Tuesday, January 21, 2014

aden's fourth birthday party | a birthday party cooking guide

Our son turned 4 and we threw a small party at home for him so he could have his little friends over to play. For the last three parties we threw for him, I had ordered food from catering companies but because I got a little tired of the same-old catered food, I decided to cook all the food for the party this time. After all, we had about 20-ish adult guests and about 10 little ones in all. I figured that it couldn't be that hard, right?

In the end, after quite a bit of thought, this was what I cooked.


It looks daunting, but really, all it took was a bit of organisation.

Here's how I did it.

Since the party fell on a Saturday, I had quite a few days to get things going.

On Wednesday, I cooked the Chicken Masala. Since curries freeze well, and always taste better after they have been given time to allow the flavours to mix, this was the ideal dish to cook ahead and store in the freezer.


On Thursday, I made the Fried Rice with luncheon meat, french beans, char siew, corn and eggs. Fried rice keeps really well too, so it made sense to make it ahead of time, and freeze! Before serving, I scattered some home-made fried shallots over the rice. This is a great dish because kids love fried rice!


The chicken wings were marinated on Thursday evening, then on Friday, I baked them in the oven until they were cooked through. They were then stored in the fridge and on Saturday afternoon, the LAM gave them a quick grill on the bbq so they had nice grill marks.


On Friday, I also cooked the pasta using this recipe, but replacing the spaghetti with rigiatoni. The pasta was assembled, then placed in the fridge until Saturday when all I had to do was to place the dish in the oven for about 30 minutes until everything was heated up and the top had turned golden brown.


Also on Friday, the broccoli, cauliflower and french beans were cut into pieces and stored in the fridge. I also rubbed the spices into the pork. In addition, the chicken masala and fried rice were transferred to the fridge to thaw.

On Friday evening, I placed the pork in the slow cooker and cooked it over-night. The result was melt-in-your-mouth pulled pork.


The pulled pork was served with caramelised onions, cooked on Saturday itself, and buns (which I bought off the shelves).


On Saturday, I cooked both vegetable dishes before everything was placed in serving dishes or food warmers, and assembled.



And that was it!

So the next time you throw a party, try cooking up a storm. It isn't as daunting as you may think it is, and home-cooked food (as far as I am concerned) is always tastier and healthier!


Happy Birthday, not-so-little Aden! :)


No comments:

Post a Comment