fruit salad

Last weekend marked my first sorta-big solo catering job of the year — a bridal shower luncheon my friend Michelle was hosting for her husband’s niece. Does the idea of fixing lunch for 25 women intimidate you? Not me! Admittedly, the menu wasn’t terribly complicated and Michelle is a fairly easy-to-please audience, so I felt really comfortable with the whole gig from the beginning.

Thanks to Michelle’s creative flair, the decor was fabulous and budget-minded. She really has a knack for pulling together some wonderful stuff! The tables were set with simple rented china, glasses and flatware and capped off with blue tissue paper flower bouquets and cloth napkins tied with matching blue ribbon (the bride’s colors). It all looked very fresh and classy, and apart from a very minor hiccup with the rentals (they gave us forks and knives instead of forks and cake forks), all went very smoothly.

For the lunch itself, I prepared chicken salad on mini croissants, a generously filled cheese/crudite and dip platter, and a fresh seasonal fruit salad with a vanilla bean ginger syrup stirred in to kick it up a little bit. For dessert, Michelle assembled several cake stands full of white cupcakes with blue sugar-crusted frosting. Lovely!

Since the menu was fairly straightforward, I jazzed up the presentation with a few pretty garnishes – butterflies carved from apples, fanned strawberries and halved orange and lemon “flowers.” All in all, I was really pleased with the way everything came together in the end.