A couple of weekends ago my friend Rhonda and I had our first catering gig!
Making food for people is something we have both enjoyed doing for a long time.
And we’ve entertained trying to turn it into a job in about fifty different ways.
But this gig just fell right into our laps, mostly because Rhonda is already pretty well known for throwing a mean crawfish boil on her patio.
So when some friends of ours asked her to do a crawfish boil for their rehearsal dinner, we jumped at the chance.
It’s the most relaxed party you could possibly imagine.
You have to be pretty at ease in your surroundings to eat an entire meal with your hands, not to mention tearing open lots of little critters.
Which is basically what crawfish are. Critters.
Our experience with the crawfish was definitely an adventure!
We had to make about four trips to Floyd’s Fish Market before we actually had the little fellas. 35 pounds of squirming, pinching bottom feeders in the back of Rhonda’s car made us laugh very hard.
We also had a little trouble getting them into the pot, but thank goodness, Taido was doing the wedding, so he was at the dinner and ready to lend a hand with the Putting of Live Animals into Boiling Water. Plus the wedding singer threw his hands in the mess for us too!
We were very grateful!
We made a few appetizers, all from our church cookbook.
Rhonda made strawberry icebox pie, also a recipe slightly adjusted from our church cookbook.
We planned and collected everything we needed: shrimp, crawfish, andouille sausage, corn, new potatoes and shrimp boil.
We found the biggest pots we could get our hands on and followed the boil instructions on the package.
Somehow, it worked!
We dumped the boil out on butcher paper covered tables and everyone went at it!
It was a ball!
We got to stand back and watch the groom make the sweetest speech ever to his family and friends.
We even got to watch the slideshow.
Everyone had fun and was able to sit back and relax for a minute before the crazy of the wedding the next day.
The one where the preacher got the time wrong and didn’t show up until after it was supposed to begin.
Oops.
Thankfully, this family is super laid back and PRECIOUS! We were thrilled to be a part of their happy event!
Oh, and Whitney took their wedding photos. You should totally go see those, because they are gorgeous.
Cassie’s dress was FABULOUS!
This is us at the end of the night, a little wiped out! But I made Taido snap a picture of us in our matching aprons from our sweet friend, Beverly!
Here’s the recipe for the pie, which I am making this week for my book club. I’ve made a couple of adjustments to the original.
Strawberry Icebox Pie
16 oreos
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups strawberries, chopped small
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 can Eagle Brand Milk
Crush oreos and combine with butter. Press into a 9 inch pie plate.
Whip cream in a mixer with whisk attachment with a tablespoon of sugar.
Add Eagle Brand milk.
Fold in strawberries.
Spread on top of pie crust and freeze.
Take out of the freezer for about 10 to 20 minutes before slicing and serving.
Enjoy!
Mmmmmm. I know it was delicious with you two making it…