Trace Amounts Catering

22/09/2024

I have fixed may taco bars in my time! I do one every rally (except for last because it was so stinking hot out, sorry!) This should be right in my alley, but then, 170 people, ok, just make more! No biggie. Let me tell you, it is a bigger deal than I imagined! One thing to realize that if you want the freshest, you really have to prepare the food, all of it, that day. Several things have to be very planned, then executed. There are so many lists, so many days packing the right things, and fridge space, and trips to the store that come with this. Not enough oven space, fire up the smoker to keep things hot while you move on to the next item on the list! I learn on every single job I do, and the main lesson I learned on this one, is you get by with a LOT of help from your friends! I am so thankful for them. I tend to think I am superwoman and should be able to pull this off, nope. Would not have happened if it wasn't for Maryann and Sam! The wedding ran without a hitch, very smooth, the food was well complemented from what I heard, and I just very happy with the experience. Got home, figured I would do dishes tomorrow, then and a celebratory after work cocktail, or few, then tackled dishes, 9 steam table pans, a roaster, utensils, and a hundred or so (I lost count) wooden bowls 😂🤣 I am so very thankful for the beautiful day, and for my friends!

30/06/2024

My first gluten free event! The bride to be, can't tolerate gluten, so I had to do some experimenting. I have not worked with gluten free bread ever, but it is pretty dry, in my opinion. Cucumber sandwiches usually are on soft bread, so I improvised. The bread was too thick to do a full sandwich, so I knew it had to be open faced. I took my meat slicer out and ribboned the cucumbers, layered it across the cream cheese spread, and they turned out super! I made a canolli cream dip for the fruit and had these cute little cups I have been wanting to use and sprinkled chopped pistachios. This was an unexpected job and it was really fun to do!

01/06/2024

Had a need to just take a drive through the hills and have some me time. My last stop was this awesome little root beer bar! My youngest sister's best friend, Kellie Fehr owns Miss Kitty's Mercantile in Deadwood. The store is amazing enough, and this is in the back. We reminisced about going to Stage Stop as kids and getting root beer, birch beer, or sasparilla in the glass brown bottles and how cool we felt having a beer! This tasted just like that! This is all house made, and they have all kinds of different soda mixes too! What a great place to take the kids, or just go and chill out. It was great catching up with Kellie too. She is an amazing woman. It was the cherry on top to my day!

26/11/2023

I haven't posted for a while! Life has been crazy and just didn't really sit down to write anything! Thanksgiving was a huge hit, my smoked turkey's turned out just like I wanted them! This was the first year I had a really good meat thermometer. Cheap ones I have used in the past, they lie. I felt like things were done, by touch, yet it always read that it still needed another 30 degrees. I always took it out anyway, and it was great, but just that not knowing for sure is unsettling. I didn't take any pictures because my husband took my help, our daughter, to set up the antenna to watch the game. I was in a huge hurry and time got away, so didn't take turkey pics, although they deserved it! Now we are stuffing, potato, squash, cranberried out! I went to the store craving summer fruit, and locked my keys in the van. Dan had to bring my other set, I guess that is payback for taking my help! 😆 I took leftover turkey since I smoked 2 of them, and made a smoked turkey chili. This will be lunch tomorrow! My other favorite is taking that ham bone and making a pot of ham and bean soup. I used Mom's trick and added the little bit of mashed potatoes to it. That will be lunch a few times this week for sure! Anyway, I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving. Take care!

30/10/2023

Did a board for this little guys 1st Birthday today. I didn't get to get pics of him totally messy, but oh my, little T had a great time! He is such a character! What a fun time! It was so much fun seeing so many people that I haven't seen for a while!

16/10/2023

I did it! I resisted the urge to grocery shop this weekend when I have plenty of ingredients to prep for the week! I had enough for breakfast burritos, yet I didn't have the tortilla shells I love, the raw ones you brown up on the stove. I made breakfast bowls though! Roasted some potatoes, layered potatoes with country gravy, topped with scrambled eggs with onion, peppers, sausage and bacon, then shredded cheese on top. We have bought those country scrambler breakfast meals from the frozen food section in the store, and they just do not cut it. I also made my own Runza's, or probably shouldn't call them that. I had bread ingredients, (always) and thawed out 2 lbs of burger. I had a small head of cabbage and onion, so that was that! I don't cook these all of the way done so that we can heat them in the oven and get them to that perfect hue of brown. Made some soup for a day that we will have salad and home made bread with! I feel accomplished!

