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“I’m Over Myself” Easter Menu

March 29, 2013 by arfoodie

Photo added after-the-fact of the green bean and caramelized onion dish at Easter brunch.

Photo added after-the-fact of the green bean and caramelized onion dish at Easter brunch.

Things have been really busy lately.

In addition to my part-time gig teaching Cooking Matters with DHS, I’ve done quite a bit of catering with a friend lately, among other smaller paying gigs. I’m also working full-tilt on the Food Blogger Bake Sale, and somehow I got involved in my 20th class reunion planning.

All that to say, this year’s Easter feast is NOT going to be fancy. At least by my standards.

As my catering friend said earlier this week, you get to a point you just have to get over yourself. He was referring to catering; we were preparing a pasta-and-salad lunch for a large, very high-profile group of people. For a smaller group, my friend might have made every single thing from scratch, on-site. But when things get crazy (or large-scale), you have to get over what you know you can do and just make something high-quality but simple. Anything more complicated and you’d be better off finding some lunch catering denver professionals instead.

I’m working most of today (Friday) and all day Saturday. Church all morning on Sunday. So, no time for an elaborate feast. I chose several items that could employ my favorite “Blanch, Shock and Awe” technique, which I did last night (Thursday) and parked in the fridge. I even bought (gasp) prepared ham, pre-baked rolls and packaged gluten-free cake mix. Ugh! That one still smarts.

There will still be plenty of handiwork tonight and Sunday afternoon to soak some love into the meal. But, as I discovered that Thanksgiving a while back, the most important part is where we all sit together as a family.

Ison Family Easter Menu

  • Half bone-in Honeybaked Ham
  • Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Almonds
  • Roasted Asparagus with Dry Salami
  • Crash Hot Potatoes
  • Store-Bought Dinner Rolls
  • Mom’s Sweet Potato Casserole (she’s bringing)
  • MIL’s Famous Banana Pudding (she’s bringing)
  • Gluten-Free Lemon Raspberry Cake

Last night, I blanched and shocked the green beans and asparagus, and I wrapped the asparagus with the salami. I boiled the potatoes and shocked them as well. All those are in the fridge, ready for final steps on Sunday.

The two recipes from other sources, the green beans and potatoes, I will probably personalize a bit with things on hand. We’ll see.

And the cake… I’ll bake tonight and see how it goes. Not sure when the frosting business is going to happen.

What are you making for Easter brunch/lunch/dinner?

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Filed Under: Menus Tagged With: brunch, Easter, easy, lunch, menu

Food Production 3 Final: The Lunch Service

July 25, 2011 by arfoodie

Today was our practical final in Food Production 3 at Pulaski Tech’s Arkansas Culinary School. For the first time, we served a dining room of guests, who chose items from our own menus. We worked in groups of three on a menu of two each of appetizers, entrees and desserts.

The dish I made for service — coffee- and pepper-crusted pork loin with red eye orange/maple gravy, rice pilaf, caramelized Brussels sprouts and a poached egg on toast.

Not having come from the restaurant industry, this was a unique opportunity to experience what it would be like. It was awesome.

Last week, our chef had us work individually to produce our best three-course meal, from which he would choose the best appetizers, main courses and desserts. We ended up making my Wide-Eyed Pork Loin today, using a full-size loin rather than the tenderloin I used in the home-cook recipe at the link. It worked out great!

I served it with a rice pilaf that included omelet-style ingredients (mushrooms, tomato and peppers) and caramelized balsamic Brussels sprouts, as well as a fantastic last-minute throwback to my original recipe: toast and a runny, poached egg. Yum!

Our group of three was one of several groups in the class offering a complete three-course service. My teammates also turned out an amazing set of goods: raspberry vinaigrette salad, fried cheese dip balls, candied bacon rice crispy treats, and a pineapple glazed poundcake. I didn’t get a chance to see much of the other groups’ goods (we were slammed!), but what I did see was beautiful and well executed.

On August 15, I’ll be back in classes again, this time for a semester of mostly 6-hour labs, plus one classroom class. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope to see some of you on campus, too!

My fall schedule:

  • Garde Manger
  • Food Production 4
  • Banquets and Catering
  • Restaurant Industry

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Filed Under: learning, PTC_ACS Tagged With: Arkansas Culinary School, coffee, egg, foodservice, loin, lunch, poached, pork, Pulaski Tech, Pulaski Technical College, restaurant, service, tenderloin

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