BBQ Menus ideas

Here are some great barbeque menu ideas to ease the stress levels when it comes to planning those all important special occasions in the family calendar.

Life is stressful enough without having to worry about how to make your holiday events go smoothly and enjoyably for all the family. What makes it difficult is first of all the fact that it is a once in a year holiday and usually you are cooking for more than your usual immediate family.

The menu ideas on these pages are specially designed not only to ensure that you have something “different” to cook but also courses that eat well together and cook well, so relieving you of some of the stress. Don’t forget that in addition to the menus you can also supplement with a salad and some dips. In fact dips are a great way to give your guests something to munch on just before the meal, in this way, should anything have gone mildly wrong with your timings then the day is not in jeopardy.

One final point, if you’re planning to use a charcoal barbeque, do give yourself enough time to get the coals to the right state. Trying to grill on a barbie where there are still flames and not enough heat is a sure fire way to set your day off to a bad start and worst of all, you stand a good chance of poisoning your guests!

General Party Recommendations

My number one recommendation is give yourself plenty of time to plan your menu and once you've decided which barbeque menu ideas you want to go with, make sure you read them through.

There's nothing worse than buying all the ingredients, starting to prepare the morning of your event and then reading "marinade for 24 hours".

Note:- Just ahead of the ingredients list on all my recipes you'll find the timings so read these and then you won't get let down.

As you read through the method statement of any recipe you'll see that you generally assemble the ingredients into a series of sub assemblies with the final assembly being the plating up of the food. Read the method statement critically and see how you can get the majority of the way through the recipe and then put everything on hold.

That way you can cook everything fresh for your guests with the majority of work having been done in advance...that's how they do it in restaurants.

Wash up and tidy as you go, that way it becomes less of a chore. I also find it good to make sure that when all the washing up has been done that the drainer and dishwasher are empty before everyone arrives, that way you have an easy process for dealing with all the dirty plates leaving you free to enjoy time with your guests.