Dinner for 8

In the past years our Dinner for 8 has been wildly successful. It started with my Foreign Affair (that morphed into dinner for 70) netting us big extra dollars courtesy of my Alain Pinel friends. Then the Cihaks graciously volunteered to spearhead the dinner when Stephanie was a walker in 2010. They also donated their time and talents to the 2011 dinner, which was not cashed in on until this past week.

Our winner of the 2010 and 2011 dinners has been Barbara Major, a Marin Realtor and great supporter of our team. We go to Barbara's lovely Tiburon house and cook in her kitchen to serve her guests.It's aways impressive, the food the quality the professionalism of our little team. In 2010 we envisioned having a little mini part behind closed kitchen doors, but Barbara's kitchen is open to the guests. In 2010, so of the guests came to hang out with us int he kitchen. This year, we snuck out on the patio to grab a bite to eat between courses.

Here are a few pictures of the evening.

 Chuck

 Patty and Leslie

 Patti in her new apron

 Patty, Patti and Glenn

 Chuck, Stephanie, Patti and Patty

Stephanie and the dinner guests.

I think when we are cooking how lucky the guests are. Heck do they even know they have a pretty well known Marin attorney, a former Bank executive, a very well known Marin retail business woman, a Advertising Producer, A doctor and a successful contractor all serving them. Then I think how wonderful that really is and how in the spirit of our walk this is. People unite from all walks of life for a common goal. They bring their talents and their passion to the effort to make the most impact. I am just so blessed to have people around me who are not only willing to come to our little party, but to step up and make a difference themselves.

This next year we are doing 2 dinner parties. One bought at the event will have its own flavor, its own fun since it will be for dear friends Dana and Misako. The second bought by Barbara will be different too. I told the Cihaks they didn't have to spearhead that one again (although Stephanie did offer to help and trust me I HEARD THAT!) I let Barbara know it might entail beans and franks since I would be the lead chef. But count it up people since 2009 and the first dinner this one item will have brought in $7,450 for Team: Are we there yet? that equal 3 people's minimum needed to walk in the 3 day. That is impressive.

I have to thank the Cihaks, Barbara, our friends Dana and Misako and our team members and of course Glenn who all have made this possible.

BON APPETIT