PhillyBaby
Our Wedding
Blogs I Love
Menu: VIP Dinner
What’s that? A new menu?! Think you’re seeing things?
You’re not!
After quite a long hiatus from creating menus I’m back at it with a good one. PB and I invited a VIP over for dinner this weekend along with a few others, so I pulled out all of my favorite cookbooks and got to work. This menu should be manageable for someone as busy as I am (you don’t even want to see my schedule) while still impressing our VIP guest. At least, I hope it does since PB invited him with the words “so you can try my wife’s fantastic Jordanian cooking”.
Talk about pressure!
Anyway, here is the menu- special thanks to Ashley for helping me work through it a bit!
VIP Dinner
Appetizers
Hummus, labneh, halloumi cheese, olives, carrots, radishes, celery & peppers, pita
Cheese & crackers
Mixed nuts
Dinner
Leg of lamb with roasted potatoes
Stuffed veggie grape leaves
Roasted red, orange, yellow peppers
Salad with cucumber, tomato, feta, kalamata olives
Dessert
Strawberries & grapes
Baked dessert of some sort
Biscotti
Market List:
hummus (have)
labneh
halloumi cheese
more olives
celery
4 green peppers
pita
loaf of crunchy bread
6 lb leg of lamb
12 garlic cloves
fresh rosemary
4-5 lbs small potatoes
flat leaf parsley
red, orange, yellow peppers (8 total)
romaine lettuce
1 cucumber
strawberries
grapes
biscotti
Plan:
Wednesday: get house completely in order. MARKET. set table. cut appetizer veggies, make grape leave filling?
Thursday: pick up lamb, make stuffed grape leaves, roast peppers, make fruit salad
Friday: roast lamb, make salad, etc etc
Any menu that includes halloumi cheese makes me happy! It all sounds wonderful!
I’m sure everything will turn out great! your spreads always look so pretty! Strawberries and grapes in the dessert menu? I’m in!
I LOVE halloumi cheese mmmm. You have to go to audrey claire and get the seared halloumi w/candied dates and figs…best combo ever! Have fun with your dinner party 🙂
i’ve never had halloumi cheese, but by the sound of it i need to! it all sounds amazing and like it’s going to be a truly beautiful meal 🙂
This menu sounds fantastic! I really want to start having more fancy dinner parties.
Is labneh and Greek yogurt the same thing?
@Kelly, Somehow labneh is a bit more tangy, but they are very very similar.
Yum! Menu sounds delicious! Especially those appetizers!
I lived in Amman for six months and I HATE HALOUMI!!!!! haha, but other than that this looks delish!
@Katelyn, But I bet you loved the hummus and bread they have there. I dream of it all the time!
Sounds delicious! Although, I’d skip the mixed nuts (I always think of those as an after-dinner thing). I’d swap them out for Syrian pickled beets (leeft) or other pickled items for a sour tang to balance the richness of cheeses and hummus…but I am obsessed with all things pickled so maybe I’m a wee bit biased 🙂
@Anne @ YourKindofSalad, I’m going to nix the mixed nuts but not replace them with anything! Good call- they are sort of unnecessary for tonight’s dinner!
Ha! Yes, you have plenty of delicious food- you don’t want VIP to fill up on nuts when he’s got scrumptious feast to eat.
Good luck!