Can’t wait to enjoy the big meal(s)!

With only a few days to go until Turkey Day 2011, you’ve probably got your menu all planned out.  However, if you’re still looking for some recipes, here are some tried and true favorites from my archives.

Appetizers

Bacon Wrapped Figs

Brie Kisses

Sides

Green Beans With Prosciutto

Melissa’s Brussels Sprouts

Savory Squash Gratin

Cranberry Orange Relish

Desserts

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Black Bottom Pecan Cheesecake Pie

Cheesecake Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

(Breakfast options this week include oatmeal, greek yogurt, biscuits, fresh fruit, fruit smoothies.  Lunch options this week include leftovers (there should be lots this week), turkey sandwiches, or salad.)

Sunday: Cajun Chicken Pasta, Spinach and Strawberry Salad, Garlic Breadsticks

Monday: All American Beef Chili, Cornbread

Tuesday: Quiche Lorraine, Fruit Salad

Wednesday: Chinese Chicken Salad (new recipe)

Thursday: Tangy Spiced Brisket, Twice Baked Potatoes, Green Beans

Friday: Chopped Beef Sandwiches (using leftover Brisket), Baked Beans

Saturday: Pumpkin Waffles, Eggs, Bacon

Sunday: One Pot Pasta (new recipe), Spinach and Pear Salad with Rosemary Vinaigrette, Garlic Bread

Our Easter Brunch has become an annual tradition!  This is my 3rd (or is it 4th?) year hosting!  I just finalized the menu for Easter Brunch 2011..  As in previous years, this is a potluck so I’m only responsible for about half of the menu items.  This year, Brunch starts at 11:30!  I’m attending the 8:45 Easter Service at my church, so my goal for this year was to select dishes that could all be made the day before.  The potatoes reheat wonderfully, the waffles can be made ahead of time and popped in the toaster during Brunch, and all of the dips and salads will be prepared on Saturday.  Looking forward to this year’s menu!

image from Martha Stewart

Easter Brunch 2011

Breakfast Casserole

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

Bacon

Muffins or Scones

Lemon Poppyseed Waffles with Blueberries

Breakfast Bread Pudding

Melon and Mozzarella Salad (recipe coming soon)

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

Mini Crab Cakes

Spring Vegetable Orzo Pasta Salad (new recipe)

Spinach and Artichoke Cheeseball (new recipe)

Red Pepper Feta Dip (new recipe)

Carrot Cake

Blackberry Sangria

PS.  If you noticed, there’s no ham on this year’s menu.  I really debated that one.  I like it, but I don’t love it.  The Picky Apple doesn’t care for it.  What about you?  Is Ham a must-have Easter menu item at your house?

What’s on your Easter Menu this year?  Do you serve the same thing every year or switch things up?

I realized the other day that I’ve never actually made this relish for myself, so I asked my mom for the recipe.  As it turns out, she doesn’t follow a recipe and just tastes it as she goes along, adding more sugar or pecans as needed.  I’ve written out some amounts for you below.  No oven or stovetop necessary for this delicious Thanksgiving side dish!

Cranberry Orange Relish

recipe from my mom, ingredient amounts by me

Ingredients:

• 4 heaping cups of fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large orange
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Chop the raw cranberries in a food processor or blender.  Transfer to a medium sized bowl and add sugar.  Stir to combine.  Peel the orange and cut into small pieces.  Add orange and pecans to cranberries, and stir to combine.  Put in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving for best flavor.

What if someone else took care of your menu plan for you?  Enter Food on The Table.  I had the opportunity recently to try out Food on the Table‘s menu planning service.  They didn’t ask me to write a review and I don’t normally review products for my blog.  However I think this service could be of great use to many of you!

Food on the Table is a menu planning service that is just the solution for busy moms like me.  This graphic below sums it up perfectly!

Here’s how Food on the Table works:

• You select your grocery store.  Food on the Table then finds the current sales at your local grocery store, and you have the option of incorporating those items into your menu for the week.
• You select your food preferences and what you’re in the mood for.  Have a craving for shrimp?  Select it here, and you’ll get a shrimp dish (or two!) as part of your weekly menu.
• Then Food on the Table provides meal suggestions based on your grocery store sales, food preferences, and what is most important to you (quick recipes, cheap meals, etc).  At this point, you can use the suggested recipes or view some similar recipes to create your meal plan for the week.
• Time for your grocery list!  Food on the Table generates a cumulative, printable grocery list for the week based on your menu plan.  You can review the list and delete things you already have on hand and add personal items.

