Over the weekend a friend from childhood and
his wife, who has also become a good friend,
and their little girl came to our house for
dinner. When we have guests I like to pick a
theme and cook to it. I usually learn something
new and enjoy going all out and making an
impressive meal. I like to cook fancy but don't
often get the chance and I admit I have a
tendancy to over do it. I decided that this time I
was going to aim for some make-ahead type
dishes so that I could spend more time visiting
with friends that I haven't seen in a couple of
months.
I've been wanting to make
Pani Popo ever since
Avon recommended it to me on my coconut
blog so I chose to do Hawaiian food as an
excuse to make it. I did a little bit of checking
around and finally went with a flexible Lua
appetizer mostly because I love grilled
pineapple and I knew that my kids would like
virgin ones for the kids. I chose to make
would make a great main dish that I could just
throw in the slow cooker leaving me free to put
more effort into other things. I already
knew we were having Pani Popo, which I also
made ahead and just tossed in the oven for a few
minutes so that we could eat it warm. We ate
the delicious smokey shredded pork on the
buns. For side dishes I went with
Hawaiian but I did say my theme was flexible, a
very simple Macarroni salad, Tossed greens
with mangoes and strawberries on top, and a
parfait based on this recipe for
heard of haupia but it came up on a recipe
search and since I have lots of coconut milk
kicking around it was the perfect new recipe to
try.
We had a wonderful time with our guests and
since there was nothing for me to stand over and
watch once the kabobs were cooked I was able
to sit and enjoy their company. Because it
snowed about 6-8 inches the day before the
Hawaiian food was a much needed taste of
summer. A delicious reminder that even though
it was miserable outside summer IS on it's way
(right???).
While we were visiting after dinner we came up
with an idea to create a sort of "Dinner Pary
Club". Everyone who wanted to participate
would come up with a theme and one would be
drawn from a hat. Then one person would
volunteer to host and everyone would draw
what course to bring from another hat.
Depending on the number of people two dishes
may have to be drawn. It is very likely that
we'll put this idea into practice later this year.
It will take time to find a group of people
interested in doing it and organizing it around
all of our busy schedules.
Does anyone else like to cook to a theme?
