A STARRY WINTER'S NIGHT

This was a another formal banquet that I catered. The theme was "A Starry Winter's Night."
I like the formal look of the black table covering, so I used it again for this dinner. I picked up pkgs of fake snow at Party City USA, and sprinkled it down the center of the tablecovering, along with some silver star confetti.


The centerpieces were frosted vases that I picked up at our local dollar store. Each one had a votive nestled down in the center. The vase was surrounded by white batting, which was sprinkled with more fake snow and the silver star confetti. I also sprinkled some clear, shimmery confetti, to make it shine a bit more.


The centerpiece for the buffet table was 3 large pillar candles, nestled into a bunched up piece of silver, silk fabric. Then it too, was sprinkled with the fake snow, silver star confetti and the clear confetti.


I covered the top of the piano with a piece of navy blue silk fabric. Then just situated pillar candles and a vase with a silver spray of stars coming out of it. More batting, fake snow, and silver star confetti.


The menu for the evening was:

Southern Pot Roast
Marinated Italian chicken w/ rice pilaf
Baked potatoes
Vegetable medley
Tossed Salad
Hot rolls
Assorted cheesecakes - (made by a man in our church who loves to cook)


These were the salads. We did an assembly line as we walked by the tables to assemble them. 1 person had the lettuce, another the tomatoes, then onions, then croutons. We followed each other around the room and one by one, made these up.


The beloved chocolate fountain made it's reappearance. This time though, I served a couple of new items: pretzel rods and orange sections. Both of them were HUGE favorites with the crowd. The oranges were just to die for! I can't even describe how good they were w/ the chocolate. You simply MUST try it! I also served strawberries, apple wedges and banana chunks.


I strung white lights across the top of the room. This was a bit tricky to get accomplished. Lots of cord to deal with and then trying to line them all up so you could plug into the same outlet.... I'll have to come up with a better plan next time. I'll do it again, but will put more thought into it, before I dive in. For one thing, I'll string a wire between the 2 basketball hoops, so I can add some height to the lights down the middle of the room. I hung silver star spirals from the lights and because the strands hung a bit low, some of our taller men had to duck and dodge.


I wanted an area for couples to be able to have pictures taken. I found this backdrop at Party City USA. It's plastic and comes folded up in large sheets. I laid them out on the floor and taped them together, then hung them to create a room divider of sorts. Except it's in the corner. I wasn't thrilled with it. But for what I had to work with, I thought it turned out OK.


This is just a sample of how one of the pictures turned out for our couples. With the white lights on the tree beside them, the backdrop gives the appearance of stars.

AUTUMN BIRTHDAY PARTY

This is another event I catered back in the Fall. I didn't get very many pics of the entire room or the decorations. But I used alternating colors (Red, orange, yellow) plastic table coverings. I placed Fall themed cloth napkins in the center of the tables with a frosty colored candle holder in the middle and a votive inside. Then circled the candle holder with a length of Autumn leaves (like you see here below, on the table for the couple).

This was a surprise 28th birthday party for a lady in our church. The man hired me to cater the meal AND decorate. I learned REAL quick how to work with a tight budget! LOL It's not often that the caterer gets asked to decorate as well as cook, so that was a feat in itself. But it turned out well and they were pleased, so that's all that mattered!

My Honey was a jewel and used his new smoker that we got him for Father's day to smoke almost 100 lbs of pork roast, so I could make pulled pork sandwiches. They were out of this world, good! The pork went on sale just a few weeks before the event for .99 / lb.

The menu for the evening was:

Assorted Miniature cheese balls
Pulled pork sandwiches
Calico Beans
Homemade Coleslaw
Autumn harvest fruit salad

This is the Autumn Harvest Fruit Salad. It has always been well received at various functions that I've made it for.

These are the assorted mini cheese balls that I made for the dinner. It's a basic cheeseball recipe. 1/3 I rolled in chopped pecans. 1/3 I rolled in finely chopped parsley (next time I'll just dip 1/2 of the ball in parsley, rather than rolling the whole thing in it). And 1/3 I left plain. Everybody loved them!Stick a toothpick in each one and you're ready to go! Serve them with fancy crackers.

Then my daughter, Sarah, made the cake for the event. I loved the Fall colors on it.

The man wanted his wife to have her own special cake (she can't have chocolate) so this is the personal cake my daughter made for her. It was placed on the table that the two of them sat at.

TABLE FOR TWO

This is one of the "TABLE FOR TWO" dinners that I've done. It was for some dear friends of ours. This was what the husband ordered as a Birthday surprise for his wife. I gave him a suggested menu to "order" from. Just some things I thought they might like. He ordered grilled steak for him and Ranch chicken for her, then along with that I served them a baked potato, steamed broccoli and a tossed salad. I served hot croissant rolls with their dinner. Then for dessert, I made them each a Strawberry shortcake tower.


I decorated the table area in a romantic, tropical theme. The backdrop is just white lattice work held together with wire. The back was covered with black table covering. Then I hung strands of white lights on it, and strands of tropical flowers. I set a couple of silk trees and some silk floor plants next to the edge of the lattice work.

For the table, you can see in the picture below, I used a sarong as the tablecloth. I purchased it in Mexico when my Honey and I took a cruise for our anniversary. Down the middle of the table I sprinkled sand and then nestled shells and votive candles in it.

I used black napkins to match the shaded trees in the sarong. I had some napkin rings that were made from shells and used those. I also have a set of "shell dishes" that my mother gave me years ago and they went so well with the theme, that I used those to serve on. Picture taking is not my forte' and for some reason, the candlelight in this one made the pic blurry. But you can still see the shell design on the dishes.


