Catering a winter party.

 

 I did a wedding lunch last summer, and decided that was my last catering job.  I love the creativity, and the sense of accomplishment, but it seems like my Graves disease gets really bad whenever I have a job.  It really is a high stress situation where the forgetting of one tiny detail, or the mis-scheduling of half an hour can ruin an event.  However, I've got a friend that can talk me into anything, and she asked me to do her husbands work party.  I did their last party and posted about it here.

 

 They did this party instead of a Christmas party, but we obviously couldn't use Christmas decor, so decided on a winter wonderland-type theme.  I'd done this as part of a party at the University of Utah years ago with my sisters.  I've got a big curly willow tree in my neighborhood that I was able to beg branches off of, and we painted them silver, stuck them in hurricanes filled with salt, and poked a mini flashlight into the middle to shine up into the branches.  Then I took a bunch of glittery fabric and sewed table runners for all of the tables.  Sigh.  I was covered in glitter for a week and my floor still looks like the silver brick road, but it looked pretty nice anyway.

 We probably could have used a little garland or something between the chafing dishes too, but it slipped my mind.  At least all of the chafers were silver :)

 Pork medallions with apples, cranberries, and cherries.

 Tuscan rolled chicken with feta, sun dried tomatoes, pinenuts, and fresh basil.

 Garlic-rosemary roasted red skinned potatoes.

 Balsamic roasted vegetables.

 Strawberry - Wonton salad with strawberry balsamic vinaigrette.

 Dessert!  Raspberry White Chocolate cheesecake, and Chocolate Caramel Decadence layer cake.

I split this job with my catering partner and we each took half the work.  This made a HUGE difference in being able to handle this job, but I still had a bad week or two with the Graves.  I bought a Bodymedia Fit --which is kind of like a bodybug (it tracks the calories you burn all day and night ), and the day before the party I burned 2900 calories.  That's not a typo.  Granted, I was working pretty hard, but that's kind of outrageous a calorie burn for someone my size.  Day of, I burned 3349.  Luckily, I'm getting back to normal quickly.  I taught my weights class, and moved all day yesterday cleaning dishes and the house after a week of neglect, and although I had 200-300 more steps than Thursday (the day before the catering job) I burned 300 calories less.  That tells me I'm getting back on track which is good.  I have an appetite that goes through the roof when I'm Gravesy and I'm a lot more impulsive in my eating, not to mention the heart stuff and anxiety.  I finally feel a little calmer this morning.

I have to say though that Friday night was so fun!  It was hard work (did I mention 3200 calories!?), but I just love doing that stuff.  Maybe someday when I get completely healthy I can take catering back up again regularly.

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