In Which I Pretended to Be a Caterer

A few years ago we moved to Kansas and left our old and decrepit tax accountant back in Utah. We sent him our documents for taxes for the first year we moved here and never heard from him again. We're pretty sure he died. With our tax documents. He's probably buried with them, who knows.

Flash forward a bit and we found some friends who introduced us to a new tax guy. He's fantastic and quick and his wife is crazy and fabulous. Tax time for the Alexander family is no longer stressful in any way because of the blessing of finding the Draper family.

Mrs. Tax Guy is actually named Susan. She is so trusting and encouraging and this lead her to HIRING me to cater her youngest's wedding open house. Meaning, money would be changing hands. For food that I make. Their nearest and dearest would be eating things I make. But wait, there's more.

For one hundred people.

ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE WOULD BE EATING THINGS I MAKE.

After I realized she wasn't joking, I kind of said yes. Susan gave me free reign on the menu. She described that she wanted it to be simple and elegant and a variety of hors d'oeuvre. I can do simple and I can do elegant.

Check. Check. CHECK. I can do this.

It was a learning experience and forced me to be extremely organized for the weeks leading up the open house. I had a shopping list for each day the week of. I had a to-do list for each day that week. I made way too much food and learned that 100 people will not eat 1000 items. But all the websites I looked up for advice told me to plan for it. Lesson, learned. Websites, wrong.

I wanted everything to be simple and beautiful. To do this, you just need simple ingredients with complex flavors -- and to make sure it's pretty.

Successful?

I'd say so. Now, who wants to hire me next?