Meal Planning: Make-Ahead Celebratory Spring Menu

Spring Has Sprung in Northern California

Spring has definitely sprung in Northern California! The temperatures in the Bay Area have my kids barefoot and jumping in the chilly pool after school. In the non-food world, Spring to me means baseball season is in full swing, NBA playoffs are underway, it’s light outside until after dinner, and the windows and doors are open from morning till evening.

In the food world, Spring means local strawberries with fresh whipped cream, blueberries eaten straight out of hand, rhubarb for delicious fruit crumbles or simple syrup for a mixed drink, and spring onions, green garlic, and asparagus all popping up at the farmer’s market.

Celebrating with a Make-Ahead Spring Meal

Over the beautiful spring weekend, we celebrated our daughter’s Confirmation. Because we needed to keep the meal short and sweet in order to get to the church on time, I decided on an easy, make-ahead meal that satisfied adults and kids alike. It needed to be ready when guests arrived, not too messy since we were all in dresses and suits, and not too heavy as we were going to be sitting for the ceremony for nearly two hours.

The Perfect Spring Menu for a Special Occasion

The following menu was a hit:

Gougeres, Arugula Salad with Strawberries, Manchego Cheese, and Toasted Almonds, Baked Mac and Cheese with Panko Bread Crumbs, Slow-roasted Citrus Salmon and Carrot Cake

This menu brought together fresh seasonal ingredients while keeping things light and easy to prepare in advance, making it ideal for both the time constraints and the celebratory mood of the day. This menu would also make a wonderful Easter or Mother’s Day meal!

Gougeres

These tasty little French cheese puffs are so easy and an impressive start to the meal with a glass of champagne. They are a bit more impressive looking and seem to have more “puff” when they are piped from a pastry bag, but I can assure you that just scooping them with a small-sized ice cream scoop will work just fine- they taste the same!

Macaroni and Cheese

Any homemade recipe will do, but in cooking school, we made some pretty tasty versions- one of my favorites was with roasted poblano and scallion.  Whatever version or add-ins you include, be sure to: put the macaroni mixture in a buttered casserole dish and top with crunchy panko breadcrumbs that have been toasted in a pan with butter and garlic and then tossed with grated parmesan cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees till golden and bubbly.  *I made this for the kids but the adults didn’t mind a little pile next to their salad with salmon!

Slow Roasted Salmon

Alison Roman’s Slow Roasted Citrus Salmon with Herb Salad is the recipe I pretty much went off of.  However, I used a sheet pan, half the amount of olive oil, turned up the heat to 400 degrees for the last 5-7 minutes and skipped the herb salad on top.  I served it on top of an arugula salad with sliced strawberries, toasted almonds, shaved manchego cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. A perfect light Spring main dish.

Carrot Sheet Cake

There are dozens and dozens of really tasty carrot cake recipes out there.  Layered, chock-full of nuts, pineapple, raisins, etc, 3 layers, 5 layers- I love them all!  Since we had more kids than adults at our dinner celebration, I thought it best to have a simple single layer carrot cake with nothing else in the batter but warm spices and carrots and a nice thick layer of cream cheese frosting.  It was a hit with kids and adults alike and the best part- it’s SUPER simple to make!

My favorite single layer carrot cake comes from America’s Test Kitchen Complete Series Cookbook (pretty much my kitchen bible) and if you have access to this- be sure to try this recipe! I cannot easily share the recipe because it’s in a cookbook and even the digital version requires a paid membership (which I personally think is well worth the money, along with a subscription to NYT food app, but this one from Fine Cooking (my favorite cooking magazine) is pretty close if you leave out the nuts and currents!

Whatever your family celebrates- religiously, culturally or traditionally, I hope you enjoy this beautiful weekend and great food with your friends and family.

Cheers!

Christina