Menu Planning Mojo

I just love menu planning! It truly thrills me. Anything from a plain old Tuesday night dinner to a holiday feast, it matters not to me; half of the fun is in the planning. As a little girl, I always loved it when my mom got that magical issue of Woman’s Day magazine with the month of meals calendar…odd reading material for a child, perhaps, but it’s something I love to this day.

I plan our dinner menus a week in advance in our house for just the two of us. And I am never happier than when I have a party, event or occasion that needs my menu planning mojo. In fact, we are in the throes of planning a 50th birthday party for a dear friend and, frankly, I am so excited and having so much fun with the menu, you would think it was my own birthday party. (Thanks for turning 50, Tam!)

It probably comes as no surprise that I have a sizable collection of cookbooks to turn to for inspiration. The internet is never more than a click away and I keep all of my tried & true recipes saved on my hard drive and on disk (just in case!) Of course, it’s always fun (and inspiring) to kick around menu ideas with my foodie buddies.

Fully immersed in recipes, I never get tired of contemplating what theme I should chose, what entrée works with what sides and exactly what the perfect dessert might be. I love the challenge of putting together just the right flavors, colors and textures to create a great meal. It’s always fun to serve the unexpected. When guests anticipate fancy holiday food, we’ll serve two big pots of chili. (Yes, two, I’m sure most of you are familiar with the raging beans vs. no beans debate. I myself live in house divided, he wants beans, I want it plain, so we do both.) We also love offering old favorites in new ways, burgers on the grill become pimiento cheese bacon burgers, a delicious twist on a classic.

Sometimes, we even send our guests away with a little something special for the next day. If a dinner party runs late (because everyone is having such a good time, no one wants to leave) it’s fun to send our friends home with homemade muffins for the next morning. At the end of a party last Valentine’s weekend, we sent everyone home with a glassine bag of Hershey’s kisses tied with a red ribbon. Coming up with these little, unexpected touches is all part of the menu planning fun me.

So, what about you? What happens when you summon your menu planning mojo? I would love to hear all about it!