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.