Lots of pre-planning!
Traca, I have been cooking Austrian food for decades, so I know these recipes backwards and forwards.
One Week Before
My schedule started on the weekend before with working out the menu, beginning shopping, checking pantry for staples and gathering ingredients, stocking bar, polishing silver, washing china, ironing napkins. I accomplished a lot of planning and prep work the weekend before in a calm manner.
Wednesday
But Austrian wines.
Thursday
Begin stock. Shop for last minute items. Bake cake layers.
Set table and service dishes on buffet
Friday (vacation day)
Strain and clarify consomme. Make Frittaten omelettes, slice, and store. Make red cabbage, refrigerate. Poach spiced pears (leftover cranberry relish will be used to stuff them). Cook potatoes for dumplings. Make individual salads and store in separate containers for plating. Make dinner rolls.
Saturday (day of)
Thank the kitchen gods for giving me a below freezing day. Now, my entire garage is a walk in refrigerator just off the kitchen!!!!
Assemble cake (Tim's job), store in garage.
Set up assembly line for canapes, assemble, decorate, coat in aspic, set on trays and put in garage.
Beef into a slow oven to roast for 5 hours.
Make knödel dough and form into dumplings. Put in the garage.
Plate salads, put on trays in the garage.
Scoop raspberry ice into ruby sherbet coupes. Place in covered container and bury in a snow drift out the back door. Purchased from Graeter's. They make it better than I would anyway.
Make sauce for dumplings and roast beef from consomme.
Set out red cabbage to warm.
Place green beans in pot to turn on and cook during salad.
Set out pot of water on simmer to cook dumplings.
Remove roast beef from oven, slice, cover with consomme, cover pan with foil, place in warming oven.
Wrap rolls in foil and put in warming oven.
Stuff pears with cranberry relish. Place on tray in garage.
Set out cheeses and crackers.
Fill table water glasses and water pitcher on buffet. Put butter on bread plates. Open red wines.
Tidy kitchen. Run and empty dishwasher.
At this point. Everything is done and it is two hours before company arrives.
Shower, lay down, have a cocktail and wait for the guests.
Everything was done and all I had to do was grab trays from the garage, or turn pots on to finish heating before the next course.
I take breaks between each course. Guests get up and stretch, refill drinks, etc. while the plates are cleared, rinsed and put into the dishwasher for holding/safe keeping (and later removed for washing since I don't run the crystal and china through the dishwasher). The next course is ready and waiting to be set out, or in the case of the main course, the pre-made dumplings were plopped into the simmering water and cooked while the other hot foods were plated.
I actually got to enjoy this party!!!
