sorry both mikes and grandma

hey sorry, my computer got a nasty virus and had to be attended to, and then we fixed it but i was scared to put my password in anything, so i haven't updated in a while.  did you all miss me?  all three of my loyal readers?  yeah, i didn't think so.

ok, so i wanna keep within the foodie blogroll guidelines, so i gotta talk about food, but not much of anything happened at work this week, so i'll enthrall you all with the story of how i catered a party one time.

it all began way back in the summer of 09 (seems like so long ago...*snork*) and one of my wife's co-workers asked her if i could cater a 50th anniversary party for her grandparents.  it was on a saturday in august (wedding season) so they were having trouble finding a caterer.  i've NEVER done anything like catering before, so naturally, i said "sure!"  at first i was told it would be for fifty people, and i thought to myself that no matter what the food was, i could knock out a party for fifty.  then a couple days later the number was upped to around 80.  which is a lot of individual plates, if you're doing that sort of thing.  they wanted a brunch buffet, which made things way easier on me, considering i didn't have to make up plates, i just had to make up food.  we threw a few ideas back and forth, and finally settled on this menu:

APPETIZERS
shrimp cocktails - i know, shrimp cocktails are easy and boring, but i did do 80 individual ones, in cute little punch cups.  those things went like gangbusters.  everybody loved them, and they looked awesome.
caprese skewers - once again, the easy route, but i wanted them to be served in vases and look like floral arrangements from across the room.  and they did!  and nobody ate them because they all thought they were floral arrangements.  whoops.
chocolate covered fruit - damn near a train wreck, but the wife and little sister did a bang up job and got it done.  i'd never done the whole melting chocolate and dipping shit in it before, and we thinned the choco out with milk and butter (i thought the butter would help it set up) and they were pretty sticky and gooey but they were yummy.  everybody got two strawberries and two banana slices, and after the party what we had left over got eaten up pretty quick.

MAIN COURSE
scrambled eggs - standard brunch fare, and one of the easiest things to make for a crowd.
bacon & sausage - same thing.  easy way to feed 80 people.
roasted baby red potatoes - rosemary and garlic butter.  i didn't want to do hashbrowns but still wanted a starch, and i've done rosemary roasted red many times.  good stuff.
pina colada french toast - i know, it sounds awesome, right?  it probably was.  i didn't get to try it after i got the grill temprature down (i burned a few slices before i got it right.  i was working in a kitchen completely unfamiliar to me)  it was the one item i wasn't sure of and it seemed to be the one item that everybody loved.  we actually ran out.
sockeye salmon en papillote - basically salmon flanks cooked in parchment paper envelopes with fresh dill and lemon slices.  i'd never actually done that preperation before, and got rave reviews.  one guy told me he hadn't had salmon that good in fifteen years since he lived on the shore of lake michigan.  bonus!
balsamic macerated fruit salad - canteloupe, watermelon, honeydew, strawberries, bananas, and champagne grapes, all tossed with balsamic and fresh mint.  killer.
pulled pork sliders with chipotle slaw - this part was hilarious, because everybody there was pretty old, nobody knew what sliders were.  i didn't have them all made up, i just had the pork, slaw, and cut dinner rolls all together, and most people ate it in pieces instead of making sliders.  oh well, people loved it, and my pulled pork is absolutely killer.

all the guests were blown away i'd never catered before, and one lady came up to me and told me it was the best catered meal she'd ever had.  it was wierd, as a line cook, i'm used to a fairly thankless existance.  i stay in the back, and just assume everybody is happy, and if they aren't, the servers let me know about it.  but when people love something i never get thanked, either by them or by anybody else.  so it was ackward for me to accept thanks from 80 people.  i usually don't talk or even make eye contact with my customers, so it was super wierd for me.  i got paid like a king, and i got the experience, which made it all worth it.  i never once felt like i was in the weeds, i had awesome help (my dad even rocked the coffee station), and it made me feel ten feet tall.

anyway.  there's a story.  it's not the whole story, of course, but i'm sick of sitting in front of my computer.