Things I liked about Food on the Table:

• Nutritional info for recipes is provided along with the serving size.
• I love that you can personalize by grocery store sales and food preferences.  I usually only buy the meat that is on sale, and we’ve got picky eaters here, so this is perfect for me.
• Tasty recipes!  All the recipes I tried were delicious!
• Grocery lists keep the whole week in mind, and figure out the total amounts needed.
• Easy to use website!

Things that need work:

• I’d like to see fewer processed foods on the ingredients lists, but I am comfortable enough making substitutions that it’s a non-issue for me in most cases.
• A way to exclude certain ingredients for allergies or special diets.  Luckily we don’t have food allergies anymore, but when my son was allergic to eggs and milk this would have been a helpful feature.

Overall, this is a great service for anyone who needs a little help planning their menus.  Not only are you getting your dinners planned, but you can save time and money at the grocery store and try delicious new recipes at the same time!  Head on over to the Food on the Table’s website to check it out.

Now for the GIVEAWAY!! The nice folks at Food on the Table have offered one of my readers a $25 gift card to the grocery store of your choice! (How cool is that?!  You get to pick the store!)

You can earn up to THREE entries:

(1)Please leave a comment answering the following question: What’s your biggest meal planning hurdle?

(2) Leave a separate comment after you subscribe to The Picky Apple’s RSS Feed or via email.  Or let me know that you already subscribe.

(3) Leave a separate comment after you join The Picky Apple on Facebook or let me know that you’re already a FB fan.

I’ll leave comments open until 12pm EST on Friday, September, 3.  The winner will be selected randomly and announced on Friday evening.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free 30-day trial of Food on the Table’s premium service, but they did not require me to write this review.

Have you ever seen the game show on NBC called Minute to Win It?  Hosted by Guy Fieri, contestants on this show complete increasingly difficult challenges using household items in one minute or less.  The Picky Apple and I have watched it a few times, and we always say “I could do that!”  We decided to put ourselves (and others) to the test.  Inspired by a post on The Dating Divas about a couples Minute To Win It Party, we decided to host our own Minute To Win It Party.  We had 12 people, including us, and it was SO MUCH FUN!

The Food

• Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
• Cilantro Lime Rice
• Cafe Rio Black Beans
• Tortillas and other fixin’s
• Pico de Gallo (made by The Picky Apple, trying to get the recipe…)
• Taco Dip (recipe coming soon)
• Buffalo Chicken Dip (recipe coming soon)
• Spicy Garlic Nuts
• Corn and Blueberry Salad
• Watermelon
• Sugar Cookie Bars
• Derby Pie (brought by guest)
• Freezer Caramel Drizzle Pie (brought by guest)

I loved this menu!  Most of the items could be prepared ahead of time.  I much prefer serving this type of meal to a big group rather than hamburgers that have to be cooked as the party is happening.  By preparing food ahead of time, you can relax and enjoy the party too!

The Drinks

Speaking of relaxing….

• Absolut Raspberry Lemonade
• White Sangria
• Margarita Popsicles (recipe coming soon)
• Strawberry Margaritas (recipe coming soon)
• Beer

Did I mention this was an adults-only party?!  We don’t do parties like this much, and we I got a little carried away with the drinks.  I couldn’t make up my mind, so I just decided to make it ALL!  As a result, I still have freezerful of delicious margarita popsicles.  That’s not a bad thing, I don’t think.

The Games

We selected 5 games (and 2 bonus games) from the Minute To Win It website (and described in detail below).  We have some rather competitive friends, and I figured the drinks would loosen everyone up, but I wanted to encourage everyone to play without forcing them to do each game if they didn’t want to participate.  Therefore, we created the following rules:

