Being Catered to

Yes, I will have to admit, being catered to is nice. However, recently I had the opportunity to be the caterer. No...it wasn't just a normal day at home where I cater to my families every need. This time it was a catered dinner for a class our company put on. We hired a speaker to come in and teach about customer service. Along with our employees, we also had another cleaning business join in. In all, there were 17 people in attendance.

I have never catered publically...for money. Sure, I have had more people that than at my home, but this was different. These were people that I didn't know, well....I know some of them...but I will admit, our business is growing to the point where I don't even know all of our employees.

I planned a lasagna dinner. The menu included:

Salad & garlic bread,

The salad was just a general lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, almond slices, & crouton salad. Good ol' frozen bread thawed and cooked.

Then it was Meat Lasagna & Veggie Lasagna

 I don't just do the "open can add meat, cheese, and noodles" lasagna. I like to add fresh real ingredients and make the flavors my own. I did not follow any certain recipe.

In one pan I started simmering chopped Roma tomatoes, fresh chives, oregano, parsley, garlic, sea salt, and cracked pepper. While that Simmered I started another pan. In it I sauteed red pepper, green pepper, mushrooms, garlic, shredded carrots, white onions in olive oil. I then combined the contents of the two pans, and added 2 jars of Ragu sauce. I don't remember which flavor I chose, I think it was chopped tomato, garlic, olive oil flavor...or something to that effect. I let that all simmer and marinate together for awhile. Then I boiled the lasagna noodles. I put together the veggie pan first. Layers went like this:

1. Little bit of sauce on bottom of pan

2. Noodles

3. Hefty layer of sauce

4. Shredded mozzerella cheese (I use almost an entire bag PER LAYER!)

5. Noodles

6. I took a peeler and peel a green zucchinni in long thin layers...so I had long peels. I layed them out straight in a hefty layer of zucchinni.

7. I combined a container of cottage cheese & french onion dip (not the powder, the actual pre-made dip) for the seventh layer

8. Noodles

9. Hefty layer of sauce.

10. Shredded mozzerella cheese

11. Noodles

12. Light layer of sauce.

13. Chunks of real mozzerella cheese that comes in the big slab.

14. Shredded Mexican Cheese for the top.

15. Fresh parsley sprinkled over the top.

Holy moly...15 layers! eek!

When I ate the veggie lasagna, it was so hearty that I didn't even miss the meat!

For the Meat Lasagna I just took the leftover sauce, added 2 lbs of cooked ground beef, added another 2 jars of sauce.

 I left out the layer of zucchinni from the Meat Lasagna.

Then came dessert. I came upon this recipe from Shannon, another bloggy friend that I have actually met in the real life....and now consider to be a dear friend. After I read this blogpost, I immediately tried her recipe. The first time I made them, I just did the straight to-the-point classic brownie. But this time I made them...I changed it up a bit. I added Nestle Chocolate chunks and drizzled melted white chocolate over the top. They were so heavy, rich, delicious. Definitely calls for a large glass of ice cold milk to follow.

Best of all, inspired by my friends at Love Feast Table I chose to "Love Bomb" a friend. After I was done catering this lunch, I quickly dropped off 3 of the largest brownies, the ones from the middle of the pan (the best I think) to my friend Sue. She is an audiologist at the hospital, and works in a basement office with no windows 40 hours a week. While I know she loves her job, I know she loves brownies more... It was fun to surprise her and to make someone unexpectedly happy. I know the unexpected gifts are my favorite.

Speaking of gifts....my new bloggy friend Amanda did a post recently declaring that March 3rd should now be considered "National Help a Pregnant Lady Day". While....us bloggers declaring a holiday probably doesn't give us the right to call it a national holiday...we think it should be. Join the Facebook page, and we will help remind you this Wednesday to help our a pregnant friend.  Join in the fun! And if you do...be sure to come back and tell us what you did to help a friend out!