Saturday has come and gone and it was pretty much a whirlwind. We hosted our family for a BBQ which came together quiet nicely. If you recall, I had put together an ambitious (with having a 8 month old at home) menu and was myself surprised that I was able to execute every single item on it and even add a summer corn and jalapeno succotash to boot.
The strategy I had was simple: I was not going to work past Sophia’s bedtime on Friday and instead relax and unwind so that I could get up early on Saturday and finish things up. I also focused on making dishes that were easiest, kept the best overnight and most fun to make first. I will say that our family was great. My mother-in-law came on Friday afternoon and took Sophia off my hands and my parents came Saturday early afternoon and helped clean up afterwards. We spent Sunday loafing and puttering.
It is official, the husband has reviewed my menu for the family BBQ and said it is “a bit ambitious”. That’s good — I like a challenge. Here is how I plan on spreading out the cooking to make sure that I don’t cook late into the night on Friday AND am able to enjoy Saturday morning and the party in the afternoon.
Friday:
Bake chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies
Cook strawberry and rhubarb blondes
Bake cupcakes
Cut the pineapple for the grilling
Make vanilla ice cream for grilled pineapple
Make court-bouillon and cook shrimp
Make cocktail sauce
Make hummus
Cut veggies and make dip
Make truffled mushroom mac & cheese
Marinate chicken two ways (in yoghurt and spices and in olive oil and herbs de provence)
Since the weekend is fast approaching and with it our family BBQ, I decided that I should better develop a menu or face serious panic while grocery shopping Thursday afternoon.
Usually, I find menu planning rather fun, creative and relaxing. I am keen on making sure that all the guests’ dietary restrictions are accomodated such that noone feels like they are limited in their options and everyone can eat almost everything. For example, a guest at the party has a treet nut allergy and I am planning for the menu to be completely free of tree nuts. Another set of guests observe kosher dietary rules and I am making sure they can have both a main and a dessert (no easy feat considering most entrees are proteins and great desserts are typically loaded with butter)). Kids almost always are picky eaters and a BBQ is no place to try and coax a child to get diverse with food… I am including something cheesey, white and delicious. Lastly, I unite the menu with plenty of fruits and vegetables that most everyone loves.
So… here is the menu as I envision it now. I may change parts of it depending on what looks great at the grocery mart and how much time I have as I tackle the cooking process.
Summer is here in full swing. In fact, it is here a little too much… I’ll give up a few degrees of heat to anyone in a cooler climate. We did not know this before, but the D.C. area sits on a giant swamp which means two things: humidity and bugs.
All that aside… we’ve owned our home for a little over a year now and have had informal gatherings for friends and immedeate family, but have not had a chance to welcome our extended families over. We’re finally doing that! Taking the plunge in entertaining with an eight and a half month old. The date: Saturday… the guest list consists of 20+ family members including wee ones. This is a test of our planning and execution proficiency in our cooking and entertaining departments. The next few posts will chronicle us getting ready by cleaning up, organizing, planning the menu and starting to cook. We are sharing our ongoing experience so that anyone who is thinking of entertaining with a little baby can learn from our experience too.
The last two weekends were spent in organizing the house which, much to my own embarrassment, still had boxes laying around in various rooms from our move. My parents came down both this and past weekend to help with some outdoor work and unpacking. As painful as it is (and was) to unpack, this party is a great forcing function in the long process of turning the house into a home. Thus far, the hubby and my parents put in many, many hours of yard work, window and skylight washing, and de-cluttering.
Next up, we will be planning the menu for the event and starting to cook sometime Friday (hopefully not late into the night). Stay tuned for the menu and in-progress pictures.
A while ago, my husband’s grandmother (Bubbie) shared with us some of her Le Creuset pots. We accepted the pots without hesitation as we only had one that we got as a wedding gift, they’re super expensive when new, and we love using ours. When Sophia started eating solids, I made them almost always in one of Bubbie’s pots as it was one of the smallest ones we had. At first, it was just a happy coincidence that I needed a smaller pot and now it has become a happy tradition. A happy yellow pot that Sophia will grow up to love and cherish as it will mean homemade, warm and comforting meals. Today’s menu: peach and summer corn soup.
Inspired by early summer, beautiful weather and enabled by my wonderful Mother-in-Law who visited and played with Sophia, I took on the challenge of making Pirozhki for the first time ever. Since Late Spring/Early Summer is in the air and strawberries are sweet, the rhubarb is tart they together will comprise my Saturday pirozhki filling. The dough was a yeast-based dough with butter (what could be better than puffy, buttery dough?) and the filling was just diced strawberries, rhubarb and a bit of sugar. I am still practicing my crimping skills… maybe a few hundred more batches and my parties will be uniform…
As Sophia is still too little to really enable us to travel to far and exotic destinations, but a vacation was an absolute must, we decided to have a stay-cation. That is, we planned not to go anywhere (far) and enjoyed just being out and about locally. My parents offered for us to come up so that they could babysit in the evenings and we could go out and catch up with friends. We accepted without hesitation. The Friday before we left, I got an email that my local farm opened with pick-your-own strawberries and tart cherries. I happily ran over to pick some for the road and as a hostess gift for my parents. Ten pounds of strawberries later (with obvious signs of heat exhaustion not to mention sunburn, I opted for the pre-picked tart cherries).
