We’ve been getting ready for the holiday season for a good while now and while I’m not a menu planner when it comes to our daily meals… I LOVE LOVE LOVE menu planning for parties and gatherings! Don’t you? It’s so fun and I gather ideas from all over and pin them to a board so that I have everything in place visually.

Disclosure: I am part of the Patak’s Canada Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog as always are totally mine!

We also have lots of friends and family pop by bearing gifts and sweets and one thing I find helpful is having a stock of pre-made nibbles in our freezer. South Asian meat dishes absorb flavour the longer the spices are mixed in which means that the first week in December I make a batch of mini curry burgers and kebabs and pack them in small batches which I can easily toss into the oven (straight from the freezer) or grill at the ring of the condo buzzer! I took inspiration from the Patak’s Madras and Lime Ribs for a delicious beef recipe that was freezer perfect (scroll to the bottom for the recipe)!! If you have a dehydrator try your hand at making some beef jerky using Pataks curry pastes… soooo good!! Ofcourse having a well stocked liquor cabinet is always a crowd pleaser as well.

For our Christmas lunch tomorrow we are planning for a traditional Newfoundland boiled dinner. The inspiration came from my mother in love who made me my first boiled dinner three Christmas’ ago. Since we just did Turkey for Thanksgiving I thought it would be fun to introduce my parents and brother to an East Coast meal. Don’t worry…we have our hot sauce and Chutney on hand to complement the boiled veggies and salt meat. It’s a balance of the brown meets white with us 😉

The most fun I’m currently having is with our New Year’s Eve Party menu…check out the Pinterest board here to see what I have in the works! Lots of finger nibbles and drinks to accompany a send off to 2013 with our friends and family.

Freezer Perfect Beef Slices

In large bowl mix together five tablespoons of Patak’s Curry Paste, two chopped garlic cloves, a teaspoon of ginger paste, two tablespoons of soy sauce, a drizzle of honey, juice of two limes, chilli powder, salt and pepper. It should be fairly liquidy so you can easily pour it into a ziplock bag and toss in some beef slices (you can thinly slice grilling steaks or buy the pre cut slivers). Voila.. shake it well so the meat is well coated and toss in the freezer for when you want to cook it!