Celebrating a married son

Not mine. Theirs. And he is in many way, ours. Raised here in our church, grown up, gone off to become educated and to find his own way, and as it turned out to get married. You won't see pictures of him and his beautiful bride here, because it's my job to make it happen behind the scenes.


Most people are familiar with this idea--son gets married far away, and then at some later date his parents throw a celebration at home. And this was a great celebration thanks to the efforts of his mother and step-father. Of all the "son-parties" that I've seen over many years, this was one of the very best. It was not lavish--lavish is not required nor expected, but they did give attention to details that show thought and care.



The menu was very simple: Assorted sandwiches on rolls, hot open faced reuben canapes, veggie trays that mix both fresh and pickled items, and the famous family potato salad. And cake. The step-father and the younger sister prepared the potato salad in the church kitchen the day before the party--that in itself was a great gift. Mother and friend arranged all the fresh flowers and made the centerpieces and larger arrangements. Equipment was set up to run pictures from the wedding, the bride's dress was on a dress-form, and there was a table full of pictures to admire. And on the day of the party the air was full of music and the sounds of conversation.

In the kitchen we did everything we would do for any wedding celebration--we pulled out all the silver and put careful thought into the food preparation and presentation. The point of this post I guess, is to say it is worth every ounce of effort to celebrate a marriage whether it actually happens in your church or not.



Enjoy the rest of the kitchen pics.





Pickled asparagus is a great favorite here--for most anyway. Either you love it or you don't.
We like to mix a variety of pickled veggies in with the fresh. This time we had baby dills and marinated mushrooms along with the asparagus, and two kinds of olives.






These beautiful minature sweet peppers and cherry tomatoes worked well to boost the color of the mix. We always use a foundation of broccoli buds, cauliflower cuts, carrots, and celery sticks.

We offered roast beef, ham, and turkey sandwiches, and about four dozen freestyle, "Assembler's Choice." Once the basics are done the crew likes to make various combinations. By the time they reach the end of the rolls they deserve to have some fun. For this party we also used a mix of mayo and spicy mustard, pickle chips, shredded lettuce, and cheddar slices.

And the finish:

We're back!

The first Wednesday is over and done! We had a much quieter start than usual because our children's choir time is on hold for another month or so. We have some other groups that have seen major changes with graduations and incoming classes, so I expect that Betty's Diner will feel the full effects of those changes, too. Nevertheless, it was a very steady run of business tonight.

We offered a taco salad platter for an entree, a turkey, pastrami, and provolone sandwich on sourdough from the grill, and all the rest of the usual items--grilled cheese, hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken strips, chili, and our "Thoughtful Salad." We're trying something different with the hot dogs, giving them a go on the grill which gives them some great color. I decided to hold off on the soup until the weather is decidedly cooler. No one missed it, so I think it was a good call. Our supplier changed brands of fish fillets over the summer so we have to decide if we like the type I chose, or if we need to try, try again. For dessert we offered brownies with chocolate chips, oatmeal raisin cookies, and peanut butter cookies. We do our best to keep those peanut butter cookies completely separate from the rest of the food because we have a couple of people with significant allergies, and we never know about visitors.

But the very best thing that happened tonight was the development of the volunteer schedule from next week up until the first of the year. The line assistants worked together to decide a rotation that would include new and returning helpers, the dishwashers worked themselves into a good schedule, and the cashiers got it all figured out. And Vera will put it on a spreadsheet for us and we'll be all set, with the understanding that the only certain thing is change. My personal strategy was to start the year with a known quantity--the people who worked last season. And once our first Diner was over everyone could get together in the same place and decide for themselves. This negotiation/decision process always works better if everyone has a cookie in hand, and it's much more pleasant than 37 phone calls to answering machines. The best part was that they did it all themselves with no input from me. All of these people enjoy their work and sincerely believe in the value of what we do. No arm twisting. And with this kind of rotation we shouldn't have anyone feeling burned out by Christmas time.

It very nearly didn't happen

Don't they look productive? Thanks to the wonders of high school work experience the hamburgers, beef dogs, and toasted buns were flying off the grills and into the hands of capable wrappers. "Here, let me show you how--we used to wrap chili dogs like crazy on Tuesdays...."

So the buyer worked beside the teacher, who worked beside the dental office manager, who taught the engineer the finer points of the job. Isn't that just the best part of volunteering?

But like the title says, it almost didn't happen. The kitchen was too cool and too quiet when I came in to work on Sunday morning. It didn't take long to figure out that none of the bazillion pilot lights were on. I thought, okay I'll do as much prep as I can during the Cafe hour and then I'll re-light after church. Not a fun job, but really no big deal.

