Dinner for Ten

For the first time in a long time, I'll be serving dinner to ten people on Saturday. My Uncle and his family from Detroit is home for a visit.

Planning the menu wasn't really difficult. I like serving and feeding people. I like entertaining. And part of the planning is making sure they don't get fed the same food they have been eating since they got here. They spent 2 weeks in Ilocos Norte, a province in the north before they hit Manila. They're actually asleep as I blog away. (3:25am Manila Time)

I plan to do grocery shopping on Friday afternoon. My menu is all set. No "adobo" --- they must have eaten that 13 times in 14 days. Entertaining people includes making sure they feel that the hostess exerted a little --- if not all effort to make it special for them. Especially when they visit once in 5 years and fly 19 hours to do it.

Nothing fried --- my recipe for my Proud Chicken perhaps (blogged about it in a previous entry). It's roasted.

Mashed potatoes instead of rice. I'll give it a French twist, so spices are all listed down.

I plan to get mushrooms. Not sure what to do with them yet, perhaps I'll look up a few recipes and take it from there. Mushrooms go well with anything roasted. I think.

Vegetables? Maybe spinach if i can get them fresh. But then there's always the household favorite broccoli, carrots and baby corn --- Kenny Rogers style.

When it comes to preparing for an occasion, I always do "half planning" instead of getting everything ready. It gives me space to make mistakes and then adjust on the way. Better than getting everything ready and ending up wanting or changing something. It saves me more time than messing the plan up and starting all over again.

Same rule applies to picking what to wear to this dinner.