Dinner with a twist!

Tonight, we had our care group over for "dinner... with a twist." It was a potluck dinner, and we did the main course. Several years ago, in a different care group, we were the recipients of a dinner just like this, so now as the care group leaders, we wanted to do this for our friends.

(For anyone that doesn't know what a "care group" is... it's just a fancy name for a Bible study group, but every once in awhile we do a social event, and so that's what this is all about!)

We sectioned off the kitchen...


We set the table...

Gave everyone their menu....


Had them fill out their choices, but here's the twist - we gave everything a code name, so they didn't know what they would end up with in which order!!!!! It was a hoot.

Here's the code:

Roses - main dish (crock pot chicken with a side of potato salad) I thought since roses are the real prize when it comes to flowers, they should have the honour of being the main dish!
Blossoms - Beverages... just started with the same letter... that's the logic here!
Venus Flytrap - dinner rolls - flies are small, and therefore the Venus flytrap should be the appetizer!
Wildflowers - assorted raw veggies and dip... you never really know what you're going to get with wildflowers, so I thought it fit the veggie plate!
Orchids - dessert... when I was a kid, a friend and I got to go visit a florist shop with my friend's mom. We were given an orchid each with the little plastic water tube on the end so they'd stay alive... I thought I had struck it rich - that to me is the most delightful flower - therefore, it shall be dessert!
Bluebells - salad... we simply needed one more flower name to represent the salad... I envisioned bluebells blowing in the wind like a tossed salad - a little flighty, I know, but it is what it is!

In the kitchen, after the menus were collected, I quickly filled out this chart that was ready to go, and it kept us organized with who got what for each course of the meal! We just checked each one off as they got it, and once everyone got their course one, we moved onto course 2, started filling those orders, etc, until all 6 were done.

Yes, Alexa... I confess that I mixed up your course one and course 2, but since one was salad and the other one was a veggie plate, I didn't think I needed to mention it... but it shows on here that I messed up, so I will confess!!!

We used almost every plate in the kitchen... there was a set of ivy dishes that I didn't pull out (they're antiques! And since this was a rather quick moving transition from one plate to the next, I thought something was going to break for sure... but nothing did!) When dinner was over, everyone finished watching the Canucks game...(which they WON!) and then I offered more dessert and coffee... we had to start pulling out bowls because all the plates were dirty! But as of 23 minutes after everyone had left our house, the kitchen was cleaned to a shine again! Thanks husband - I totally would have left it until tomorrow! But I loaded the dishwasher, took the tables apart, and he washed the plates that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, and scrubbed the crock pot, and put food away. What a team!