And then after church and after my last shopping pick up I was finally ready with my firestick. I hit the gas valve reset button and tried to light a pilot light and nothing happened. I tried the appliances with automatic restarts and nothing happened. I reset and retried and still nothing. So I started calling through the church directory. I should have the numbers of these helpful church-building-guys memorized, but I don't. Five households were not home.


My mind started down that well known road: I wonder if this will be the time when it really happens. I wonder what it will be like to direct them to all the fast food places and ask them to come back to the meeting with their sacks and take out containers.

But, church-building-guy number six was home--just ready to head out the door, but still home enough for me to get some answers.

His side of the conversation went something like this: Uh. Umm. No gas, huh? (pause) That's my fault. You know the broken glass in the door downstairs? Mm. That's my fault, too. You see when the door got away from me it slammed into the gas meter and broke the glass in the door. Mmm. And I'll bet when it hit the meter it triggered the Earthquake Valve. Umm. Do you know how to turn the Earthquake Valve back on?

That would be negative. But I know now! I got the important pilots relit just before 3pm. 140 people were coming for dinner at 5:30, and I hadn't started anything, including baking the cookies and making the pasta salad. Fortunately the salad marinates quickly--but still, 2-1/2 hours isn't very long.

A terrific crew of helpers came at 4, and we were as they say, "Cookin' with gas." We served dinner 15 minutes late. Not too bad. In keeping with our Fall Kick Off theme we had hamburgers and beef dogs wrapped in great foil wrappers that really do hold the heat. All the condiments hearts could desire, a waldorf salad with dried cranberries instead of nuts (to please the young ones), a marinated Mediterranean pasta salad with feta, capers, and green beans, all the hot, crispy, salty, beautiful french fries they wanted, Hermiston watermelon and three kinds of cookies.

Oh, and I didn't mention that the water heater went to sleep and didn't wake up. I'm still waiting for a repairman on that deal. Fortunately our coffee urn and dishwasher have their own sources for making hot water. This added bit of malfunction was like extra granish on an already upside down cake.

And in the end dinner moved along smoothly, the meeting went well, and we can put another W in the win column. Hurray!

End of the summer

With the donuts, bagels, yogurt, orange slices, juice, hot chocolate, tea, ice water, and coffee this morning we finished our summer season. We were shaking our heads at the thought of how quickly it disappeared.



Next Sunday afternoon we'll be having our Fall Kick Off Celebration, which among other things will feature all of our summer short term missionaries. They will have tables and displays around the perimeter of the room, and dinner will be a very casual sort of thing. Our Pastor has requested food that can be carried, or enjoyed at a table, and food that will accomodate people coming at various times for the first hour. But dessert needs to be serious (as if!). Dessert should pull the people to the tables to transition into the time our returnees will each give a short presentation, before leadership moves on with the really big news of the evening. That will take some thinking.



And on the following Sunday afternoon we'll have a wedding reception/light luncheon for the church to celebrate the summer marriage of one of our young men and his bride. They were married, and now live in, another state so this will be our chance to greet them and celebrate their joy.



As promised in the previous picture post, I'll give you a run down of our August wedding weekend menus. No two weddings are alike, and that is part of what makes this job so satisfying.

Rehearsal Dinner

Salad of mixed baby greens, romaine, fresh blueberries and feta

dressed with a blush vinaigrette

Baskets of mixed artisan breads

Herb crusted pork loin/Sauteed chicken breasts

Rosemary roasted baby red potatoes

Roasted vegetables

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Chocolate chocolate cake

Loganberry/raspberry crostatas

both served with vanilla ice cream

Coffee Lemonade Ice water

For the wedding party snack carts we offered several types of cheese with a variety of crackers, celery sticks and baby carrots, mixed grapes,

and bottled water.

(The idea here is to provide non-staining food that will keep everyone nourished and hydrated to minimize the chance of fainting during the wedding. It really seems to help.)

Wedding Reception

Marinated shrimp on skewers

Ginger bacon chicken bites

Garlic crostini

Ricotta and spiced fruit bruschetta

Roasted figs with gorganzola and pecans

Mixed olives

Smoked salmon, lemon and dill cream cheese on crackers

Cheese table with fruit and crackers

included American, British and French cheeses

Fresh fruit

Dessert Buffet

Wedding cake

Ginger peach roll

Lime curd tartlets

Spiced plum pavlovas

Coffee Sweet tea Lemonade Ice water