Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Grazing - The New Trend

Homeowners are becoming more house-proud these days, such that they are now increasingly lashing out on well-designed residences. It's no wonder then that entertaining at home @ Grazing, is becoming quite the new trend.

With elegant living rooms opening up to airy patio's, wide garden decks or pools, gone are the days of sit-down dinners confined to the dining room. A varied grazing (informal. to eat small portions of food, as appetizers or the like, in place of a full-sized meal or to snack during the course of the day in place of regular meals) menu - comprising a selection of light foods or tapas - is the stylish way to entertain in lovely spaces in and around your home.

Entertaining with a grazing menu is not similar to throwing a cocktail party. It follows the tenets of good health, which stipulate that enough light bites will make a filling meal. It is not contained to pre-dinner hours either. It can start in the early evening, in the most of casual of ways, and extend until late.

There are no rules to structuring such a menu. You may still be putting the finishing touches on your first plates of tapas when guests start arriving. Serve them a margarita over the kitchen island, move on to nibbles in the patio, and end the night with coffee and dessert on the garden deck.

The great thing about grazing menus is you don't have to slave over the stove too much. Prepare the tapas in advance, or cook them when you need to refill the plates. It helps to choose dishes that are quick and easy to prepare, which doesn't have to mean plain food. A deft hand and a good choice of ingredients can take simple to spectacular.

Try your own recipes, which should be simple, yet big on flavour and loaded with creativity. Now, that's what I call Eating-Out in style!



11 comments:

Yasmin said...

Hi Nihal,

This is very interesting, I haven't tried this before. This is good idea which I will try to do over the weekend :)

Can't wait for your next post!

NIHAL said...

Hello Yasmin,

It's been a while since I heard from you (must be having the same broadband problems like me...)

Anyway, you'll definitely have a good amount of fun doing this. Let me know how it turned out, better still, send me some photos. he he he :)

Mariuca said...

Hi Nihal, lovely post! I should definitely try more grazing and less slaving in the kitchen ;)

Esther Garvi said...

Just wanted to let you know that I'll be tagging you tomorrow. Check out www.ishtarnews.blogspot.com!

NIHAL said...

Ha ha ha, don't forget to put me on your guest list :)

NIHAL said...

Hi Ishtar!

It's so great to hear from you. Wow, you've tagged me, I wonder what's in store, mmmm ???

No worries, I'll be right over :)

Anonymous said...

Anything that saves me from having to stand over a hot stove for hours has got to be good - cooking is not on my list of things that make me all warm and fuzzy ;) lol.

Hey Nihal, luv the new template. Looks great, dude!

Anna

NIHAL said...

Ha ha ha :))

Looks like you're in the same boat as my wife, let me whip out the pasta and she's all smiles :)

Let you in a little secret, I just changed the background colour and the font type, threw away some ads and presto!, the new look. At least now I know, someone likes it :)

Another thing I found out is that it's not very smart to keep changing our templates as Google has to read them all over again, now, why doesn't anyone tell us stuff like this (or maybe, not many are aware) he he :)

Jean Chia aka Ms.Yummy~licious said...

hi nihal! hmm.. i might try this! :)

anyway, it's my great pleasure to present you this award! :)http://agreatpleasure.blogspot.com/2007/08/award-for-you-my-great-friend.html

Anonymous said...

nice post buddy ! long time no see!

NIHAL said...

Hi guy's,

Sorry I've been missing for a very long time now. A lot of the reasons behind this are beyond my control but I'm really happy that I have great friends like all of you who take the time to visit.

Jean @ Wow, an award for me! Thanks, you're such a darling. Can't wait to put it up at my site :)

Aayush @ My dearest friend, sorry I've not been visiting lately. But, good news, that's all in the past now. You're bound to see more of me from now on :)