A Dinner Party

A few months ago, it dawned on me that our church had never really done anything to thank our elders and deacons all of whom have been serving our church for many years.  I know that people oftentimes give gifts of appreciation to the pastor and his family but we'd never done anything for our other leaders.  After some thought and discussion with my husband, a plan was hatched.  I decided to do something selfish that would be nice for them but also make me super happy.  My plan was to prepare them a feast and use it as an excuse to make gourmet food and practice plating.  I contacted the best cook in our church and asked for her help and we were off to the races.  It just so happened, that my college roomie was going to be visiting that weekend and she was excited to help.  She was a great asset and definitely helped things go along super smoothly.  We also invited members from church to help donate towards buying each of the couples a gift card to a nice restaurant as we wanted to give everybody a chance to participate.  My parents graciously allowed us to use their home even though their living room was currently under construction.  Here are a few pictures from the evening.

So I designed this menu.  I'm pretty proud of it as I've never designed anything before in my life.  It was an adventure to say the least.  We folded them into the napkin along with the silverware.  I wish I had gotten a picture of the real thing but I didn't. 

Kelsey, my college friend, was elated when I asked her to arrange the flowers.  She's really good at it and enjoys it so it worked out perfectly.  We had 12 people so we had to set quite a large table. When my mom was helping to get it ready, she remarked, "It looks like Downtown Abbey!"  One of the first remarks we got from the guests was that it reminded them of Downtown Abbey as well.  

These were our appetizers: Caprese with a balsamic reduction and bacon ricotta crostini.  I meant to take a picture of the main course but I forgot until all the plates were already set out.  We served a perfectly cooked balsamic pork tenderloin, spinach mushroom risotto and a roasted carrots. 

The woman on the left is my friend Laurel from church.  She's so sweet, southern and makes a killer pork tenderloin.  Seriously.  It was everybody's favorite and they oohed and aahed and said it was better than any restaurants.  

The dessert isn't the prettiest thing ever to look at.  We did strawberry parfaits, a homemade truffle, and a square of baklava.  

The serving quartet.  

I had a blast putting it on and I think that everybody enjoyed themselves.  Our reviews were very good.  Perhaps it is time to consider opening a restaurant.  

My Garden - a Midsummer Update

My garden turned out really pretty this year.  It is nothing spectacular but I enjoy looking at.  It is so peaceful and relaxing.  It is also the largest garden that we've ever grown which isn't saying much.

The main reason it looks so pretty is because I decided to plant butternut squash.  Only one or maybe two plants came up but it is covering 10 feet in every direction.  I hope we can get a lot of squash for this fall.  Our cucumbers (on the trellis) are also doing quite well.  We just picked our first one last weekend and we have one more ready to pick today and probably a couple of more for tomorrow.  We are also growing lima beans.  One piddly watermelon and sad little zucchini plant that I bought on clearance since our squash didn't come up.  The sunflower came up on its own leftover from last year.  We also grew carrots, lettuce and spinach this spring and I hope to replant them this fall. 

These are our crazy tomatoes.  Unfortunately, we have yet to get a ripe one off of these two giant bushes.  We have been getting some small ping ball sized ones off the plants in our front flower gardens.  We also have been harvesting herbs and a little bit of rhubarb this spring.  

We all love eating fresh veggies and watching them grow from little "babies" to big vegetables.  

Our Life in Bad Quality Pictures

Maybe one day I'll decide to be a real blogger and get a good quality camera along with some good quality camera skills.  Or maybe I'll someday be motivated to actually attempt to edit my photographs.  For now though, you're stuck with these.  They may not be beautiful but they do show whats been going on in our life lately.

The kids and I were blessed to get to take a trip with my family to go visit my Grandma.  I haven't seen her for 2 years.  Every time I see her, I just want to soak it all in cause I never know when it will be my last visit.  

We got back from our trip about an hour before dinner.  Since the cupboards were bare, we headed out to get a bite to eat.  Will's favorite part was this giant piece of ice.  He enjoyed licking it and sliding it around with his fingers.  Hopefully, the table was at least kinda clean. 

Ultimate crunchy mama moment - kiddo snacking on a carrot freshly picked from the garden.  I purposely try not to buy crackers and such because if we have them, I can barely convince my children to eat their lunch.  Kira will tell me, "I don't want lunch, I want a snack!"

So it was our anniversary and my sweet husband sent me this giant bouquet.  If only  he'd sent me a maid service to clean up the mess in the background.  ; )  We enjoyed a nice dinner at our town's second fanciest restaurant.  

We don't use bath towels here.  I just throw my kids in the dryer and they come out all nice and toasty.  Just joking, just joking.  Will is really into the dryer right now.  

The other day I realized that I haven't done any crafty projects with Kira for awhile.  We decided that firework artwork would be very appropriate.  While Kira enjoyed the artwork, she is actually terrified of real fireworks.  I don't think they would be so bad if it happened during the day but it is just too emotionally overwhelming right at bed time. 

Aww, my little handyman.  Isn't it nice that we have such helpful children?  

I'm not ready for this child to learn how to open doors.  No, no, no, NO!  He is already dangerous enough without being able to go outside whenever he wants.