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Life of the Party.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Jim Boyd The Register-Guard

In Springfield, it's known as "the food party."

It began 13 years ago when Margie Ralph and her partner, Steve Moe, launched a community event as a "thank you" for those who volunteer for the Springfield Filbert Festival. The party quickly became a popular tradition. Ralph begins preparing dishes two to three weeks in advance.

This year, the party was held two weeks after Rockin' on the River, a July 4 concert that replaced the Filbert Festival.

The party, which has drawn as many as 200 guests, gets its name from the huge amount of food that Ralph single-handedly fixes, with a few close friends helping to defrost and assemble things on the day of the party.

This year's menu featured 25 items, if you count the sliced turkey, ham and roast beef sandwich-makings as a single dish.

"I think anything that you would eat here you would walk away smacking your lips and loving every second of it," said Mary Ann Rhodes, director of customer services for the Springfield Utility Board and a Filbert Festival board member. "Margie labors long and lovingly over the food that is served here at this party every year, and it shows."

This year, Ralph prepared 600 Danish meatballs as well as bite-size appetizers that included 200 leek tarts, 200 bacon-onion tarts and 200 sour cream and chive twice-baked red potatoes.

She roasted three turkey breasts and three hams, cooked three beef roasts, poached two salmon and smoked six beefsticks (sausages without casings made from...

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