Tart cherries hold a special place in my heart. My mother’s mother had a beautiful fruit and vegetable garden. Aside from apples, pears, apricots, peaches, strawberries, red and black currants, rhubarb, gooseberries, and rasberries, she also grew tart cherries. Tart cherry season meant one thing when I was little: Tart Cherry Vareniki. Hot out of the water, tart, sweet, oozing with syrup — there are very few dishes that are better in the early summer. We used to pick them ourselves, gallons of cherries, their red juice squirting everywhere in our little hands. They were probably a little worse for the wear and fewer in numbers by the time they got to the house when we picked them as kids, but that made them perfect for varenniki.
Anyway, apparently tart cherries aren’t as available here. In fact, I’ve only seen them at farmer’s markets in Philadelphia and at the local farm. We’ve begged my mom to make the varenniki with them for years and even used hubby as a ploy. My sister, her husband, my dad and I would say “Come on mom, E. hasn’t had these, EVER…. don’t you want to show off your culinary prowess with dumplings?” She would always say “Get me real tart cherries, come help and I will do it”. Well, the day had finally come. Too hot, tired and dirty from a very wet strawberry field, I picked up two quarts of cherries and ran quickly to my car as if the cashier at the farm was going to demand her cherries back. To excited, I called my mom and told her of my acquisition. She was in disbelief and probably slightly disgruntled but very much up to the challenge. So, in true multi-cultural fashion, we decided to make them for Memorial Day to supplement the remainder of our pretty typical BBQ menu. Since I acquired the cherries and essentially was the cause of this, I volunteered to pit the cherries. Two hours later (my mother was so sure she would NEVER make these here in the States that she does not own a cherry pitter), I was done albeit already ready to be done with cooking. I helped make the dough and learned how to form them. You’ll see in the pictures that mine are the much uglier and misshapen and my mom’s are beautiful and uniform. Nonetheless, they were D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S and hubby declared that they were amazing and worth waiting for. All in all, not too difficult to make, but they disappear into hungry bellies much faster than it takes to make them. I’ll make them again, and again and always remember my childhood summer memories as I cook them. When she is older, I’ll tell Sophia the stories of my childhood over a plate of varenniki.
By the time Friday comes around, I am mentally checking into the weekend. I like to make sure the house is clean, laundry is done and groceries are at least purchased. If that sounds like a tall order, it usually is. By dinner time, I am exhausted but oh so happy that the weekend has finally arrived. Back in the old days when hubby and I lived for ourselves and didn’t have an infant to take care of, Friday night dinner was within easy reach. This was especially so since we lived in the heart of Philadelphia within ten minutes of most neighborhoods and their specialties. Easy dinner takes a little more planning now and going out to dinner is a little more daunting than it seems worth. So the simple solution? A no fuss, no mess, 20-minute meal. I spotted beautiful Prince Edward Mussels at the grocery store and decided to recreate a favorite of ours from Monk’s in Philadelphia. The muscles at Monk’s are prepared in all different ways, but in our opinion, the simpler the preparation the better the end result. The exact recipe can be found here, but as usual, a picture speaks 1000 words. Best enjoyed with a white wine or a Wheat Beer.
I have long realized that an arsenal of easy, twenty minute dinners is a must when raising an active, attention-demanding infant. Hubby and I have quite a few up our sleeve and I recently posted seared scallops and mango salad as one of our favorites. Oven roasted salmon and asparagus is another “one-pot, 20-minute” wonder. Usually, I just place salmon filets and asparagus on a foil lined sheet (no clean-up), spritz with olive oil and bake at 400*F for 10-12 minutes.
This time, hubby decided to help which turned into him taking the culinary reigns and augmented the original by adding a miso glaze on the salmon for added savoriness and minced ginger and garlic on the asparagus. Mmmm good!
My mother-in-law who visited and stayed with me while hubby was away at a conference in Vancouver asked me how I use cilantro. In general, I am under the impression that most people do not use many herbs in their cooking. I am a huge believer in fresh herbs especially seasonally appropriate applications. They add such aroma and freshness to every dish. I also think that this is where restaurants get a big bang in the flavor department: they season properly and use herbs. But I digress…
Cilantro is a vital part of my culinary repertoire and I don’t go a single week without it in the spring/summer. I immedeately started brainstorming and trying to think of all the ways I have and can use a whole bunch of cilantro. I usually add it to my mango salad (though it is optional, but adds a great aroma), guacamole, herbed quinoa salad, and of course a household oldie but goodie, the roasted eggplant and red pepper dip (New recipe posted here).
Just reading over this post makes me wish today was Friday and I was planning our weekend menu. I’ll be trying the eggplant dip on Sophia sooner rather than later :).
