First and Last Catering Job!

Not a good weekend for sleep, but it was fun! Saturday was the debut of our catering service. One of my co-worker's (and a very good friend of Kate's) Carla was turning 40 on Saturday and the party was also celebrating her engagement to Erik. We had Friday off work for Mothers Day! (I love you Mommy!) We were at the central market at 8am to do some of the shopping. Breakfast was priority, and as you can see, we were the early birds....the first customers! I am on a mission for this Panama straw hat....I finally found the perfect one at the market, but didn't buy it because #1 it was too smalland #2 it was almost $60.....hell no! The Panama Hat actually comes from Ecuador where the toquilla palm leaf grows. (it was commercialized in Panama at the time the Panama Canal was build...hence the name) The palms are shredded into fiber straws, woven by hand, shaped, bleached, sun dried and trimmed into what is perhaps the finest hat...ok that is a lot of work.....but I get annoyed with Costa Rica prices sometimes....are we not in Latin America?? Im going to Honduras next week, so I will wait and get it there. Im determined to get a deal! (NOT a gringa price)

I found myself annoyed with prices again Friday night when we went to Taj Mahal to eat dinner. Ok yes, its the only Indian restaurant in San Jose, and YES it is good as HELL...but $20 per dish? come ooooooooooon!!!!!!!!! yep! we paid it! But, damn them with that monopoly...
I can't patronize Taj Mahal everytime I feel like Indian. Im going to beg Smita to bring me some of my favorite Indian packets when she comes. After dinner, we needed more drinks to unwind...we had spent a good part of the day in the kitchen preparing for the catering job. Mas Tequila was pretty packed. We pulled up to the bar and ordered a few cervezas. We stayed for the first set of the 80's cover band.......Oh God....you haven't seen cheese until you see it covered with a Spanish accent!! Pretty entertaining though! The next morning...an early start again...off to the vege market and then IN THE KITCHEN ALL DAY! We had music playing and lots of laughing...not too much stressing thank God! We timed it pretty well! My line for the day was..."Are you sure we need to make ALL this food?" "Boy that's a lot of sausage?" and Kates line was "IT'S FOR 50 PEOPLE!" We recruited Diana....she rolled meatballs for 2 hours!!!
We finally took our SHOW over to Carla's kitchen and did the finally prepping.Ahhhhh, finally we were able to put on our dresses and have some drinks! It was a nice spread, I must say.....but we definately over estimated the amount of food. We don't quite have the formula down.......because we are not caterers!! (ps. Ernesto did un-tuck his shirt...if you were wondering...doesn't look like him, does it?)
Carla and Erik are Brasilian, and Erik is a musician, so needless to say, lots of music and dancing.
It was so sweet, he sang a song to Carla....ahhhh I wish I could understand Portuguese. ...and she suprised him with a ring inside the engagment cake. It was awesome!
I think the Brazilians were to busy dancing to eat.....we had some major left overs. It couldn't have been the food quality!!! I promise, this is the last time Ill say it Kate... "ITS FOR 50 PEOPLE!" (you know im kidding!) Anyhoo, we have dinner prepared for the next few days! Which is perfect because lately I have been feeling that my life is revolving too much around food....what are we making for dinner and needing to go shopping for food. I love to eat and I love it to be good food, but this is not what I want to do every night, and I dont want all of my budget to go for food. My priorites here in Costa Rica are: Habitat, Spanish, dancing, exercising, and traveling.....just to get that straight!! Pura Vida!!