get 'er done ... part 1 of a plan

Celebrating holidays and milestone events often involves hosting overnight guests as well as those who live nearby and join you on the big day. This is always true with my family as we have at least one state line between everyone … Illinois to Missouri, Missouri to Oklahoma and then our West Coastie, who makes the big flight every holiday season. So when planning Mr. 8’s First Communion party I also had to account for dinner Friday night and breakfasts Saturday and Sunday. (Lunch takes care of itself and we go out for dinner the night before the big celebration.)

So I start at the beginning and work my way through. Planning is huge in these things because, especially with breakfast, I like people to feel they can come and go from the kitchen finding what looks good and stopping for the paper when it’s available. There are not too many morning people in my bloodline … I (and a few of the others!) need some space before 9 a.m. J

So the planning kicked in. Lists, lists, lists! I had a list of guests … a list of menus … a list of tasks … a list of groceries … all stapled together and continually removed from and replaced in the books with my recipes in them. If any of it moved it all moved. If any of it became separated from the rest the weekend would begin to crumble in my hands!

When I have these big gatherings I try to shop over time, otherwise I do a ton of grocery shopping on Thursday or Friday, host a weekend event, and go back to the store Monday for food to eat the rest of the week. So I start accumulating things as they go on sale. Dry ingredients get tucked away. Nothing’s going to happen to them in the few weeks before the big day. Meat is placed in the freezer where, if I didn’t need it in a few weeks, it could stay for up to six months. That leaves only the perishables for last minute shopping, so I had a lot of veggies, fruit and dairy products in my cart.

Shopping done, on Friday I made dinner in the afternoon and got started on all of my breakfast items so they would be ready for Saturday and Sunday morning. Here are the menus … recipes to follow later this week.

Friday dinner: Southwestern Bundles, Fiesta Salsa Dip

Saturday breakfast: Stuffin’ Egg Muffins, Breakfast Parfaits

Saturday lunch and dinner … We were cooking all day, so lunch wasn’t much of an issue. Dinner was a treat at Trailhead Brewing Co.

Sunday breakfast: Crustless Quiche and Banana Breakfast Cake

Sunday PaRtY! Tastefully Simple Chicken Tariyaki dip; Veggies and dip; Marinated Pork Tenderloin Dollar Sandwiches; Pasta Salad; Asian Salad; Potato Salad; cake and treats from the French Gourmet Bakery; chocolate petit-fours. I forgot to put out the fresh fruit, and nobody seemed to care.

Monday … leftovers!