My Valentines Day turned out to be a busy but fun filled day spent with family. Pam had thrown out the idea of hosting a Valentines Day banquet last week, and everything seemed to work out so that we could actually have it on Valentines Day. It has become an annual tradition in the McFarland family(s) to have a banquet around Valentines Day, but we are never sure exactly which day we will have it, so that everybody's schedules can coincide. We decided to do all the cooking and hold the banquet at Dad and Mom McFarland's house because they have more room in the kitchen for all of the cooks, and a bigger table to fit everybody around. I arrived at their house around 9:30 in the morning and we began our day. We started out by taking a trip to a local second hand clothing shop to see if there were any bargains. After finding a couple of treasures there, we headed back to the house to pick up Mom and Charity who had just got done school, and headed to Ellsworth to run errands, get Mom's hair done for the banquet that night, and to pick up supplies we needed to cook with. After an errand-filled afternoon in town, we arrived home around 3:00 to start preparing for the banquet. Pam had been in charge of planning the main course, and a soup and/or salad dish. I was in charge of planning the appetizer and dessert. We collaborated our recipes and began helping each other out in the preparing of them. Gradually our respective men arrived home for supper, and by the time the last one had arrived, our feast was ready.
Pam and I both enjoy cooking, so the idea of cooking together to put on a banquet was something we looked forward to. Here we are in the kitchen working on the trifle we made for dessert. Our banquet consisted of four courses : Appetizer- cheese ball and crackers
Soup/Salad- tossed garden salad topped with cheese and croutons
Maine Dish- parmesan chicken fingers
Dessert- strawberry lemon curd trifle
Everybody pitched in and helped us get the meal prepared, and we all enjoyed chatting and spending time together.
We are enjoying having Tim and Becca here visiting for a few days, and Becca was so happy to be able to participate in getting the banquet ready. She set and decorated the table complete with candles, cloth napkins, and valentine candy in little dishes.
Pam looked up online how to fold cloth napkins and this is what Becca ended up folding. The red napkins turned into roses and were set on each lady's plate. The black napkins turned into hearts and were set on each guy's plate.
Pam whipped up a cheese sauce for the parmesan chicken fingers, and put it in her fondue maker to keep it warm while we enjoyed the previous courses. Who can have a Valentine banquet without a fondue maker being present? :-)
Becca made the tossed salad that you can see in the background on the table. Then she helped me arrange crackers on plates to serve with the cheeseball. We have found that it is so much more fun to work together, than to just do a potluck where everybody makes something in their own kitchen and arrvives at supper time with their contribution.
By the time we sat down to eat, we ladies got so excited/busy serving the different courses, that we actually forgot to take pictures of us seated with our gentleman at the table, or of our finished creations before we began eating them. You'll just have to believe me when I say the food was delicious, and we were all stuffed by the time we got done eating! :-)
My Valentine brought me home exhausted around 9:00 and I headed to the bedroom immediately to fall into bed. When I walked into the bedroom and turned on the light, this greeted me on my pillow!
The softest teddy bear you have ever felt smiled up at me from the pillow holding a HUGE chocolate candy kiss. ( I think it must be about a pound of chocolate). A beautiful card with a sweet message from my man lay beside the teddy bear. My adorable man had not forgotten it was Valentines Day and bought me something special to remind me that he loves me!!! It was the perfect end to a busy, yet enjoyable day!
