A little over a month ago I was asked if I would be interested in helping my hair dresser, Char, with food for her daughters baby shower.  I originally said “yes, I can help anywhere you want me to” and I never heard anything from her so I let it all go.

I then went back in for my daughter to get a hair cut and Char started to ask me basic questions about food, like “what is easy to serve at a baby shower?”, “what is a little more upscale then sandwiches for a babysitter?”, “what is healthier for a baby shower?” (her daughter is a model, yes a real model and so beautiful).  I offered suggestions for each question and as I was walking out Char said “let me know how much it would all cost”…now I was confused, was I doing the catering for the baby shower?  Was I coming out to help?  or just offering ideas?

I contacted Char and asked “am I doing a bid for a catering job or just offering to help”?  She ended up doing a barter, hair services for catering, she offered to pay for the food costs and our “services” would be the barter.

We ended up meeting to discuss me doing the catering, I brought my iPad to go over a menu that would work for her.  She picked out 4 appetizers, a salad, a rice dish and chicken piccata, I was also to provide iced tea and water. Char said she’d provide desserts and she asked to stay in budget of $200 to feed 19 guests, that’s $10.52 per guest.

Here is what I did and I apologize for the lack of photos, in catering it’s one of those things, you go from 0-100mph and I had to just grab a shot where ever I could.

Char bought hummus at a local farmers market, she bought 3 different kinds, we put the hummus on a patter, first we took lettuce and placed the hummus on top, drizzled some olive oil on top and sprinkled some paprika.  I’m sorry that one went out without a photo.

To keep the hummus healthy, we put out pita chips and carrots/cucumbers, I did snap a shot of the carrots/cucumbers.  As you can see, I cut my carrots the same way as I did the cucumbers as I thought it looked much nicer, we took basic flower buds from a garden and used them to dress up the platter.

we also did a cheese platter, we used Smoked Gouda, a Cambozola, a baked brea and a Pesto Gouda (Char provided that one), on the patter we put grapes, dried apricots, dried figs and apple slices.  I also used the white rose buds on the platter.

to keep it healthy, I made my watermelon on a stick with feta and mint, this is the more challenging appetizer believe it or not but it’s also one of my favorites as it’s so refreshing.

I did my crostini and made homemade bruchetta, I put a little ricotta cheese on the bottom of each crostini and to bring it to the next level I put just a dab of micro greens on top.  I used a red flowers for this platter.

For the main part of the party (and I apologize for the photos), I made a mixed green salad.  I put dried cranberries, feta, apple, shredded cabbage (my new favorite add in to a salad), candied pecans and I made a homemade balsamic dressing.

I made a Parmesan orzo dish, the recipe was from Rachel Ray and I have to say, it was amazing!!!!

I also made my favorite broccoli dish as a bonus because I felt like I needed a little extra something and I knew it would compliment the meal and it was super healthy.

and the final dish…my chicken piccata with artichoke hearts (click here for the recipe for my chicken piccata)…YUM!!!!!!  My one pot chicken is basically the same recipe but I omitted the mushrooms to create this dish (I’ve had a lot of requests for this dish so I wanted to make reference to it)

And while I don’t have photos, I did make my famous iced tea (I provided sugar as I didn’t make it sweet)…I made 2 gallons and it all vanished!  I also had a dispenser for water with lemon, orange and cucumber in it.

The whole meal costs were only $175 so I stayed under budget…so everyone was happy.

If you would like recipes for any of the above meals, send me an email at Patty@MmGood.com and I’d be happy to do the recipe and tutorials on them.

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