I certainly wasn’t planning on getting sick a few days before I had an event coming up. But alas, life doesn’t always do what we want it to do. Tomorrow I have a big group coming over for a barbecue lunch/pool party. They’re family, but we haven’t seen them for a while. Some are back from overseas, others are leaving for overseas. Some just had birthdays. Just some recently gave birth. Some are children. Some are toddlers. Some are infants.
I had an important decision to make. Go for the full monty and do everything myself, which means eventual exhaustion or take some shortcuts. I opted for the later. That means – PLASTIC PLATES! I’ve rarely gone this route – but times have changed and I’m getting smarter. Do I really need to be doing clean-up duty for three days following? Do I really want to deal with dishes, bowls, platters, etc. to serve over 20 souls? I DON’T THINK SO!
That’s not the only short cut I took! There’s more!
I really wanted to make tiramisu. Its such a favorite and I wanted to treat this crowd. But my tiramisu recipe takes over an hour to make – not what I was dreaming of doing when I have a runny nose, achy body and cranky mood. I figured there has to be a good substitute – I was determined to find one. So I took all kinds of short cuts with the recipe and I’ll know tomorrow how it came out. If its a success, you’ll get the recipe. If not, you never read this.
As for the real food, I figured out another trick. Have you ever made roasted red peppers? Well, they’re marvelous except that its a real mess making them. Roasting in the oven, steaming in a bag in the sink, cleaning, cutting, peeling, burning your hands in the process…. Don’t ask! But I really love marinated red peppers, and they go so well with a BBQ. What’s a girl to do?
Shortcut #2 – buy them ready-made! A recent discovery at my favorite supermarket – jars of roasted red peppers. Okay, so maybe they’re not as excellent as if I had made them myself, but they’re damn close enough! Slice them into strips, combine with olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic and chopped parsley and we have liftoff!
Next posting will be post barbecue – I’ll let you know!
So those red peppers we had over lunch that were from the left overs were from a jar?!
I feel so violated and disenchanted! what next Ms Kleinberg…Santa isn’t real?!
What shortcuts did you make for the tiramisu?
great story….waiting to hear about the titamisu……
Ali! You’re my very first comment on this blog – so happy its you! The tiramisu wasn’t bad at all – but your sister’s brownies were a bigger hit. I’ll write up the recipe and post it – so easy!