The Rehearsal Dinner

The closest I have come to being over stressed about the wedding was on Friday, the day of the rehearsal dinner. I had it all planned out and I had a lot of wonderful help. Our church hall kitchen is very small and the oven only had one rack. So after decorating, I went back home and fixed everything in my kitchen. I was due to meet my help back at the hall at 4:00 p.m. I was about 10 minutes late but my sister-in-law and niece waited patiently for me to get there. And everything went great. I just had about 30 minutes of craziness.

 

Two of my sisters and my mom came to help decorate and peel potatoes. 

 

Decorations were kept very simple. Each of the tables looked like this.

 The wedding attendants. 

Becca's paternal grandmother and godparents.

Craig's Paternal Grandmother and (Step) Grandfather.

 

Craig's Maternal Grandparents

In the back ground you can see the bride's parents (between the heads of the two in the foreground.) Speaking of which, the young man in the blue striped shirt is Becca's twin. He is like family also.

The menu included grilled chicken (thanks to Larry), German potato casserole, baked beans, and a side salad. The German potato recipe can be found here and I recommend it to everyone. It was fabulous. Instead of standing in the kitchen and frying bacon, I used a package of real bacon pieces that I purchased from Sams. For the baked beans I used the following recipe.

Easy Baked Beans

1 lb hamburger meat browned
1 pkg bacon, cooked and chopped
1 small onion, diced
2 cans pork and beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can butter beans
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
2 T vinegar

Combine all ingredients and bake at 375 for 1 hr.

I actually put all of the ingreadients in a cooker and let them cook all afternoon. So the recipe does work well in a crockpot.  When I make this recipe again for my family, I think I will add some cubed potatoes and have a meal. They would be great served over cornbread or even rice. Delicious!!!!!

The big hit of the evening was the iced coffee I served with the cake. The cake I made was a buttermilk brownie with icing---topped with a dollop of whipped topping and a cherry. Wonderful and fattening. The iced coffee recipe was from the Pioneer Woman and I also recommend it. I like hot coffee in the morning but next summer I will definitely mix up some of this to keep in my refrigerator.

If you have a big gathering and want to try it, this is what I did. I made the coffee mix the day before like she recommended. The evening of the rehearsal dinner. We poured equal parts of the coffee and milk in a punch bowl. We put glasses of ice on the table with flavored syrups and sugar. The guests then fixed it as they like it.

It was a great evening. But, you know how it is, it all ends too quickly.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.