Birthday Party-Lunch menu

It is a Birthday Party Menu this time. There is nothing like hosting and seeing all your friends together in the same place. Birthday parties are a great boast to any child's self esteem. Making them feel like Queen (or king) for the day is one of the best gift you can give them. As a parent I did the best to my children, and now it is nice to once again recall the memories when my grandchild's Birthday was celebrated.

I saw my daughter doing it all to her child and this year I  could participate in the celebration during my visit to US and help her in preparing the food for the guests. It was done with adequate planning, with guests list and few things to do. When deciding what to serve, we saw that we stick to simple dishes that don't necessitate too much last minute work, to avoid getting tired or stressed.

The menu was Indian vegetarian. In terms of finding recipes there was no shortage of food blogs and sites, so thought of centering the menu around a common theme and go with the ones that's tried and true. Our all time favourite was Gujarathi menu. Happy to mention here that we got most of them from one blog "spiceup the curry". 

To make it a full party(lunch) menu (apart from Birthday cake), planned to prepare a Welcome drink, two starters, Rotis (store bought)with two side dishes, kichidi and one kids friendly comfort food (south Indian) curd rice. And finally a dessert "Srikant".

The food related preparation work was spread over and we made most of them ahead of time and made the balance on the day of the party.

Thandi Thandai for welcome drink, Black chena chaat and Dabeli as starters,

Rotis with Panchratan Dal and Beingan palak curry, Kichidi and Curd rice. Shrikhand in canapes for desert.

We prepared Dabeli once again and this time made bite size pieces. (posted earlier in the F/B page).

Followed http://www.cookingandme.com/blog/2011/07/21/dal-panchratan-pancharatni-dal-curry/ for Dal.

Followed  http://www.korasoi.com/blog/2014/09/melt-in-the-mouth-burnt-aubergine-and-spinach-curry for beingan palak curry.

Followed http://www.spiceupthecurry.com/masala-khichdi-recipe/  for Kichidi but used green peas in addtion to onion.

Prepared curd rice taking tips from few sites to make it stay in right consistency and not become sour in taste.

        

https://www.tarladalal.com/Thandi-Thandai-38037r

Thandi thandai

http://www.spiceupthecurry.com/kala-chana-chaat-recipe/

Black Chena Chaat

http://www.spiceupthecurry.com/shrikhand-recipe/

Shrikhand
Shrikhand served in Canapes for kids

Posting this in my blogspot was not planned, so could not click pictures of each dish and also stepwise preparation pictures. I thought I should share my experience with the available pictures and I am grateful to the bloggers and the authors who inspired and made our job easy to host the party to nearly 35 people. It was a new experience for me preparing most of the dishes at home and witness them being tasted my guests in an open garden area. Many of you would have had this experience back home preparing for kittyparties and such events. Home made food is most welcomed in this place specially when it comes to our Desi food.