for good reason, I think) has a tradition of creating flavors for each candidate. They ship nationwide, and the flavors actually sound pretty decent:

"Madam President // Made with sugar and spice and women’s rights. Chili pepper chocolate ice cream with Hillary’s own chocolate chip cookies (Both powerful and comforting).

Make America Orange Again // Warning! May contain bluster, hot air and bricks. Orange marshmallow ice cream (artificially colored!) with brownie bricks."

The "chili pepper chocolate" base for the "Madam President" is most likely their regular "Mexican Hot Chocolate" flavor, which I have had in the past and I can attest it is tasty (not super-spicy, but enough heat to make you realize "ooh!"). A friend actually tried the "Make America Orange Again" and said it's decent too.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:34 PM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Chicken wings arranged on either side of a platter. Some are left wings and some are right wings.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:17 PM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Here in Denmark, the tradition is to eat election-pork (as in pork barrel bills)
posted by mumimor at 11:20 PM on October 27, 2016

Make sure the salad contains some crooked celery.
posted by flabdablet at 5:06 AM on October 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Legal Sea foods is doing a promotion featuring a "Trump Tower" (chilled seafood tower) vs "Secretary of Steak" (seared tuna steak). That was what immediately came to mind in reference to puns.
posted by theorique at 8:13 AM on October 28, 2016

A big block of Parmesan. E.g. "Make America Grate Again".
posted by caution live frogs at 9:41 AM on October 28, 2016

Go Australian; cook skinny pork, beef or alt-vege sausages outside on a barbecue, serve in a slice of bread with optional fixings: ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, fried onion. Charge 1 or 2 dollars apiece and donate proceeds to your local primary school, church charity or community group.
posted by esto-again at 1:14 AM on October 29, 2016

Make sure you get a receipt tho
posted by esto-again at 1:14 AM on October 29, 2016

I've gotten some great ideas here. I'm planning to put all the booze bottles in picnic baskets, to create a Basket of De-Pour-Ables. There will be Chris Cheese Chrispies and the requisite Bad Hombres Taco Truck (borrowing a friend's kid's Tonka to hold the shells). Our wall will be constructed out of refried beans.

Make America Grate Again made me snort laugh. Definitely stealing that.
posted by Giraffrica at 3:29 AM on October 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm serving GINGHAZI!!! (a gin-based punch of my own devising with bilberry nectar, lemon juice, and ginger) and Tim Hurri-Kaines (just regular hurricanes but with a funny name) for my election party.
posted by palindromic at 10:44 AM on November 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

Pig in a blanket

Wieners in a blanket :-P
posted by sallybrown at 12:13 PM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I thought it would be a more celebratory night than it was, but the themed food was still fun. Results! Chillary and "Make America Grate Again!" cheese, plus bonus GOP Polls Dip.
posted by LKWorking at 9:39 AM on November 10, 2016