Making Sure it Came Together

Making sure that dinner for 18 came together, I was certain would require some serious delegating. I sent an email out three days before everyone arrived announcing who would be responsible for which dish. I did most of the shopping (except noted below) and everyone was handed a recipe card and their ingredients when it was time to get started. Here's the menu (which contains some our all-time favorite "old school" dishes):

Appetizers:

cheese platter/bleu cheese dip/crackers - Stephanie

lil' smokies in bbq sauce - Bobby H.

Hawaiian meatballs - Bobby P.

clam dip and chips - Tami G. 

Dinner:

turkey - Me

ham - Me

mashed potatoes - Tami G.

candied yams - Amada

corn casserole - Jacque'

"Three-stick Stuffing" - Jenn

green beans with toasted almonds - Shannon

carrot ginger soup - Jessica (brought from home)

best-ever green salad - Linda

fresh cranberry sauce - Seaira and Brianna

gravy - Shannon

Dessert:

Grandpa's famous sugar cookies - Grandpa (baked and brought from home)

pumpkin pies - Shannon (baked and brought from home)

7-layer bars - Tami G. (baked and brought from home)

If you're paying attention, you'll notice that Greg and Gary have no food to prepare. Actually, Greg manned the bbq which cooked the stuffing, heated the rolls, and kept some of the other dishes warm while the rest was in the oven. Uncle Gary had another important job... another post about that soon!

The Jones Women (not including me) arrived a bit too late for Steph to achieve her appetizer in time, so Bobby H. stepped up and took on the cheese platter.

Tami G. was busy at the sink peeling potatoes for most of the morning.

Here's Shannon (my mom)  in action at the stove top doing the gravy and green beans before we sit down to the feast.

Amanda prepares the candied yams.

I realized after I took this picture of "the finale" that my salad plate (including rolls) was missing... use your imagination! You might also imagine the ham and turkey because they are literally buried under the other items!

Delicious!

Good work team!