Dana and Julie Go Abroad: At Your Service!

After the most lovely three weeks in southern England, Julie and I found ourselves in Yorkshire, only eight miles outside of the seaside city of Scarborough! We are currently being hosted by a wonderful couple who love to cater weddings, run a small B&B and organize and put on a large community event that includes music, drama, campfires and all sorts of other activities for all ages!

Arriving in Yorkshire, we instantly took in a different landscape than we'd previously seen in England. Here there are miles and miles of fields slightly rolling off into the distance. There are some hedges, but most of the beautiful grazing cattle and sheep are kept in their respective pastures by fences with wire! The intense yellow of the grain fields truly look like gold under the sunlight!

While we enjoyed taking in the views of the farming grounds, we were busy inside preparing for the upcoming wedding our host was catering. S, the wife, is the chef of the catering business and she put together an amazing Mediterranean and English menu. Julie and I were able to cut, slice, chop and whiz all kinds of ingredients for the different dishes. When using the food processor, our hosts asked us to 'whiz' whatever it was that needed to be pulverized in the machine. We whizzed chickpeas and amaretto biscuits for different recipes! I love to say whiz!

Julie helped mix together the falafel mixture, fold spinach filling into filo pastries and cut beet root into matchsticks! I had the awesome job of accompanying C, the husband, to the grocery stores a couple times for food shopping! I love grocery shopping and thoroughly enjoyed walking the new supermarkets and filling up our cart! Back at the house, I washed up and did the dishes of all the bowls, pots, pans and utensils we used in the preparations.

All of the dishes were made from scratch, so lots of work was needed to be finished before the big day on Saturday! It was lots of fun listening to music in the kitchen, chatting along to everyone as we did our projects and enjoying loads of tea throughout the day!

Saturday started bright and early and after filling a big van and another car with the food and supplies, we were off on the road with our crew of seven!

The wedding was at a beautiful old castle looking hunting-estate-turned-hostel two hours from Scarborough near the town of Richmond. It was set in the magnificent Yorkshire Dales; a wonderful setting with green pastures and white fluffy sheep dotting the countryside!

With the magnificent landscape around us, we set to work finishing the dishes, setting the tables for the 100 guests and getting everything cooked and ready for the wedding meal in the evening.

Finally around 6:00p.m. we were really in business! Julie helped heap the appetizer platters with pastries, beetroot salad, flat bread I'd warmed up and falafel rounds. I carried out the three different sauces and the feast began! And what a feast?!

Julie and I easily went into 'get things done' mode and were quickly serving up seconds of appetizers and salad. The bride's family is from Germany, so I also was able to switch between German and English a bit while I served up the tasty food to the different tables. It was so fun to have German around us again!

It wasn't long before we found ourselves behind the serving table for the main course. Lamb, pork, potatoes and broccoli, along with an entire vegetarian spread was on the menu for the evening. The guests were so warm and friendly! I really enjoyed serving and interacting with the different people. Julie was happy to become a bit of a runner getting extra food for the chafing dishes as they became low or refilling the gravy bowls.

Dinner was served and the dishes needed to be cleared! The whole crew worked together gathering plates and dishes and delivering them to the dish room. It was officially time to start washing up! I was so thankful for the industrial dishwasher!

For the next three to four hours, Julie and I rinsed and washed and put away the hundreds of dishes used. We thankfully were assisted with the pots and pans! We really got a system down and also took breaks from washing to help serve the chocolate torte and cream for dessert!

It was a lot of work, but the team we worked with made it fun and upbeat! Finally around midnight the last cups were coming out of the hot dishwasher and we packed up and made the long way back! Julie and I were thankful for S's driving as we were passed out sleeping in the backseat!

I'm not sure I'll start up my own catering business when I return home or seek out serving jobs; but it was a great experience! Julie and I both learned lots and we did enjoy working with the others and had fun singing and listening to music as we got everything done!