Welcome Gala for Michelle Anthony

A few weeks ago, we held a welcome gala for the new first lady of Hume Ministries: Michelle Anthony.

As the first welcome to Hume, I was commissioned to do two large 'edible arrangement' type fruit displays for the dessert table, and whatever other creative garde manger (pronounced "gar meh-zhay" in the French) fruit displays my mind could conjure up.  Needless to say, with free reign handed to me on an oval platter, I dove right in.  My final order consisted of mint leaves, green onions, red leaf lettuce, whole carrots, butternut squash, strawberries, grapes (red and green), pineapple, watermelons, whole cloves, bamboo skewers, and two new spray bottles, to name just a few things!

Four whole days of prep work later, and it was the big gala day.  I started a full 8 hours before the scheduled start, and finally accomplished pulling everything off.  See below for the photos!  I did everything except the actual food items.

Wide angle of the dessert table.

Flower vases on the appetizer table.

Close-up on edible arrangement.

Watermelon rose.  Enough said.

Two of them!

Melon swan with ladybugs.

Above said swan with ice bowl of melon balls, grapes, strawberries, and cherries.

Edible arrangement #2.

Hume Lake Spring Women's Conference 2011

This last weekend we had our spring women's conference up here at Hume Lake.  Despite snowing on the last day, everything went smoothly and we heard a lot of good reviews.  Saturday night I made the alfredo sauce for our alfredo bruschetta chicken and it turned out delicious!  Someone even used "life-changing" in conjunction with it.  Although I hope the alfredo sauce was the least of the life-changing events last weekend, I'm posting the recipe below anyways for your culinary enjoyment.


Since the beginning of our spring conference season this year, I've kind-of inherited the role of garde manger chef.  I've been put in charge of preparing the garnishes for our carving boards and buffet lines, which I've fallen in love with.  I'm still stuck with a paring knife and razor blade as my tools, but our head chef said she'll bring her set in so I can use on the weekends.  Even so, I've found ways to be creative with the materials on hand.

One of my carving boards.  A true fruit basket!

Here's a link to my ongoing album of work, which I keep updated as I make displays.
My Fruit Displays (Facebook)

Alfredo Bruschetta Chicken Sauce

Makes 2 gallons

1 ½ lbs. bacon

1 ½ lbs. ground Italian sausage

1 c. minced garlic

2 lbs. cream cheese

2 lbs. grated parmesan cheese

1 ½ gallons heavy cream

1 gallon milk

¼ gallon heavy cream

1) Render bacon and sausage together in own grease over medium-high heat.

2) Add garlic and saute for 5 minutes, or until garlic is lightly browned.

3) Reduce heat to low.  Add cream cheese and parmesan cheese.  Stir frequently until melted.

4) Add cream ¼ gallon at a time, stirring to incorporate completely before next addition.  Add ½ gallon milk and stir in completely, then add remaining half.

5) Bring to low boil, stirring often and scraping bottom to prevent burning.  Reduce by ¾ gallon.

6) Blend well using immersion blender.  Finish with remaining ¼ gallon cream.

Saturday Food Service Event

Every Saturday, staff has an event.  Yesterday was department activities, so food service had a BBQ and slip-n-slide, and took over the staff lounge to watch a movie and play games afterward.  Here's a link to some pics from the event.

http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c291/abagfull/Photos/8-2%20Food%20Service%20Event/

Mystery Package!

So I got a package from the fam a week or two ago, and included was a "mystery package" - my mom had found a bag in the pantry and didn't know what it was, so she sent it to me.  Here is the live video footage of the opening of the package!

July 4th Parade

Day 2, Installment 2

Day 2