Abundant Congratulations

Right in the middle of the Les Miserables performances, I had to take a break from watching the shows to help put on a big party on Saturday night. My dearest of dear friends Emily, mother of four boys, was about to become a mother-in-law for the first time! Her son Cameron had returned from his mission back in February, and had met a wonderful girl while serving in Arizona. Francesca, who goes by the cute nickname Chess. They stayed in touch after Cameron was able to complete his mission in Chile, the mission he was called to. And when he got home? She was there waiting. She is the cutest girl. I haven't been able to spend a ton of time with her, but every time I do, I've been just delighted. A total sweetheart.

They got engaged in the fall, and decided they wanted to be married as soon as possible. They picked the day before Thanksgiving as their wedding day, and didn't want to put together a huge reception - they decided to save the big party until next summer and have a quiet wedding with family only. However, Emily did want to throw a shower, an open-house for family and friends. I wanted to help her out, and offered to make the food. It took some convincing for her to let me do it. She was feeling very stressed out about the food, and I wanted to be of some help to one of my best friends on the planet, as well as help celebrate her son, who has been a dear friend to our family since Chase was 2 years old.

I actually felt great about the food. I did these delicious baked ham and Swiss sliders, lemon tarragon pasta salad, chicken curry salad, and a green salad with couscous, cranberries and a creamy basil dressing. Now, I can't take credit for the recipes - I have greedily hoarded those recipes from bloggers and caterers, so I was pretty confident in them. There was just one teeny tiny problem. I made enough to feed about 200 people. Not 60, which was the requested number. Emily was so sweet, and wasn't irritated at all, even though I could have spent maybe half as much as I did. I felt sort of horrified though. I mean, this is not an uncommon mistake for me. I think I have a deep fear of not having enough food when I help throw a party, and thus overdo it every single time. I guess too much is better than too little, but still. Good grief. The Moore family was eating the same menu for a full next week.