Hood to Coast to Safeway to Fred Meyer to Trader Joe's

I am exhausted right now. I volunteered to volunteer for my company's Hood to Coast team, and am also responsible for the barbeque afterwards. I'm actually pretty excited about it; I love event planning, but at the same time, it can be quite draining. So I planned out the menu, thinking, "oh, this will be easy, I'll just get a bunch of catered stuff: salads, pies, etc. etc." But then I started realizing how much it would all cost, and although I didn't technically have a budget, out-of-control menu costs probably wouldn't go over too well. This is a barbeque, after all, not a night out at Saucebox.

So I revised. Here is my present (and final, as I've finished all the shopping) menu:

• Baked Salmon
• Homemade! Potato salad (more on that later)
• Pesto Pasta (homegrown basil)
• Green salad
• Cava
• Beer, Beer, and more Beer
• Cherry and Apple pies
• Cheesecake
• Hansens soda, sparkling water
• Potato and tortilla chips
• Watermelon
• Grapes

Shopping is much more exhausting than I expected: I've been to some of the stores 3 times, either because one thing I need was on sale one day, and another was on sale the next; or because I just plain forgot something, dammit!

The photo above is the early stages of my potato salad. It has now reached completion, but I am too tired to photograph it and discuss everything tonight. But this is probably my biggest event-planning feat yet. So it seems important to blog it. Yeah, I've planned for 15+ people before, but I've not ever had to actually cook for them. So we will see how it goes. More tomorrow....