giant-query

function get_menu_posts(){
  if($data = get_transient('menu_posts')){
    return $data;
  } else {
    $menu_posts = new stdClass;
    $categories = array(57,56,55,1734,20,21,23,1716,1717,39,1718);
    foreach($categories as $category){
      $cat_info = get_category($category);
      $posts = get_posts(array(
        'posts_per_page' => 4,
        'category' => $category
      ));
      $name = str_replace(' ', '_', $cat_info->name);
      $name = str_replace('&', '', $name);
      $everything = new stdClass;
      $everything->category = $cat_info;
      $everything->posts = $posts;
      $menu_posts->$name = $everything;
      wp_reset_postdata();
    }
    set_transient('menu_posts', $menu_posts, 3600);
    return $menu_posts;
  }
}