Friday, June 12, 2009

lots of planning

With the housewarming party fast approaching, there is lots of planning to do.  As you know I’m a huge list writer and I really like the program called OneNote.  I also use it for all my classes.  I swear I’d be lost if I didn’t have my plan of action!  Most of the time this way of thinking is beneficial for me and helps me really get things done, but a lot of the time it is most certainly my downfall.  If something doesn’t quite go as planned, I get cranky and all discombobulated.  Well, let the planning begin . . . Let me know what you think or if you have any tried and true crowd pleasers.  If everyone attends there should be around 30 people . . . eek!  But, it should probably be more around 20-25.  More pictures to come as the food is prepped!

Menu Ideas so far . . . I may have to narrow some down

~Starters~

~Main~

  • Artichoke heart, sun-dried tomato and olive pasta salad with lemon vinaigrette
  • Panzanella salad
  • Mini Veggie Calzones with marinara dipping sauce
  • Asian BBQ chicken thighs

~Dessert~

  • Chocolate fountain with strawberries, pretzels, marshmallows and brownie bites for dipping

~Grown-up Drinks~

Wow, I have lots of things to do before all this is golden.  We even have more house stuff to do too . . . eek!  Here’s my plan of attack so far . . .

This weekend:

  • Clean up yard somewhat, Extra outside chairs,Touch-up paint, Baseboards, Thresholds? and Hang pictures

Mon-Wednesday

  • Buy Wine/Alcohol at Lee's
  • Buy Platters/serving stuff at HomeGoods (so cheap!)
  • Make brownie bites/freeze

Thursday

  • Grocery Shopping
  • Prep Salad/bruschetta ingredients

Friday

  • Assemble Pasta salad/Panzanella salad
  • Marinate chicken
  • Roast Veggies for calzones
  • Make calzone dough
  • Clean upstairs

Saturday

  • Buster Walk/Bath
  • Clean downstairs
  • Assemble Platters
  • Make citrus punch
  • Make calzones
  • Grill Chicken

PARTY! – 6pm

For lunch the other day I had something that I haven’t had in a long time . . . tempeh!  I marinated a few strips of it in Hoisin, lime juice, and sesame oil for about 5 minutes.  Then I grilled it on the grill pan, and placed in on some sandwich bread with mozzarella, spinach and avocado and pressed it into a panini.  I also had greek yogurt on the side for dipping.  It was delish and very filling!

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100_2956 Buster has this weird thing and likes to smell shoes when you take them off!  We took Buster to the dog park for the first time and he had a blast!  He loves being around all the other dogs and people.  All the dogs were barking at him and smelling his butt, but he didn’t mind at all!  Isn’t that amazing that dogs smell each other’s butts to meet and find out about each other?  He was romping through the grass like a gazelle and loved all the new smells.  We are definitely going to make this a continued occurrence in the future.  He was so tuckered from all the excitement, but he still had us up at 4:15 am wanting to get up.  He is such a new dog once he got his poor ears and teeth fixed up.  He had a really bad ear infection the week after we got him, one of the worst the vet has seen.  Now, he’s been on antibiotics and two kinds of ear rinses and he’s feeling much more chipper and is quite the character.

Here’s Buster’s new friend Louie.  He’s my friend’s dog and is quite the ham!

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Here’s the happy papa and Buster . . .

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Hope you all have a wonderful, productive weekend!  Let me know on any of your recipe ideas :)

15 comments:

Gina; The Candid RD said...

Love your dogs!! And the one likes to sniff shoes? That's hilarious..he/she wouldn't want to sniff mine, Nick makes fun of me because my new sandals make my feet stinkkkk. The tempeh looks great. I should try tempeh again. I had a disaster with it not too long ago and I haven't tried it since, yours looks devine!

Astra Libris said...

Buster is SO adorable!! I love the photos! :-)

Your menu sounds absolutely amazing - I am so impressed by your lists and your gorgeous menu-planning! Looking forward to seeing photos of the beautiful dishes!

Mmmm, your tempeh panini looks like panini heaven, too... :-)

Sprouted Kitchen said...

Hugh Forte, my love muffin of a boyfriend is the photgrapher, he uses a Canon 5D... it's fancy, thats all i know. I'm sure he'd love to talk to you about them if youre interested. All i know is you should start saving yesterday.

curlytop said...

Kristen,

Hi! I found your blog through The Health Nut and just wanted to introduce myself before commenting because my mother instilled a very strict attention to proper etiquitte at a very young age. I’m Emily. :D

Now that I’ve satisfied my inner Emily Post I just have to say that Pbu would be great to go along with the chocolate for dipping. Who can say no to 30 calorie peanut butter?

BTW-You are an excellent source of inspiration! Do you mind if I follow you?

It was so nice to have “met” you! :D

With Love,
Emily

Michelle said...

Our cats love shoes too. One of them will spend 10 minutes opening the closet door when it's shut, just to go in and sit with the shoes and rub his head on my husband's black dress shoes. It's so cute :-)

the twins said...

mmm, that bruschetta sounds great, definitely keep that on the menu. and your dog is adorable with the shoes :)

Sweta (My Indian Dietitian) said...

Wow-looks like your gonna have a busy week!! Love your menu planning :)

Gina; The Candid RD said...

Thankfully the bar was open, indeed :) However, three drinks into the night I was still feeling fine, I believe the vodka was completely diluted, ugh. No great beer selections (beer is my thing) and the wine was boxed!

I feel bad saying bad things about the wedding, but I am learning for my own.

Thinspired said...

I recently discovered One Note and totally love it! I've tried so many list-making programs but I really think this is the best!
The menu looks great...especially the fancy cocktials :)

Emily said...

Sounds like a good plan for your open house! Lots of delish foods planned. Hope everything goes well..you'll have to give us a full recap.

I haven't tried tempeh yet, but your prep looks really good.

Anonymous said...

Buster is adorable!

sounds like a hectic few days, but the menu sounds amazing!

I haven't tried tempeh yet but want to- your recipe looks delicious :)

Shannon - www.thedailybalance.com said...

your menu looks awesome! can't wait to see the result!

Love that lil Buster!!!

Anonymous said...

wow, you've got quite a busy week ahead of you! Good luck!
the fig compote and goat cheese bruschetta sounds amazing. If you have any leftovers....

Oh She Glows said...

Wow you are SO organized!

I just came across your blog and I am HOOKED already...lol. Congrats on becoming a RD!!! Such a huge accomplishment!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Busy week ahead. You are already full of great ideas- I don't think there's anything to add! Good luck!