This week CPC hosted a special a dinner. Since this was to honor the church volunteers, Randy wanted it to be really, really special. In order to make this work, Randy suggested that the leaders serve the volunteers. Great idea! Since the leaders would now be working that night, they had a nice meal out, where nobody from the church (except Randy and me) needed to work on it. Then it was time to get down to creating the Volunteer dinner.
Randy worked on this for days. Besides ordering and picking up all the product, he spent untold hours doing the prep work - seasoning, dicing, slicing, puree-ing - everything that could be done beforehand was. Then, on the day of the dinner, he put it all together:
- Sparkling flavored drinks
- Shrimp Cocktails
- Smoked Salmon Canapé
- Cucumber slices with herbed cream cheese topped with tomato or olives
- Bruchetta with tomatoes and cheese
- Sweet Sensation Salad with Candied Pecans Bacon, Goat Cheese and Raspberry Vinaigrette
- Prime rib with au jus and onion straws or Chicken Cordon Blue with Dijan mustard sauce
- Mashed Potatoes
- Green Beans
- Crossants
- Cheese cake
- Red Velvet Cake
The day of the event we did a quick training of the leaders on how to serve, because Randy had something very special in mind.
During the "Happy Hour" the servers walked around with "silver" trays full of Sparkling flavored drinks. We had enough for everyone, even though one of the servers dropped a tray of six glasses!
The servers put Shrimp Cocktails at every plate for the first course.
Next the servers walked around with trays of appetizers: Smoked Salmon Canapés, Cucumber slices with herbed cream cheese topped with tomato or olives, and Bruchetta with tomatoes and cheese. Pretty and delicious!
Second Course: Sweet Sensation Salad with Candied Pecans, Bacon, Goat Cheese and Raspberry Vinaigrette; Randy did everything except milk the goat!
Time for the main course: either Prime Rib with au jus and onion straws or Chicken Cordon Blue with Dijan mustard sauce. These came with Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, and Croissants.
The logistics of serving all of this was tricky but Randy had it worked out beforehand. He made a seating chart of all the tables, who sat where, what they ordered, and how they wanted their Prime Rib done. Then he enlisted the help of Debbie (who had worked with him before) and they plated every dish according to what the guest had ordered.
And as each plate was ready, it was handed off to a server. Because Randy was so organized in the kitchen, we could implement his service plan. The plates for an entire table were sent out together. The servers quickly arranged themselves behind the guests, then all six plates were presented simultaneously. Later a couple of servers wheeled dessert carts around to offer Cheesecake or Red Velvet Cake, and coffee. We got a lot of feedback about how special all this made them feel!
