Saturday, September 12, 2009

The One Where She Saw the Wolf

Last night about 6:00 p.m. I got a call from DK. He had asked a few weeks ago if I would cater a luncheon at his office. I didn’t think about it again… until last night when he mentioned that the luncheon was today. Surprise catering! It was like a Food Network challenge. You have eight dollars per person, and seventy people, and you are feeding them at 11:45 tomorrow morning. Oh, yeah... and don’t forget: you have one hand, and one witch claw. At least that is what one of my kids told me my left hand looks like. Nice.

So here is the menu:

Mixed Baby Greens with Raspberries and Sugared Pecans
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad
Homemade Butter Rolls
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread
Fruit
Chocolate Ganache Cake
Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries

I mapped out what I had to do before I went to bed... making the homemade croutons for the Caesar, making the rolls and the bread, cooking the pasta and making the cakes. Tasks that left a lot of down time, waiting for things to bake or rise. But yesterday a package arrived in the mail. It was the book Shiver, which I won in a blog giveaway from Debbie at Cranberry Fries. (Thanks Debbie, you made my week!) So in between cooking, baking and doing dishes, I rewarded myself with chapters of the book.

The book was even yummier than the food… I consumed all 390 pages before the last cake was out of the oven at about 2:30 a.m. And that was when it happened. It was steamy in the house, and so I took a five-minute break on the backyard swing while I waited for croutons to toast. I came in to turn out lights in the living room, and there, crouched right in front of my white slipcovered chair, was a wolf. I am not kidding you, here... it scared me so bad my knees went weak and my heart skipped a beat. I almost fell on the ground in full arrest, but then suddenly my heart kicked back in, beating about four times faster than it should have.

Funny thing. Turns out it was not a wolf, but actually a fairly innocent-looking guitar, just hanging out, leaning casually against the chair. Why, for a split-second, was it a feral wolf? Read Shiver after midnight sometime, and you will see.

And by the way, the Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad was so good that they ate almost ten pounds of it... and then they used the homemade bread to sop up the last of the dressing left in the bowl. This salad is a thing of beauty. One guy told me he loved it so much he wanted to marry it. So, naturally, I figured you would want the recipe:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I should have warned you that catering can lead to hallucinations.

I made your dinner rolls. They were amazing. I used duck eggs of course and they really took the cake...or the roll...whatever.

LOL on the cistern comment. I will email you the real definition.

CB said...

I cannot believe you stayed calm enough to handle that whole huge catering job over night! You are the woman and you read a book on top of that?? Holy Smokes girl what does your cape look like???

It sounds like it was a huge success and it definately sounds like I need to check out this book.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Cherie

alpinekleins said...

Sounds yummy! Now I just need to conjure up an occasion to make a new pasta salad. Maybe my husband would like a last minute catered lunch for HIS office . . .

I could score some BIG brownies points with that one ;)

Kristin

Cranberryfries said...

Even the homemade croutons last minute? Wow! I'm so impressed with that menu, I'm salivating at 11:15 at night.

I'm so glad you liked the book. It was a great one wasn't it? Sweet, a bit scary, fun, delicious. Haha. I love that you saw a guitar/wolf!

Erika said...

"It wasn't a wolf, it was a guitar." That's funny! Power of suggestion, eh? When I read Stephen Kings "It", I couldn't walk by sewers for the longest time and I still hate clowns!

Joshua Hernandez Albo said...

Hhhm. The 'last minute' preparation story sounds familiar. I don't if I'm more impressed at how quickly you put this together, how tasty the food turned or the speed at which you devoured a 390 page book.

Nevertheless, you did an amazing job putting together an amazing meal for our office last Saturday. Everyone walked away, intrigued, with a smile and a satisfied appetite.