05/10/2023

With the fall weather, I was craving chili and cinnamon rolls! Then... thought breakfast, should just do caramel rolls. Best of both worlds! I really do try to give myself a hearty breakfast though, so I included a pic of my breakfast today, vs the breakfast I will have tomorrow with these wonderful rolls. I did over crowd the pan though! Oops! I am only human.

21/09/2023

Did some personal chefing for a Birthday dinner. I sure wish I would have taken more pics of the beef tenderloin. They didn't have any at Sam's club, and I was on my lunch hour, so I had to improvise. There was a pack on 2 tenderloin tails, so I put those together and wrapped so everything would cook in unison. It was perfect for 4 people. Sometimes you just have to roll with what you have and go with it!

21/09/2023

21/09/2023

13/09/2023

My old friend, the Great Blue Heron 📸

Canyon Lake in Rapid City

13/09/2023

I was lucky enough to have the coolest flyby from these two Sandhill Cranes 📸

12/09/2023

Catering to huge groups of people is my jam for summer and spring. The vibrant colors and seasonal produce when everything so pretty and bright, makes my heart. It is just like a new beginning! I am so thankful for starting my business and having so much success. Things I didn't think were possible, happened. I luckily have a great support group that belive in me and helped me so much! Thank you all for being a part of that, with hiring me, supporting me and following. I learned so much and am so thankful for every experience, which were all very positive! I look forward to every new venture this takes me to.

That being said, I have always been an autumn girl at heart! In the down time, I need to get my website up. I want to share things on my site to not just cook for people, but show great affordable meals you can do on your own with basic ingredients. At my full time job, we can drive to get takeout everyday. That is not practical because of time away from work, affordability, and eating junk that is not good for us. Do not get me wrong, I am not eating as good as I should. I make Trace Amounts lunches, which are better than you can order from most places and have flavor! This does require prep, and utilizing what you have on hand to transform into a different meal the next day. Here is some lunches I have prepared, and should have taken more pics of others, but dang! I was hungry and forgot!

03/09/2023

I had a smoker kind of day! It was my cook one day, enjoy the rest of the weekend and still have stuff for lunches early next week moment!

30/07/2023

What a great couple! Congrats Mark and Nicole! This wedding is what started this great adventure for me. I was booked for this many months ago by them through a referral from her cousin Kim. I knew that I wanted to cook, yet didn't know what direction I really wanted to pursue. I had been in food service my whole life, working for several people over the years. This is the couple that gave me a chance to go out on my own. It can be hard to break into this business. I took a leap, and here we are. The people were amazing, got to see a few familiar faces, catch up, and it was just an all around great day. Do not get me wrong, I love my job and my purpose at dispatch and load coordination, but doing this on the side has been very rewarding also!

02/07/2023

Catered a family reunion for a really fantastic family. It is so nice to work with such a great group! When we pulled up to the event, we were greeted by so much help to bring in all of the food! We were also told that there were many to help, and it was a great comfort to us, and to know that help was there was a great energy.
I had the best of the best help from a very great friend Maryann Mason to pull it off, she kept me sane and was such a wonderful person to work with! We rocked it! Maryann, it was an absolute pleasure to work with you.

27/05/2023

Congrats to this lovely lady on Graduating High School! This was a fun grazing table to put together for her open house. Congrats to you Madison! You are truly on to bigger things!

21/05/2023

I was honored to cater a baby shower for this wonderful woman here! Congrats to you Samara! It was so great to see you again! It was vintage themed, so I got out my way back cook books for some inspiration. I did cucumber sandwiches but made them more modern, did some little Watergate salad mini parfaits along with some orange Creamsicle parfaits. I made dill pickle hummus, well, pickles had to be part of the deal with a baby shower. I really did crave pickles with my first pregnancy. I got to see people I haven't seen for so long, and it was just a wonderful day!

14/05/2023

Mother's day bouquet! Happy Mother's day to all of you lovely ladies!!!

09/05/2023

This is a fav that I cook for friends and family. This pastalaya has so much flavor and is for sure great comfort food! I can do this for a family dinner or family functions with some time in advance!