Many Reasons to Party

Top row:
Date n Chocolate Cake with Fig Sauce, Corn and Cauliflower stir fry, Whole Wheat Mint Bhature

Middle row:
Mint coriander chutney, Boondi Raita, Mix Bean curry, Vangi bhat

Front row:
Tomato chutney, Cucumber salad, Khaman Dhokla, Corn pops

Hello everyone!

I'm back here after a short trip to Chennai and it was my first more about that later.....

This post is about the spread that you see above from the recent party at home. There were many reasons. We love to catch up with friends and their families. My friends Alok & Varsha are expecting a baby so to congratulate them! Soon Anand and Asawari are moving back to Helsinki. Alok will be traveling to the US for 2 months and so we will miss him. Their families were visiting and my treat was pending for a while now. So it had to be a party quite different from our usual eating together and cooking together ones.

The menu was a secret! Normally we decide together on the menu and cook together or have potluck but this time I had a hard time holding back the surprise. Alok and Anand's Mom called couple of time to ask if she could help me out with the chapatis. I told her I am not making chapatis. So everyone got the feeling they will be eating just rice. You know how we maharashtrians like our food balanced. Asawari and Varsha too tried guessing. The game went on till they came home. I had spread out the buffet and loved the expression on everyone's faces.

Planning well ahead of time is a good mantra to follow. I chose a Saturday evening so we could have fun and still rest the whole of Sunday. I cooked every dish myself that's how I wanted it to be with a little help from Dad. Here is the stepwise approach I adapted for this successful party when I had enough time to get myself dressed and enjoy too.

1. Friday evening I bought all the supplies as per the planned menu .
2. I had the whole Saturday morning to prepare for the planned late afternoon cooking as my my deadline was 7.00 pm. No going into to kitchen after that I had decided.
3. In the morning I made the Date n Chocolate Cake with Fig Sauce with that the dessert was a breeze.
4. Next got all veggies and beans boiled.
5. The masala/ chutneys were ground and saved.
6. For Khaman Dhokla I used my favorite Talod and kept aside.
7. Grated the coconut and kept the garnish ready
8. Corn Pops dough mixed and shaped just required frying at the last min.
9. The Whole Wheat Mint Bhature dough was kneaded in the afternoon itself and all that was to be done was to be shaped and fried just before starting. Alok's Mom and me did it just in time.
10. At 5.00 pm all the preparation helped to get all the seasoning done and the veggies now were complete dishes.
11. Fried the Corn Pops and the tray went into the oven to stay warm.
12. By 6.00 pm I was done cooking and table was almost set with even the salad cut and in its place.
13. The welcome juice was ready in the jar and well placed.
14. Last I took a nice warm bath and got dressed for the evening with a nice perfume and my best smile to welcome home my friends.

Needless to say I was able to pay attention to my friends and enjoy the party myself too just with a little effort on planning. All of us chattered away till almost 10 pm. It was a pleasure and I was satisfied with the day's events with all the laughter that rang in my home. It is definitely one party I will have warm memories about.

Take a closer look. Will post the individual dishes soon. There are some blog buddies to be thanked for some inspiration!