• Times will be recorded for each player.  3 points will be awarded for 1st place, 2 for 2nd place, and 1 for 3rd place.
• The winner of each of the 5 games will receive a prize.  (The prizes were all from dollar bins at Target at Michael’s: sling shots, velcro catcher things, little guns, etc)
• After the games are completed, the scores will be added up, and the winner will receive the Grand Prize.  (We really hyped this up, but kept it a secret.  It was a giant WWE belt, which was fabulously gaudy.)
• The Picky Apple and I were disqualified from winning since we practiced the games to test them out and kept the games top secret from everyone else.
• 2 or 3 people will go at the same time for games if possible, to speed things up.  Even though people weren’t competing against each other in pairs, it helped fuel the competitive spirit.  Also, no one felt too silly going by themselves.
• Names will be drawn from a hat to determine the order for each game.
• We let some of the games go for a little longer than a minute…some of these games seem impossible to complete in just one minute!
• Scores were recorded on the official scoreboard…created lovingly by me, channeling my inner high school self…

As I mentioned, we had 5 games planned that would count toward the final score, and 2 bonus games in case of a tie or if everyone just wanted to play a few more silly games.  Well, not only did everyone want to play MORE silly games, they wanted them to count toward the final score!  Love our competitive friends!

I tried to pick games that would not only be fun to play, but fun to watch too.  And boy, were they ever!

Penny Hose: Two pennies are placed in the ends of the legs of a pair of pantyhose. Using only their hands, the contestants must inch their way down the legs to retrieve the pennies and pull them out. Each arm must work independently and the player cannot use one hand to stretch or hold the hose for the other.  (We used quarters instead of pennies, and this is MUCH harder than it looks!)

Face the Cookie: Contestants, using only their faces, must move three Oreo cookies individually from their forehead to their mouth. (We only did one cookie.)

Paper Dragon: Contestant must unspool two rolls of party streamers using only their hands and arms. (I bought 32! rolls of crepe paper at Party City)

The Nutstacker: Contestant must create one stack of large metal nuts by sliding them off a chopstick without touching them with their hands. (We used 6 nuts)

Elephant March: Eight unopened water bottles are placed in two parallel rows on the ground, precisely eight feet apart. The contestant must wear a standard pair of pantyhose over the head, with a baseball placed inside the end of one leg. Keeping one foot on each side of the centerline, the contestant must swing back and forth using the momentum of the baseball to knock down all eight bottles. (We only used 6 water bottles, and used an orange instead of a baseball)

(After this, the photo taking fell by the wayside…)

Ping Bounce: Bounce ping pong balls to land in 3 different cups full of water.  (We simplified the Tic Tac Toe game from the show)

Tipsy: Contestant must balance three 12-ounce cans on their beveled lower edges. It is impossible to balance a full can like this, therefore the contestant must first drink from the can. The contestant must balance a total of three cans to successfully complete the challenge. (I let our contestants use their drink of choice.  All the guys used beer (mistake?) and the ladies either used Fresca or diet soft drinks)

Baking Day: Tortillas, Apple Pecan Flaxseed Bread (new recipe), Chai-Spiced Granola (new recipe), Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies (new recipe)

Sunday: Tangy Spiced Brisket (new recipe), Corn and Blueberry Salad (new recipe), Beer Bread, Watermelon

Monday: Chopped Beef Sandwiches, Green Beans, Oven Fries, Strawberry Ice Cream (new recipe)

Tuesday: Chimichangas, Mexican Rice, Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

Wednesday: Sweet Peanut Chicken Stir Fry, Basmati Rice

Thursday: Chicken & Corn Chili (new recipe), Cornbread

Friday: Baja Fish Tacos, Refried Beans, Coleslaw, Watermelon Margaritas (new recipe)

Saturday: Dine Out

I’m sharing this post with Menu Plan Monday at I’m an Organizing Junkie

Subtitle: A Control Freak’s Guide to Hosting Brunch

Easter Brunch went off without any major hitches yesterday.  We certainly had plenty of food to eat!  I had an ambitious menu, including five new recipes.  (Since it was family, I didn’t mind doing a little experimenting.)  I was pleasantly surprised that ALL five of those dishes turned out great!  I’ll be sharing those recipes and more food photos in the next few days.

I’m already looking forward to hosting another brunch!  I felt like things were so much smoother this time around.  Usually I’m a complete wreck in the minutes before everyone starts showing up.  This year I was calm and collected, aside from one little snip of “Do SOMETHING!  Don’t just stand there!” to my husband about 30 minutes before guests arrived, which I promptly apologized for after realizing he couldn’t read my mind and didn’t know what needed to be done.

Today I thought I’d share some tips on how to have a successful brunch.  Or at least how I managed to get it all done, as well as some notes to myself on things I could do differently next time.

