Healthy Food Chart

Chef Silvia recently gave two diiner parties, one was a buffet, the other a 4-course sit down meal. Both were 10 guests and both executed “almost efforlessly”. She began to wonder, ” What is it about meal preparation that makes some meals - even if only for one or two–a complete hassle, while others with many guests seem to flow with the ease of a catered event?”. She says it is all in the planning and is willing to share her secrets with us!

Easy entertaining requires menu planning, prep work & timing. As an example she points to her buffet meal. It consisted of six different platters. All except one were made ahead of time. Tomato with mozzarella, tubetini pasta salad, caesar salad with homemade dressing & marinated eggplant were all made in advance. The last platter was sausage, pepper & onions. She par boiled the sausage the night before the party. With the guests milling around at the start of the party she sauteed the sausage, peppers & onions in a large wok - which doubled as its serving bowl.

The advance work allowed her to enjoy the party, the guest got to see some of the meal being prepared - which only adds to the fun. A fun time was had by all.

A sit down dinner party takes a bit more skill. Silvia is confident that it can result in the same effortless meal. First course: grilled vegetables tossed in a simple vinaigrette which was made & plated ahead. Second course: Linguini with a putanesca sauce - which she made in minutes while her guest were eating their first course. The next course was tilapia ( preped ahead) - which she put inot the oven while she & her guest were savoring the linguini. The final course was a blueberry/peach cobbler topped with a polenta crust & served with warm vanilla ice cream. Again made ahead of time. Silvia says the dinner was relaxed, impressive but easy to execute. The only tricky part is the timing, which she made easy by chossing simple dishes with take only minutes to cook.

To sum up her tips:

1. Several days before the party, plan your menu - keeping in mind a mix of items that can be made ahead or in minutes during the party. Being in the kitchen preparing during a party is part of the fun! Not everything has to be ready.

2. Two to three days prior to the party, do your shopping. If there are titems that need to be purchased the closer to the party make a seperate list for those.

3. Make anothe list of what can be prepared the day before, the day of, and during the party. Then make each dish according to the schedule you have created. Most importantly, remember, part of the fun of giving a party is enjoying the process!

Once again, thank you Chef Silvia! Most of the recipes for the above items can be found on her website.
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