Big Fork Open House, Oct. 13

  Another busy and festive day!
  All morning was taken up with prepping for the big Open House. Jecca made a double batch of Congo bars. She set up the bar area outside - wine and beer, non alcoholic seltzers with various things to add in - Huckleberry syrup, Pom juice etc. Bev made labels for all the varieties of food. The outside deck furniture was arranged nicely and the firepit going in the tall table. Nick set up the food on the big table just outside the kitchen and the desserts on the counter. Everyone pitched in and ran extra errands, such as Shelley and Marwan getting extra garbage bins and more bread for sliders etc etc.

   The Open House started at 2 and, once they all started to arrive, it was quite a gathering. We think there were between 60 - 65 people, but lost count. There were about 10 children and they played downstairs and in the backyard mostly. Every part of the house was utilized including the big screen room and the two smaller front rooms upstairs. There were 11 of us east-coasters and the rest were Maura's family and David and Maura's friends. Nick's menu included, among other things: mini beef Wellingtons, salmon with cheese on crackers, shrimp cocktail, bleu cheese puffs, egg rolls, steak sliders (Marwan did barbecuing) Mark McNuggets, roasted eggplant/peppers dip, sausage and cheese charcuterie, fruit platter with a homemade dipping sauce and a veggie platter, also with a homemade sauce. There were lots of baked goods. With all that, we did have leftovers, but not many. We'd have had more desserts left over, but people took baggies of them home.
    Most of the people left by around 5:30 and then many of us went into cleaning mode. Maura and one of her friends, Josie, went into the lower level and worked for hours on the dried flower centerpieces. A few of their friends stayed later, including Ben.

   Mark and Barbara spent some time in the sauna to relax, feeling very pleased with the outcome and proud of everyone who helped and especially proud of Nick and Jecca for working all day.