I Love it When a Plan (mostly) Comes Together.

This past Thursday was the LCS (Legal Center and School) Club welcome coffee. Lisa (the amazing person in the picture with me) and I are the Programs Co-chairs on the LCS Board. I guess the current board president knew what she was doing, because Lisa was what sealed the deal and made me agree to be on the board this year, and I am what made Lisa agree to do the same. We both still feel like we got talked into something that was much bigger than we realized, but that is another issue.

The welcome coffee is the time where all the incoming grad course students' spouses (the students are welcome to participate as well, but it is generally the spouses) as well as all other individuals associated with the local military community are invited to come and see what our club is about, sign up to participate in any interest groups they would like to be involved with, decide whether to join the club, meet each other and eat and drink. Being co-chairs of programs, this was my and Lisa's dog and pony show. All board members who had items of business to present did so, but we had to organize it and put it on. We have been working on it for two months now, and the last week or so heavily. There were times (like when I found out days before that I couldn't set up when I wanted to and would have to be content with setting up two hours before the coffee started) that I was worried it wouldn't work out. The night was a success I am soooooooo happy to report. We had a few hiccups, but we worked those out, and I think we have a good group this year and will have a lot of fun.

Our theme we chose was green (as in environmental). Lisa took care of all the sign ups and shopping for drinks etc. I was in charge of the slide show and table decorations. Every member of the board brought either a dessert or an appetizer. I brought one of each because I was worried about there being enough food. It was just right pretty much. Some left over but not a ton. We had a great turn out, between 60 and 70, and people seemed to have a good time.

I owe several thanks. First of all, a HUGE thanks to my dad who helped pull apart the headers for our sign up sheets and who helped me find lots of great music to accompany my slide show. It was fabulous, and so many people came up and told me they enjoyed the music. We left it playing after the slide show through the rest of the coffee and listened to it again while cleaning up. You are awesome Dad. Thanks again.

Thanks to Sami too. She helped me pick all the wildflowers that are in the middle of the tables. She braved the bugs and all the rest and made sure I had plenty of purple and yellow and white. Her motto seemed to be that we needed more.

Thanks to Trent for helping in every area I needed help and for being so great about taking the kids all night and making it possible for me to do this. You are great. I love you.

Here are a couple more pics from the evening. They don't do a good job of showing much, but you get a general idea I suppose.




Finally, I made my (got the recipe from my step-mom actually) now award winning layered ginger chicken dip and lemon cheesecake squares with blackberries. I had a couple of requests for the later one if it was good, and it was (easy too), so here is the recipe:

Lemon Cheesecake Squares

3/4 cup shortening. (I used butter. I think it tastes better)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam (I used blackberry, but raspberry would be great too)

Filling:

4 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs

1/3 cup lemon juice

4 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1. In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and brown sugar. Combine the flour, oats and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Press dough into a greased 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Spread with the jam.

2. For filling, beat the cream cheese, sugar and flour until fluffy. Add the eggs, lemon juice and peel just until blended. Carefully spoon over jam. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and store in the refrigerator.

I placed a fresh blackberry on each square. If I had time, I would have made a blackberry sauce and drizzled to be decorative, but the fresh berry was nice too.