Need a little help with the menu--details below?

Question

My 35th b-day is Friday and I want a fantabulous menu to celebrate the occasion. Does anyone have any ideas? Please keep in mind that fantabulous doesn't have to mean expensive. Thank you in advance

and please, if it is no trouble, think of a nice wine or other kinds of spirits to go along with the meal

Answer 1

I have made all of these recipes - and they are wonderful!!!!!

Menu:
Roast Beef
Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Green Beans
Tiramisu


Roast beef made this way is easy, relatively inexpensive, and
you get great leftovers for roast beef sandwiches.

3 to 3 1/2 lbs of Boneless Rump Roast (pick a end cut with a lot of fat marbling)
Olive oil
8 slivers of garlic
Salt and pepper

You will need a meat thermometer

For the gravy:
Red wine, water, and or beef stock
corn starch

Start with the roast at room temperature (remove from refrigerator 1-2 hours before cooking - keep it wrapped). Preheat the oven to 375°F.

With a sharp knife make 8 small incisions around the roast. Place a sliver of garlic into each incision. Take a tablespoon or so of olive oil and spread all around the roast. Sprinkle around the roast with salt and pepper. Place the roast directly on an oven rack, fatty side up, with a drip pan on a rack beneath the roasting rack. This arrangement creates convection in the oven so that you do not need to turn the roast. The roast is placed fat side up so that as the fat melts it will bathe the entire roast in its juices.

Brown the roast at 375°F for half an hour. Lower the heat to 225°F. The roast should take somewhere from 2 to 3 hours additionally to cook. When the roast just starts to drip its juices and it is brown on the outside, check the temperature with a meat thermometer. Pull the roast from the oven when the inside temperature of the roast is 135° to 140°F. Let the roast sit for at least 15 minutes before carving to serve.

To make the gravy:
Remove the dripping pan from the oven and place on the stove top at medium heat. Note that if you are pulling the roast out early, for rare or a medium rare level of doneness, you may not have a lot of drippings. Hopefully you will have some. If not, you may want to leave the roast in a little longer at even lower heat, 175°F, to ease some more drippings out of it. Add some water, red wine, or beef stock to the drippings to deglaze (loosen the drippings from the pan). Dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in a little water and add to the drip pan. Stir quickly while the gravy thickens to avoid lumping. You can add a little butter if there is not a lot of fat in the drippings. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mom adds some fresh thyme too if she has some.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000457roast_beef.php

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Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes

"You can make these ahead several days and store in the fridge. If baking cold, let stand 30 minutes first."

Original recipe yield: 12 servings.


INGREDIENTS:

* 5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed
* 2 (3 ounce) packages cream cheese
* 8 ounces sour cream
* 1/2 cup milk
* 2 teaspoons onion salt
* ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Place potatoes in a large pot of lightly salted water. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, and mash.
3. In a large bowl, mix mashed potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, milk, onion salt, and pepper. Transfer to a large casserole dish.
4. Cover, and bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven.

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Roasted Green beans
* 2 lbs. fresh greens beans
* 1 onion, minced
* 2 Tbsp. olive oil
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1/8 tsp. pepper

PREPARATION:
Brush a roasting pan with olive oil. Rinse the green beans and cut off a bit at each end. Place the beans in the prepared pan. Scatter with the onions and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

You can make the recipe ahead of time at this point and refrigerate, covered, up to 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roast the green beans, uncovered, for about 30 minutes, stirring once during cooking time, until the beans are crisp tender and slightly browned on the edges. Serve at once or let cool to room temperature before serving. Serves 8-10
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PHILADELPHIA Fabulous Tiramisu

Recipe Rating:
Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 4 hr 15 min
Makes: 12 servings


Nutrition Information
Kraft Kitchens Tips
Ratings and comments
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2 pkg. (3 oz. each) ladyfingers, split, divided
2 Tbsp. MAXWELL HOUSE Instant Coffee
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup boiling water
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. almond-flavored liqueur or brandy
2 cups thawed COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping
1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

ARRANGE 1 pkg. of the ladyfingers on bottom of 13x9-inch dish. Dissolve instant coffee and 1 Tbsp. sugar in boiling water. Brush 1/2 cup of the coffee mixture over ladyfingers in dish.
BEAT cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add 1/2 cup sugar and liqueur, mixing until blended. Gently stir in whipped topping.
SPREAD one half of the cream cheese mixture over ladyfingers. Top with remaining ladyfingers; brush with remaining coffee. Spoon remaining cream cheese mixture over ladyfingers. Dust with cocoa. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=recipe&m=recipe/knet_recipe_display&u1=keyword&u2=tiramisu&u3=**10*17&wf=9&recipe_id=56238

Answer 2

A nice standing rib roast with boiled & parsely buttered red potatoes, and a vegatable meledy, service with a Merlot wine. Or shrimp scampi with fettucini noodles and fresh broccoli , cauliflower and carrots served with a blush wine. Or barbuque (on the grill) turkey breast with baked potatoes cubed with butter parlsey and parmesan cheese with fresh aspargus and served with a chilled Chardonay. Hope this helps. Happy B-day

Answer 3

Theme parties are easiest, IMO, and help you narrow down the menu easily. So pick something you like: Hawaiian, Mexican, Asian, Caribbean, German... whatever.

Let's say Mexican. So decorate in Red, Green, and white. Serve a buffet of a Taco Bar: Taco Shells, and/or Corn Chips, and/or Corn Taco Salad Bowls, seasoned ground beef, fajita chicken meat, melted cheese, sour cream, green onions, black olives, diced tomatoes or picante sauce, jalapenos, shredded cheese... for dessert: Flan and Mexican Wedding Cookies (& borthday cake?). Drinks: Margaritas and Corona Beer w/ Lime Wedges. Appetizers: Frozen "Southwestern Egg Rolls" from Sams/Costco; 7-Layer Mexican Dip/corn chips.

See? Pick a theme, and it sorta plans itself! :-)

HAVE FUN & HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Answer 4

you can serve chicken meat rolls and crab cakes with curry sauce... quite unique. easy to prepare and cheap ingredients...serve also some appetizers like shrimp and mango cocktail, salad for dessert like apple slaw or chunky blue cheese dip and wasabe mayo dip for the vegetarians.. and sweeten up with your very own banana chocolate chips squares... check this site.. they have the recipes.. http://recipescorner.blogspot.com/