Tuesday, October 12, 2010

the dinners

A couple of weeks ago, we hosted two parties back to back for a new church campaign that we're doing. 

We were expecting about 30 to 35 people a night for hors'deuvres and dessert. My crazy hospitality self went nuts in preparing both hot and cold appetizers and 4 different desserts.

We had a great team of people helping us to pull it off since cleaning and decorating my house was also to be done. It felt like we were preparing for a long time. I was making lists and purchasing ingredients for at least a couple of weeks before the parties.


I found this fall fruit platter in a magazine and thought I would give it a try. I have never done anything like it. I was happy with how it turned out.


In order to give it height, I used 4 varying sizes of foam circles and then used floral greening pins to keep everything in place.


We made a ginger/citrus dip. Grapes aren't typically used with a fruit dip, but it worked. 


My newlywed friend, Melanie, and her husband, Chris, partnered with us to make it all happen. Without them, it would have been a bust.

My friend, Tracey, who is equally crazy in the hospitality department was with me every step of the way, too, but for some reason I have no photos of her.
I'm sorry, Trace. 


This was the table after we had it set. I have no photos of our kitchen island either that boasted the fruit platter and lots of other goodies. 

What can I say? In all of the busyness, I'm lucky I got the few pictures that I did get.


My brother, who is a chef in N.J., gave me a couple of recipes to try: 
Crab cakes with a remoulade sauce
Chicken Satay with a peanut sauce.

Guess which appetizers were THE most popular?

His... :) Thanks, Jim.


Well, I'm glad the dinners are behind us, but we sure had fun in the process.

5 comments:

Denise said...

Oh I love the fruit platter and the veggies on sticks :) it all looks great.

Heart2Heart said...

Carol,

I love your fruit platter. That looks like you had a professional make it for you. You have me impressed for sure.

Glad it all turned out in the end and I am sure lots of people were very happy with the results.

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Joyce said...

Wow-that fruit platter is awesome! Very impressive!

Mikki said...

Wow!! You go girl!!
Can I come and eat at your house? ;-)!!
What a great hostess you are!! Love it!

The Lehman's said...

Party looks great!! It was great to meet you on Saturday. Glad you could make it to the reunion. Hope your hearing has returned. Have a great day. julie :)