Making Holiday Entertaining Easy

At my house, we’re already into the swing of holiday entertaining, or at least booking dates so we can spend time with friends and family sharing a meal over the holidays.    When our kids were younger, entertaining   was often a family event.  I don’t know what it’s like in your part of the country, but here in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, baby sitters are hard to find.  So we often planned stay at home events where we enjoyed some adult time with friends, while their kids and our kids got to hang out and stay up well past their bedtime.

The trick to the evening would be finding a meal that was delicious, easy to prepare and sure to please the palates of the adults and the kids.  That’s why I love Mediterranean Pasta Bake.  It’s a big one dish meal.  If you want to – you can make it ahead and reheat in the oven.  It has the ease of lasagna for larger group entertaining, but the flavours in this dish mix it up a bit.   Small amounts of pesto and feta cheese really punch up the flavour.  Best of all the kids always loved it.

The recipe makes an 8 inch casserole, but you can easily double it to make a 9 by 13 pan (or quadruple it!).  I love this kind of dish for entertaining with a crowd.  You get to spend more time with your guests instead of running back and forth to the kitchen.  Add a great salad, some fresh bread (and of course a good wine!) and you’re all set.

My kids are teenagers now and often aren’t part of our entertaining evenings, but this recipe is still part of my entertaining repertoire.  Give it a shot.  I bet you’ll love it.  What are your crowd pleasing recipes?

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Post by Janet Bryson, Communications Manager with Canada Beef Inc.

Janet has been working with Canada Beef Inc (formerly Beef Information Centre)for 10 years and loves discovering delicious new ways to prepare Canadian beef.  It’s a good thing too, since she lives happily in “man world” with her hubby  Steve and sons Ryan, 18 and Ben, 14, where there isn’t a great meal, unless it includes beef (and perhaps an energy drink. :))