Brunch is a tricky meal to host since it typically starts before noon, leaving you without much prep time the morning of the brunch.  Organization, planning ahead, and prepping the day before are crucial.

Planning your brunch menu:

• In my opinion, it’s called “Brunch” not “Breakfast,” so there should be a mix of breakfast and lunch items.  I still tend to lean heavily toward breakfast dishes, but there are many things that can serve double duty (ex: you can eat a croissant and ham for breakfast or make it into a little sandwich later for lunch; coffee cake can be a breakfast sweet or an afternoon dessert).
• Include some brunch basics. Pick a dish from each (or most) of these categories, or several dishes that combine a few of these categories (ex: a dish with eggs, potatoes and breakfast sausage) and you’ll be all set:
  • Egg Dish (ex: Scrambled Eggs, Migas, Breakfast Burritos)
  • Potato Dish (ex:Potato Hash, Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes, Cheddar Chicken and Potatoes)
  • Bacon/Sausage/Ham
  • Breads/Rolls/Croissants/Muffins (ex: Allspice Crumb Muffins, Pumpkin Bread with Streusel Topping)
  • Something sweet: Cake/Bread Pudding (ex: Glazed Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Bundt Cake, Chocolate Cinnamon Bread)
  • Fresh fruits
  • Lunch-y things like Salad, Appetizers, Dips (ex: Warm Goat Cheese Toasts with Rosemary, Pecans and Honey, Grilled Chicken Lettuce Wraps)

• Decide whether you want to do potluck or tackle it all yourself.  You’ve got two options:
  • You prepare everything yourself.  Pros: Fellow control-freaks, rejoice!  You can do everything your way! (Ha!)  Have the dishes you love most!  Best suited to smaller groups (15 people or less: any larger, and you’ll definitely need help).  Cons: Potentially a little more costly.  More for you to do.  You won’t get to experience some dishes you might not otherwise try.  Your guests might not get to have some dishes that they like most.
  • Or you can ask guests to bring a dish.  Pros: This will most certainly cut back on your responsibilities.  It might save you a little bit of money.  You get to try some new foods.   Guests get to bring some of their favorites.  Cons: Probably best suited to an event with family or close friends, since you’re making your guests work!  Also, if you’re a control freak like me, asking guests to bring a dish can create a bit of stress.  (Control freaks, keep reading!  The rest of you can move on to the next bullet point!)  I try to find out ahead of time what everyone is bringing, but getting people on MY planning schedule doesn’t always work out so well.  Also, be prepared for general responses like “muffins.”  I would want to know what KIND of muffins?  If they are lemon crumb muffins, then I don’t want to wind up make a lemon cake, too.  (I’m pretty good at stressing about this stuff and over-thinking it, in case you haven’t noticed.)  So you have to let it go if you’re expecting guests to help by bringing a dish.   If you really have your heart set on certain types of food, then you either need to speak up and request it (“Hey mom!  Those potatoes you made at Christmas were great!  Would you mind bringing those?”), assign categories (egg dish, bread/rolls, fruit, dessert) to guests, or resolve to make those things your self.  This is part of the reason our menu this year was so lengthy.  The Picky Apple really wanted Breakfast Burritos and something lemon-y, meanwhile I wanted shrimp and salad.

The Pyrex measuring cup is full of Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing waiting to be poured as the guests arrived...I didn't actually use it as a serving dish, I promise!

Figure out what can be done ahead of time and write out a schedule of what to do when:

