Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday were spent baking. There were pies, cupcakes, cookies and cheesecake. Yum! Topping the dessert table was the bride and broom's cake, dark chocolate with Strawberry Cream Cheese frosting. A hit with the bride and groom.
I went shopping for the savory portion of the meal on Thursday morning. We went to four different stores to get all we needed. My brother was in charge of getting the meat. LOTS of meat. I made dinner for 250 and all those people showed up. My Aunt Lorrine, who drove here from Iowa, said she came for the food, lol.
I prepped and did a "mise en place" (collecting all your ingredients before you even start to mix and cook) on Friday.
The wedding day, June 1 started off as a clear, sunny day. Keep in mind, it rained ALL week long. There was some flooding and everyone worried about whether or not the rain would keep people away or ruin the outdoor games they had for the kids. The first people to arrive to help in the kitchen were Mr. and Mrs. Kane (no first names, I guess). They took on the job of scrubbing and cutting 85 pounds of fingerling potatoes. I asked if Mr. Kane needed a break and he said no, he wanted to be able to tell people he scrubbed ALL the potatoes, lol.
The second person to arrive was Dawn, a woman from my brother's church, and I put her in charge of making salads. There were two, Spinach and Strawberry Salad with a raspberry vinaigrette and Caesar Salad. The vinaigrette made Thursday to allow the flavors to meld together. My sister, Corie, arrived about 10am with 40 baguettes (that's a LOT of baguettes) and I put her to work slicing strawberries. Then two teenage girls showed up, calling themselves "Black and White". (?) As you may have guessed, one girl was white and one was black and they are inserparable. I told them they needed to change their names to "Ebony and Ivory", just like the Stevie Wonder song. They laughed. I put them in charge of plating the desserts that I had taken out of the freezer that morning to thaw. After I showed them how I wanted the desserts plated, they got busy. The girls finished just in time to get to the wedding (they asked if they could go) so off they went. The two came back afterwards to man the dessert table.
My neice wanted to be married in a barn and when they couldn't find a barn they could rent, my brother cleaned out and cleaned up his own barn.
The first photo shows all the tables lined up, topped with brown kraft paper and a strip of burlap. There were burlap "flags" (they remined me of the Tibetan prayer flags, but don't tell them I said that!) swagged from the ceiling, which tied in nicely with the tables. The food was on the left hand side as you entered the barn. That was my domain. One table for all the savory foods (long table), one table for drinks, and one table for desserts (which you saw at the beginning of this note).
On the menu was New York Steak Roast with a Madiera Sauce, Chipotle Orange Pork Chops, Grilled Greek Marinated Chicken, Rosemary Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Green Beans with Garlic and Lemon, and the two salads--Spinach and Strawberry Salad and Caesar Salad. And slices of French baguette with butter.
I have to report, dinner was a HUGE success! (I am here patting myself on the back, lol). My brother asked me to come out, saying everyone wanted to meet me. I walked in with my sister-in-law, Cindy and everyone started to cheer (that feels good, I gotta tell ya). My brother said so many nice things, I almost started to cry. We didn't allow people in the house because of all the cooking we had going on, but a few people got in (relatives and a guy who owes a pizza restaurant in Dwight inviting me to come see his restaurant and give him pointers (!)).
One of my nieces took pictures of all the food, plus others of the wedding. She promised to send me a CD with all the pictures, so hopefully I can post more pictures.
Today is Sunday and I have spent the day taking it easy. I had a hard time getting up this morning!! I am sitting in my Mom's room looking out the window and watching the birds eat at all the feeders she has hanging outside her window. Apparently bird watching is very popular in this part of the US. Everyone seems mesmerized while watching all the birdy antics!
Tomorrow I go back to Reno. I think I'm ready to get back to normal, lol.
