My sister came to visit my nearby MIL for a week and a half because my MIL is recently widowed (sister and MIL became friends way back at my wedding to my wife). Because my sister didn’t want to feel like she was making my MIL work, she voluntold me to make the dinners while she visited. (This is not as bossy as it sounds as she already knew we’d been inviting MIL over every night for dinner because she’s not felt much like cooking). Sister is GF for some 15 years now but eats everything else so she’s an easy guest to me, considering my GF/veggie/no-dairy now college-aged daughter for whom I’ve been cooking for for years.
Number of diners was either 5 or 6, depending on whether my newly graduated and just started working daughter came down. Her new job is less than 2 hours away so she was here Sun night and plans to be back this coming Fri-Sat at least.
Here’s the plan (we’re almost half-way through at this point).
- Sun – Baby Back Ribs, Roasted Veg (broc/mush/caul/Brussels) & Small Taters
- Mon – Pizza, Green Salad (for Sis, using KA’s GF Pizza Flour - it’s really good if you haven’t tried it but a bit tricky to get it to turn out right. And Charlie (Chain Baker) biga pizza dough for the rest of us which is also stupendously great). Sautéed mushrooms and onions, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, mozz and sloppy mozz (fresh/wet), pepperoni, pesto islands, anchovy toppings. White and red sauces.
- Tue – Gyros! Gyros! Gyros! (home-made everything from meat to tzatziki sauce (well… I didn’t ferment the yogurt this time…) and homemade pita bread loaves, with Sister’s pitas being from KA’s GF Bread Flour, which turns out well as long as you mind the admonition on the package to increase the hydration level a bit more than you’d normally think).
- Wed – Bible Study Group, Dinner at group’s choice which turned out to be standard Americana fare (we both had the NY Strip Steak Iceberg wedge salad)
- Thu – Mediterranean Style Yogurt/Herbed Marinated Pork & Veggie Skewers.
- Fri – Chicken Dum Biryani (Basmati rice, chicken, veggies dish).
- Sat - “BBQ” Shrimp plus rice & random veg (some explanation - a neighbor gave me some “River Road New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp” bake packets. It’s not really barbecue but he swears it’s killer good so I’m going to give it a whirl).
- Sun - Tacos with (separately) Shredded Chicken & Shrimp as proteins, plus usual fixings.
- Mon - Chicken Wings both herbed (Mrs. Dash & salt) and ~ Buffalo style, with a Cuke/Tom/Cottage cheese Salad, Green Salad, and of course celery and lots of blue cheese/dressing.
- Tues - Lunch before running her back to airport will be roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches.
Wednesday, I start getting fat on any leftovers I wasn’t able to foist off on my MIL and Sister during the period above.
P.S. I should add that I almost never plan more than one day in advance, and actually most often don’t decide what dinner will be until 3 p.m. or later, then run out to the store and get the necessaries. The few exceptions being a long-ferment dough like biga pizza dough, or a longer required marinating time like the yogurt marinade for the pork skewers mentioned above. Where I stretch myself to decide a day in advance.
But the few times I do need to plan in advance, this board is a huge resource.
