Feeding the multitudes

I got up before 6 AM to get the roast started, the noodles mixed, cut, and drying, and the potatoes peeled.  I made apple cobbler and a sweet potato pie yesterday, and had the chicken for the noodles already cooked and deboned in the freezer.  I got the roll-dough rising before we left for late church.  So after church all I had to do was turn the burner on under the potatoes and roll out the roll-dough and get the rolls cut and rising. 

This was to be Arick's birthday dinner; he turned twenty last Thursday.  His request was a whole Oreo dessert just for him, and I had that prepared; he took the whole thing home with him.  I've learned to make a lot of food on Sundays.  This meal was partly for my daughter Rachel, who got none of Amber's noodles two weeks ago, and whined until I promised to make her some this weekend.

Well, Rachel had surprise company for the weekend, so they brought that couple along for dinner.  Then Cliff's sister, Charlene and her husband Pat rode up on their Harley at EXACTLY dinnertime (they were here yesterday evening, and knew I was going to be cooking).  It was twelve of us in all, but there was plenty of food.  The only thing that disappeared completely was the brocolli and rice casserole... but the mashed potatoes ran a close second!

Once everyone was gone, Cliff and I took the motorcycle on a two-hour cruise.

We've laughed at the name his sister and her husband gave their Harley:  "Thunder".  I assume they chose that because of the typical Harley sound.  I told Cliff we needed to come up with an appropriate name for our sweet-running, very quiet Honda.  We settled on "Lightning".  Since we'll be riding with Charlene and Pat frequently, I think that's appropriate:  Thunder and Lightning.