Have you ever had a Garage Sale? I swore I would NEVER do that, I had heard the nightmarish stories and generally tend to donate things when they stopped being used…But after 20 years and raising children in this house, our basement was a disaster. DD [darling daughter] felt generally responsible since most of the stuff was from her college days and recent move into a new house. “We should have a Garage Sale!’ she said energetically, “I’ll do all the work!” No need to expound here, you know the rest of story. In her defense, she did do a lot of the work and planning and she managed to recruit her husband, brother, father, mother-in-law, one of my friend’s, her Aunt and her cousin to help us! Did I mention she is energetic? Well, we always have fun and its always an adventure and the resulting bonus is that our basement is clean and EMPTY! To reward the guys for their efforts and to keep them motivated for the next day, I invited Hungry Husband Jr, DD & Nicest Guy [my son in-law] to come over for steaks the night before the sale.
The foyer table would be perfect for our dinner for 5, especially since my dining room table currently looks like this,
I decided to use the 2 rusty suede leaf placemats and 3 rattan chargers for the other placemats. The dark brown rattan and the rusty orange suede contribute to the overall rustic textural feel of the table. I did have 5 dinner plates in a colored pattern that would coordinate and 5 green napkins. The sunflower pitcher is from jmdesignsgallery.com
I had 3 mini striped pumpkins that I had used in a “Summer eases into Fall tablescape”
Believe it or not I saved these pumpkins from last year! They were perfectly fine after the season so I decided to tuck them in my china closet to see if they would last. They did! I tried to save some regular orange pie pumpkins but they started to mold and I had to toss them.
I had 3 gold goblets and mixed them with 2 green ones.
Because the original centerpiece was too tall for dining, I removed the green tier base to lower the compote to a better height for conversion. Note: in the original centerpiece I had used some plastic artichokes and wanted to mention that for company I would definitely switch these out for real ones! But for everyday, the plastic ones make sense. Inside the compote there is a mix of dried and crafted fruit and a straw pumpkin.
After a busy afternoon doing final preparations for the “Big Garage Sale” I knew everyone would be ready for a big steak and the trimmings. To make it easy on the sous chef [me] I loaded up on fresh vegetables from the farmer’s market and it was a simple matter of prepping them for roasting.
Washed veggies are sliced and put on a foil lined pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil and drizzled with Olive oil, S & P.
I love to photograph vegetables…
I shucked the corn and put it in a baking pan and covered it with foil. I used to wrap them in foil individually, but this is even easier [and less expensive than using a ton of foil]. Roasted corn has such a good flavor that butter is really optional. It is a great cooking method for a buffet service because it stays HOT a long time.
I cut large baking potatoes in half longwise and made deep diagonal scores across the cut surface of the potato. I drizzled them liberally with Olive oil, and lots of sea salt. Roast the corn and potatoes for 1 hour at 400, adding the vegetables after about 30 minutes. Run the potatoes under the broiler for a few minutes if necessary, to brown.
I used this narrow loaf pan for the corn so I could get everything in my oven…it worked fine, the corn didn’t care!
With the cooked vegetables I served some freshly shaved Parmesan cheese on the side. HHjr did a great job of cooking the steaks perfectly for everyone.
Sausage balls are ready to load into crockpot for the hungry workers. For some great sausage ball recipes check out plainchicken.com, she has some fantastic easy sausage ball recipes and many others too!
Doing the final touches…
Ready for business!
This is the view I will hopefully be looking at next weekend! [Minus the kiddos!] HH & I are getting out of town so we can rest!