I wish I had a better picture of the hurricane lanterns I made. You can actually see them more clearly in the pic with the couple in it. I made these several years ago from a picture I saw in a magazine. They are SO simple and quick to make, and are so versatile! I have used these over and over and over again. I originally made them for an outdoor ladies meeting that I hosted. But then I personally liked using them outside near the pool, on our patio set, for dinner at night. I've also used them on our dinner table when I wanted to do a tropical theme for the family. Then one year for the 4th of July, I covered the base with a red cloth napkin (held tight at the top w/ a rubber band), then tucked some flags in the sand. It is simply a clay pot with a piece of foil (or napkin or paper towel) in the bottom to cover the hole. Then you fill it with sand, nestle a large pillar candle down in the sand a bit, and then place a hurricane shade over it. You can then embellish the edges of the sand with pretty shells or rocks. I LOVE this centerpiece - you will too, if you decide to make one or two. I made a large one and a medium size one because I like the way the different sizes make the tablescape look.


This tropical theme could easily be "enlarged" for any catered event or fellowship. As a matter of fact, I'm planning on using parts of this theme for our next formal banquet at our church.

BLACK TIE BANQUET

My girls and I started talking about how much fun it would be to have a banquet that was really formal. One where ladies could wear that dress again that they bought for their son or daughter's wedding. One where the men could wear a tux w/ tails just for fun. Where the men bought their wives flowers to be sweet. We've had "formal" banquets before, but not to the extent where people actually wore FORMAL attire. That's what we envisioned for this one, and we weren't disappointed. It was SO much fun. And our people just couldn't stop talking about it.

The favor was a chocolate strawberry tuxedo - made to go with our black tie theme. Don't be afraid to try these, they are so easy to do.

The menu for the night:

Roast Beef w/ mushroom gravy
Chicken Cordon Bleu (I cheated on this one & bought the premade ones)
Garlic mashed potatoes
Rice Pilaf
Vegetable medley
Hot rolls
Tossed salad

Mini chocolate bundt cake w/ sugared fruit
Mini carrot bundt cake w/ cream cheese icing & flower petals

Chocolate fountain w/ assorted fruits. This was the first time we attempted a chocolate fountain. Since then we get asked constantly if we are going to have it at this or that dinner! LOL

Here are some pictures of the evening:





These are the Strawberry tuxedos that we made. I bought my strawberries at Sam's club. They usually have pretty ripe berries even in the Winter. And they were huge!

First you give them a dip in melted white chocolate. I just used white chocolate chips and added a Tlbsp of oil to it and warmed it in the microwave. You have to let those sit for a while to dry, before you give them the 2nd dip in chocolate. Here they are getting the 2nd dip. We used a shishkabob stick to hold the strawberry while we dipped it. First, you dip the back in....



Then you roll it carefully from side to side.


Here they are waiting to get their buttons and bow ties on. My daughter Sarah did all that.



And the finished product.



This is the chocolate fountain we bought for the event. OOPS you can see where we already sampled it and hadn't wiped it off yet! Sorry!



These are the fruit bouquets that my daughters and daughter-in-law made for the evening. It was their idea and I was thrilled to let them run with it. Somehow I got stuck helping with them though! LOL No, I LOVE doing things like this. There are chocolate covered banana halves, chocolate covered apple slices, orange sections, strawberries, grapes, melon sections and pineapple flowers. This was a first attempt, so forgive the less than professional look, but it's not bad for a first attempt, I don't think. We learned a lot of things to DO and a lot of things NOT to do next time. Like shorter sticks next time, so the fruit will not be so top heavy. And more filler for the basket to cover the empty space (we actually just ran out of time, so we couldn't fuss with them as much as we would have liked to).



These are cream puff trees. I had them on the table by the punch bowls. I saw something like this on the cruise my Honey and I took for our anniversary a couple of years ago. I bought metal flower buckets and turned them upside down and then just stuck the cream puffs to them w/ a caramel that I made. I won't use that again. It got hard too fast as I was using it. Next time I'll use something a little easier, like peanut butter or even honey might work. Just something to make them stick. Somebody was messing with them though and dipped the top one in chocolate and then put it back. I'm thinking that was my Honey! LOL I suppose you could also use styrofoam cones wrapped in foil. You would just need to secure it to your base somehow.



This is one of the mini bundt cakes. It's the chocolate one w/ sugared fruit. You make the sugared fruit by dipping them in an egg white wash and then rolling them in sugar. You lay them on cookie racks to dry. My precious daughter-in-law made all the cakes for the event. Bless her heart!



I wanted to explain the decorations a bit. I used white tablecloths as the base. Then I bought black tablecloths and cut them in 4 lengthwise. This is not hard to do, because they come folded lengthwise, so the crease is usually pretty accurate, which helps with the cutting of it. We used the black part as a runner. I bought small white pillar candles and tied a black ribbon around them. I used white plates and black dinner napkins, then we placed the strawberry tuxedo in a mini cupcake liner and we layered that all on the plate. Under the napkin, was the menu for the evening. I wrote that up using a really pretty font. The plasticware is the silver colored kind that you can pick up at GFS. I also got the clear plastic disposable goblets there.

We invited the people in all at once and encouraged them to mingle at the chocolate fountain with the fruit that was on their table. It was a nice way to get things started.


It turned out so much nicer than I expected. I was thrilled. It set something in motion though, because now the "formal" banquet is a regular thing. I don't mind, I love it and already have an idea for next year. I'll keep that a secret for now though!

Here's a pic of my Honey and I at the banquet and one of our precious family, minus little Katie bug (she hadn't been born yet).