Let me start by saying that I DO know how to spell the word “goddess” (see gaffe above). My excuse is that I was elbow’s deep in last minute Easter dinner preparations when I wrote that and so did not spell check my menu. Give me a break. I know how to spell! Back to the post at hand…
Whenever I’m planning a meal for a dinner party or holiday meal, I find it useful and kind of festive to write down the menu and post it on one of the kitchen cupboard doors. I’ve been doing this for awhile and I find it useful for several reasons:
1. It’s an opportunity to use my kids’ fancy markers, the ones that I spent too much money on at a Japanese stationary store.
2. Guests and dinner party invitees seem to like having a reference point for what they’re about to eat. A menu displayed like a billboard that they can congregate around and that will hopefully get them excited about the meal ahead. Or, if they happen to be vegan/gluten-free/dairy-adverse, will make them break into a cold sweat.
3. It’s helpful for me in case I can’t remember what I’m actually supposed to be cooking. This forgetfulness can happen when I’m making several dishes at once, doing it solo, and trying to get it done while the guests are milling around the kitchen and distracting me with questions about gun control and do I need another glass of wine. If you’ve been in a hectic restaurant kitchen you’ll often see the specials written up somewhere like this–this is also why every kitchen should have a drawer or jar with a few Sharpies in it so you can just write stuff down.
4. The finished menu makes a sweet memento. I save all of mine in a folder and then look back at them the next year when I’m planning a menu for that same occasion. If I want to jigger my memory of what I made, what worked well, what should not be repeated, I just look at my cupboard menus.
And a special shout-out to this lemon tart I made for dessert. I am such flight-risk when it comes to baking (when things start crumbling/burning/deflating I just want to turn the oven off and runaway), but this lemon tart never fails me.
Thank goodness for no-fail desserts.
