The Party Food

What's a party without food? Well, we had LOTS of food. :) While the main event was a BBQ Saturday evening, we had a number of other meals to serve as well -- pizza dinner Friday night, several breakfasts, a few impromptu lunches, and then a more organized lunch on Sunday after church. It was fun to have so much food around and just be able to pull things out whenever!

Breakfasts consisted of panera bagels, orange juice, fruit, and cereal, as well as plenty of coffee. I couldn't believe how much coffee we blew threw in the course of the weekend!

So many people invested time to help us with the preparations for this event -- from friends who loaned dishes, coolers, tables, to Emily who did half of the food preparation (basically all day Saturday), my mom who did the flowers, and then some friends that I called at the last minute to see if they could come grill and serve the actual meal.

On arriving home from the memorial service, everyone feasted on appetizers:

We had veggies and dip, homemade fresh salsa and chips, and a beautiful antipasta platter that included marinated veggies, marinated mushrooms, tortellini, summer sausage, mozzarella balls, and Greek olives.
I just loved the colors on this platter!

Here is our friend, Mr. G., tending to the three grills. I heard one lady tell him that the chicken he grilled was the best she had ever had! Way to go Mr. G!

Meanwhile Mrs. G was busy in the kitchen keeping all the grilled meats warm and setting out the feast on the table. We had potato salad, broccoli salad, three-melon salad, a relish tray, more veggies and dip, and then the grilled bratwurst, chicken sausage, chicken breasts, and hamburgers:
For dessert there were the 5 pies mentioned previously served with icecream:
Food for the eyes was all around us. Here is the arrangement my mom made for the church which we brought back for the table:

We had four tables outside, covered with blue table coverings and decorated with the sunflower bouquets. It all looked very festive!

Of course the most important part in a party is the PEOPLE! Tomorrow I'll introduce you to them!