Cajun Dinner

OMG! What a success!! We worked hard, but it was worth it. Our guests had such a good time and the food was so delicious. 

Bruce and Karolyn are from Lafayette, LA and have been our friends for 25+ years now. Our children grew up together. We started auctioning Cajun dinners sometime in the mid-nineties for various fund raisers. Last fall, I was working on the dinner/auction for Christ the King (the church they've always belonged to---that we just joined last year). I volunteered all of us for another Cajun dinner---unbeknownst to them---I knew they would "be on board." I'm lucky like that! My friends are willing to go along with any of my schemes!

Here's a picture of the table before the guests arrived. Darn, I just realized I should have taken a close-up picture of the crawfish plates. You can see a tiny bottle of Tobasco on the left. They were the table favors for the men. The women got pralines seen in the cellophane bags. They literally melt in your mouth. The secret ingredient is buttermilk. I just realized that I need to get the Broussard's permission before I share any of their recipes. 

Bruce and Karolyn. We all had on our Mardi Gras beads and pins. Bruce has his own chef coat with his name embroidered on it.

Butch giving Bruce a hand with the green beans---not really. We served a 5 course dinner:

Corn and Crab Bisque

Barbecue Shrimp with French bread

Raspberry Sorbet 

Entree (crawfish pie, green beans with andouille, and a shrimp and eggplant casserole, French bread)

Broussard Banana Crepes Flambe (the flaming didn't work because we turned on the vent that sucked all the Grand Marnier fumes out---thus, they wouldn't ignite). 

Here's Karolyn giving the demonstration for the crepes.

There were 8 people and the 4 of us. The party started at 6 and they left about 8:45. We finished up the cleaning and sat down with a glass of wine to go over the evening's events. 

Our guests each had 2 cocktails before dinner, drank 6 bottles of wine and 4 HUGE pitchers of water. I couldn't believe it. Believe me, we were generous in our food portions. But still, after the party, as I was doing dishes, a couple of the men came in to thank us, and then did this. Luckily we had exactly 2 pieces of French bread left.

They paid $800 for the meal---I'm not sure yet what it cost us---but they were happy! I think next year, we might have a bidding war on our hands! That's okay with us---the more money raised, the better. Fund raising. That just reminds me. I'm good at it! But, then I remind myself, I'm retired!