• Start with the day of, and work backwards.  Certain dishes need to be served piping hot or ice cold.  Those will be the LAST things you make.  For me, this was the Brie Kisses and adding the dressing to the Chicken Poppy Seed Salad.  Other dishes, like Breakfast Burritos, need to be made the morning of the brunch (though even these could possibly be made the night before), and kept warm in foil or reheated just prior to the event.
• Plan on spending the day before prepping.
  • If you’ve got kids, enlist your husband to help keep them entertained.  I wouldn’t have been able to get anything done without The Picky Apple keeping an eye on The Littlest Apple.
  • Baked goods like Blueberry Lemon Crumb Bundt Cake or muffins can be made ahead of time.  So can dips, fruit and vegetable trays.
  • Some things MUST be made ahead of time, especially if they need to marinate over night, like Spicy Pickled Shrimp and the chicken for the salad.  I actually marinated the chicken on Friday night then grilled it on Saturday and added it to the salad on Sunday.
  • It’s also important to think about components of dishes that can be prepped ahead of time, instead of using “all or nothing” thinking about your dishes.  Yes, the dressing can’t be added to the salad until just before the party, but you can prepare the chicken and sugared almonds the day before.  I cooked the breakfast sausage for the Breakfast Burritos the night before, and that saved me about 10-15 minutes the morning of the brunch.
  • Get out your tablecloths, dishes, glasses and silverware the day before (or earlier).  Lay out your place settings, if you’re doing a more formal brunch.
  • Prepare your centerpieces.  I actually purchased the flowers for the centerpieces on Friday.
  • Prep the drink station the day/night before.  Get out your glasses/goblets and coffee cups.  Name tags for drinks are helpful, especially when there are lots of people and a limited number of glasses!
  • Lay out your serving dishes with post it notes labeling what will be served in each dish.  I used this tip for a 50 person wine & cheese party when I needed LOTS of serving dishes.  It can be such a lifesaver!  Don’t forget the serving utensils!
• Finalize your menu 5-7 days in advance.
  • If you’re asking people to bring dishes and want to know what they’re bringing you’ll need to give them a deadline and start early with your invitation, if at all possible.
  • Shop for your groceries at least 2 days before the event.  That way you’ll have time to run back for anything you forgot.  Keep in mind that most stores will be closed on the big holidays, so plan ahead or do without!

Things to work on for next year:

• Lower centerpieces.  My flower vases were too tall and got in the way of conversation.
• I set out napkins and silverware at the place settings, but kept the plates by the food.  Place settings work best if everyone arrives at the same time, or if you wait to eat until everyone arrives.  As it happened, the dining room table went unused, and I swiped the silverware from the dining room to use at the more centrally located kitchen table for those that arrived later.
• Buy more dessert plates, use disposable (not my favorite option), or be prepared to wash dishes mid-party.
• Less food?  I like to have lots of options, but we did have way too much stuff.  The control freak in me is having trouble with this one because I feel like I need to roll out a restaurant-quality buffet.  (Note to self: You are not a restaurant.  You are one person.  And your name is NOT Martha Stewart.)
• Favors.  I attempted to make the Un-baked Cookie Nests again, but they didn’t harden up like they were supposed to.
• Put more thought into decorations.  Ties/ribbons on chairs, place cards (maybe one that does double duty as a favor), hanging lanterns.
• Takeout containers to send leftovers home with guests.

Even with all of those suggestions for next year, I was still extremely pleased with how smoothly things came together this year.  Maybe I’ll lobby to host Thanksgiving, too!

What are YOUR favorite brunch dishes?  Any other tips for hosting a successful brunch?

image from HGTV.com

Easter Brunch 2010

Breakfast Burritos

Bacon

Quiche

Hash Browns

Scones

Assortment of biscuits, rolls, croissants

Tropical Fruit Muffins

Honey Baked Ham

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

Brie Kisses

Spicy Pickled Shrimp

Veggies and Ranch Dip

Fresh Fruit Tray

Apple Cream Cheese Dessert

Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bundt Cake

Mystery Cake

Sparkling Sea Breeze Punch

image from Martha Stewart

This Sunday I’ll be hosting the Second Annual Family Easter Brunch, and I’m really looking forward to it.  I’m hoping to finalize the menu today or tomorrow.  (I’ve asked everyone to bring something and to let me know by today what they’re bringing so I can fill in the gaps).

Last year was my first time hosting Easter Brunch.  We invited my family AND The Picky Apple’s family (12 adults and 3 kids, total).  Our families get along well, and that’s fantastic for us.  Since everyone brought a dish, and The Picky Apple and I made lots of stuff too, we had tons of food.  It was a great day!  We had a mini egg hunt for The Littlest Apple and his younger twin cousins.  (I think the egg hunt will be much more fun this year now that all 3 of the kids are walking!!)

I wanted to share our menu from last year (including dishes brought by family members), in case anyone is needing some ideas for what to serve.

Easter Brunch 2009 Menu

Honey Baked Ham

French Toast Casserole

Asparagus Frittata

Bacon

Sausage

Fruit Salad

Potato Hash

Biscuits

Brie en Croute

Croissants

Migas

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Mimosas