The 2015 Christian Education Appreciation Dinner

The past week (and more) has been taken up with preparing our annual appreciation dinner for the workers in our church's children's department.  We have an outstanding staff and stellar volunteers who spend many hours giving to our kids. Teaching them about faith and love, practicing programs and plays, putting on a fabulous VBS program every year.  They deserve a night out, to be waited on hand and foot and a chance to relax and not lift a finger. That is our goal.

This year Earl and I thought it would be fun to put on a Tapas dinner in the yard. Tapas means "small plate" and is meant to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace. It is a wonderful way to enjoy a relaxed meal of lots of fun foods with plenty of time for conversation and laughter around the table. We brought out 4 courses over the evening and if feedback is any indication, a good time was had by all.

 The first course, marinated mushrooms and olives, fresh grapes, toasted bread, pesto and herbed olive oil for dipping and almonds spiced with sea salt, rosemary and smoked paprika. Earl had a stash of hardwood veneers in his workshop and decided to use some of them to make some beautiful serving boards.

 A quick snapshot of the centerpieces lined up on the windowsill, Stella Doro lilies and lavender.

I didn't get a picture of the tables. Truth be told, we hit the ground running early in the day and I was lucky to remember to take pictures at all. Did I mention this dinner was for 30+ people?  Yes, and just so you know, this is a picture of the aftermath in the kitchen. Lord have mercy.  My daughter Lauren keeps telling me we make entertaining look easy.  I'm here to tell you it isn't, especially when it is for that many people.  I'm not even sure if that counts as entertaining so much as catering. The good thing about doing it at home is you can load the dishwasher, turn out the lights on the rest of the mess and fall into bed...which is pretty much what we did.  Would I do it again? Not for 30+ people. We were fortunate to have 4 adult volunteers who were real go getters. Thank goodness we had the help, I really don't think we could have done this without them. I will be sharing recipes and a few more pictures of the evening later. I think Tapas is a fabulous way to entertain a smaller group of friends and we found some recipes that we will be making again!  Now I need to catch up on all your posts, and yes, I'm still putting away dishes :)