Lunch for 400

Mom has helped plan, cook, and serve for several different church activities. She came to girls camp for years and helped cook in the kitchen for all of the girls. She has helped with the midnight breakfasts for the youth New Year's Eve dance, and she has helped with lunches for Relief Society broadcasts and conferences. A few weeks ago, she and a few other women were in charge of another lunch for the Relief Society conference, and were told to plan for about 400 people. Of course, when Mom signed up to help, the whole family was enlisted :)

Other leaders had already decided they wanted to have a wide variety of salads for the lunch. They had planned to have a garden salad and a Caesar as the two main salads, and then there were tons of toppings and grilled chicken to go on top. Then there were a few different side salads. Mom and I made a broccoli salad and a cucumber salad, and other people made a chicken pasta salad, a ramen noodle salad, and an Asian fruit salad. Everything was delicious, but it was definitely hard work. Mom had been shopping and got all of the food ready to go, and when I got home from school on Friday afternoon, the fun started. We were in the kitchen all night Friday, and started working over at the church early Saturday morning.No surprise at all, but the lunch went off perfectly.

Cucumbers for a delicious cucumber salad... my favorite.

Mom and I chopped hundreds of vegetables. Broccoli, celery, onion, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce. It was looking pretty healthy in that kitchen, that's for sure.

Dad was volunteered to grill five huge bags of Costco chicken breasts. He was grilling for three and a half straight hours, but it was sure delicious.

Even using the food processor to just quickly chop up the onions, the juices were everywhere. Thanks to Suzanne's goggles, not a tear was shed (which was awesome because I cry like a baby when I chop onions). Genius idea if I do say so myself.

Evan climbed all around the kitchen just saying, "I'm helping. I'm helping." Cutest help there is.

 

Mom and I. She was definitely a little bit on the tired side. 

The fridge was packed. Thankfully it was plenty cold outside, so we left some of the other things in the van.

My helper and I 

We did a lot, but so many people are always involved in big events like this. Almost 50 tables were set up and decorated for everyone.

Beautiful center pieces on the tables.

With my Mom, I sure have been taught a few things about cooking. My family really is lucky to have a Mom that can cook pretty dang well. She has let my siblings and I experiment and learn for ourselves in the kitchen. I definitely don't think many people my age could say they have cooked for 400 :)