When it comes to hosting dinner, I do my best to plan and prep EVERYTHING. When will food need to taken out of the freezer to defrost, when will each dish need to be prepared, what order will the dishes need to be prepared...lots of little details that sure make a difference. The one detail that put a bit of a rut into my plan yesterday? The meat. I thought that if I transfered all the meat to the fridge on Thursday night, they would be completely defrosted by the time I would need it on Saturday. Not so much! To say that I was a bit stressed when I realized this is a HUGE understatement. I always forget how cold our fridge can be, and yesterday really shouldn't have been too much of a surprise for me. I even had the idle thought of taking everything out of the fridge when I got up that morning! I ended up having to defrost the ground pork in the sink covered with water (which even then was still a tad icy, and made it quite painful when mixing the meat with the shallots and garlic with my hands...my fingers were so froze) and leaving the chicken out on the counter for a bit before slicing it up. Despite this, everything turned out lovely and delicious (and we even have some leftovers!).
Today is hubby's grandparents' 65th anniversary, and we joined everyone downtown at the Pan Pacific Hotel for good 'ol Sunday brunch at the Cafe Pacifica restaurant. The view alone at this restaurant is good enough reason to go: they have very large windows that give spectacular views of the mountains. The brunch buffet? Wow. Having been to a few different restaurants for brunch buffets, this one definitely tops the list for widest variety of foods. There was one table with a variety of baked goods such as croissants, danishes, muffins and biscuits. The salad/seafood table had at least four different kinds of salads (I had the tomato & bococchini and the ceviche), several plates of fruit, a variety of sushi pieces, cold cuts, a large cheese plate, crackers, and a large bowl of crab legs and cocktail shrimp. The hot station had standard breakfast foods like bacon, scrambled eggs, eggs benedict and sausage alongside items such as steak with truffle merlot reduction, pork siu mai, steamed fish, roasted potatoes, lamb roast and halibut Wellington. Finally, the dessert station had cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, glasses of mouse and Jell-O, tarts, creme brulee, and mousse slices (I had one that was almost like Neopolitan ice cream, so good!). Not surprising? Calorie count for the day is pretty high already (but we're still doing well! I've now lost 10 pounds since we've started counting calories and hubby has already reached his goal weight).
Here is the meal plan for the upcoming week. Very simple and straight-forward due to getting rid of leftover food, and just the one new recipe. I've also uploaded the recipe for the chocolate orange muffins (found on the Baking page) which you can see in the pictures. I'll be away for the weekend with my school marching band, so there won't be a new meal plan until I return (either Tuesday or Wednesday). Enjoy the week and happy cooking all!
June 26-July 1st
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Ham & potato frittata (found on the Small meals page, under Easy Meals)
Tuesday: Spaghetti with leftover meatsauce
Wednesday: Peanut butter chicken (using the leftover peanut sauce from the chicken satays), rice, peas, cucumbers
Thursday: Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes (found on the Main - Beef page, under Main dishes)
Friday: Nothing (potentially going out for dinner with FIL)