Adventures in a Production Managers Life

Let us introduce to you our Production Manager.  Recently transplant from Nashville, TN- Judi Sommerfeld.  Relocation for love brought Judi our way in October of 2010 and she decided to stay!  Her background is theatre production, design and management.  These things transferred over nicely to Event Planning and Catering Management.  The list of clients is long and diverse with high praises from all.

The Production Manager duties here at Elyse's Catering are ever changing and require multi tasking and multiple hats.  Judi does everything from marketing & networking to checking production quality in the culinary area of the company.  The small company atmosphere and strong client loyalty base are great spring board tools for further growth of customers. 

Judi loves the "green" environment of the culinary division here at Elyse's and strives to look for other ways to move towards full "green" compliance.  Fresh products with the "all from scratch" way of production is a fresh but tried and true way to produce the best products to the South Puget Sound area.  Lifelong clients return again and again for just that reason!

Look for Judi out about the town at Chamber meetings, After Hour mixxers, and numerous luncheons about the Thurston County Area. 

Not just a caterer....

When planning an event, there are multiple things that have to be arranged. You have to think about a location, what type of meal, how to get guests to and from the venue, rental items such as tables, linens, and dishware, party entertainment, invitations, florals, bar options,and the ever needed itenerary. There are so many options to select from for all of the above items. It can be overwhelming and time consuming.

Why not look into one company that can help arrange all of these and stitch them together seemlessly with little or no stress for you?

We have a vast list of venues and vendors that we work with on a regular basis. They are professional and attentive to your wishes and specific needs. Most importantly, we are a team who have relationships with many compaines in the area that can assist on all levels and aspects of your event. No event is more or less important to us. All are approached as the top priority from the first phone call to the close of your event.

Give us a call and discuss your event needs with one of our event specialists! Schedule an appointment to get started on the perfect event.

We can be reached at 360-943-5555 or via our website for online orders and inquiries. http://www.elysescatering.com/

Good-Taste-Isn-t-Just-Luck-this-St--Patrick-s-Day

Great menu for all!  Something for everyone!  Call it luck!  Here is the St. Patty's Day menu for 2012.  Orders for Friday and Saturday are coming in...don't be the last on the list! 

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Good-Taste-Isn-t-Just-Luck-this-St--Patrick-s-Day-.html?soid=1102746534665&aid=Otur754TKro

Luck of the Irish to you and yours!

"St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time -- a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic."~~By Adrienne Cook.~~

Community Support

Elyse's Catering is proud to support our community! Elyse's has a long history of donating to local charities on request, but for 2011, we decided to partner exclusively with two very special organizations so that our contritubutions could make more of a difference. The two organizations selected for 2011 are the Hand's on Children's Museum and Concern for Animals.

Elyse's is a proud Corporate Member and Supporter of the Hand's on Children's Museum. So far this year, we have provided nutritious and fun food for the Father/Daughter Adventure Night, Mother/Son Adventure Night and the Back to School Night! Coming soon, we will provide lots of cookies to decorate for the Boo Bash on October 29th. To kickoff the holiday season, we'll bring festive treats to the Parent's Night Out and New Year's Celebrations.

If you would like to register for these events, or find out about visiting the museum please check out http://www.hocm.org/ or call 360-956-0818. If you or your company would like to make a donation or become a sponsor of the Hand's on Museum, please select this link for more information: http://www.hocm.org/page.php?id=70.

We love supporting the kids, but we are also thrilled to be sponsors of Concern for Animals. In addition to providing refreshments for the tireless volunteers during meetings, we will be setting up a food booth at the 5th Annual Toast For Tails Wine/Beer Tasting and Silent Auction on Saturday, November 12th, 2011. The event will take place from 2-8 p.m. at the Lacey Community Center.

This event raises much-needed funds for emergency medical care, pet adoptions, spay/neuter services, pet food, pet care items and more. For more information or to buy tickets to this fun event, please visit Concern for Animals at http://concernforanimals.org/ or call 360-456-8176.

To make a donation, please visit http://concernforanimals.org/donations.php.

Aromatherapy made the day!

Love this time of year. It is beautiful here in the Puget Sound area and the scent of lavender is everywhere. We can see several varieties all around the area.

We had a recent client that used lavender predominantly for her wedding centerpieces. A neighbor had provided her with 3 five gallon buckets full of fresh cut lavender from her yard. The private home where the wedding took place smelled heavenly. All were drawn to the scent like bees to pollen. Once the tables were set, the centerpieces went into place and the guest seating area took on a different feeling. We felt a sense of clean crisp peace. Now those three words- clean, crisp and peace- do not generally go together. But on this occasion, the design of the table settings, lemon wedges in water with the sun beaming through them, and the scent of fresh herbs made the descriptive words mesh.

The bonus of the aromatherapy provided by the fresh herb made this event spectacular! Not to mention somebody had a lot of wonderful lavender to take home and make their home smell!

You may not have access to so much lavender and wish to find someplace that you wish to acquire some. A great local scource called Evergreen Valley Lavender Farm! Thane and Peggy Bryenton are wonderful and passionate about their product. This was a hobby that became a business. They have 11 varieties, two that are culinary specific, and are looking to open for the 2012 season! Here is a link to their youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDB611DJ4-w

Invite others to follow our blog!

On the frontier of the social media, we are trying hard to navigate this crazy world. Time seems to be the the problem. Content being the second problem.

On Wednesday, Judi, our Production Manager, attended a meeting that the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Visitor & Convention Bureau held at the Swantown Marina. The speaker was Frank Kenny. He is a consultant on social media based here in Washington State. His website is www.frankjkenny.com . Highly recommend!!

It was an awesome presentation and taught us a lot about the social media marketing world. Thanks to George Sharp and Heather Antanaitis for holding this meeting for us.

The thing that is the most important piece of information the Judi took away was that we need to blog more and manage our social marketing better!

SOOOOOOOooooooo- in the interest of blogging more- let us know what you would like to see us blog about. Ask your friends to follow us on Twitter. Go to our website www.elysescatering.com and follow our blog, like us on Facebook, share our posts on your pages, and drop us a line about your experiences with us. Find us on Yelp and give a review!

We only improve if we have more knowledge about what is needed from us. Let us know.....

Prepared Meals as Gifts

"Trying to figure out what would be best to help an individual or family in need is a battle and historically has been answered with a simple word - FOOD!!!

Prepared meals are a wonderful way to say you care. The world is a busy place and there are those that are less fortunate or are in a life changing situation, that could use this "gift of caring". We cater to these needs on a regular basis. The calls are usually from a "friend of the family" or an "out of town friend" who just wants to help from afar.

From a Chef Salad to Lasagna, prepared meals can serve as little as 1 or as many as you need. We can individually pack a dinner for a quick reheat for a caregiver to pop in the oven when the loved one decides they are hungry or we can send a whole meal, with the sides and beverages for a house full of family and friends. Maybe consider a turkey dinner sent in disposables for easy storage and reheat.

If you find yourself in a situation that calls for comfort food, here are a couple of thoughts to keep in mind. First, check and see if there are any dietary restricitons, i.e. no spicy, gluten free, salt free, allergies, etc. Secondly, find out if there are children and add something special for the little ones that is a known food that all would like. A good suggestion for this would be mac n cheese or chicken tenders. Our Chicken Pot Pie is a crowd pleaser for all!

My favorite to date is a lovely lady who arranged a single meal to arrive everyday for a week! Her friend had been battling cancer and was home recovering. She lived by herself and had no family in the area so a full meal with dessert was loving prepared fresh in our kitchen for five days and a staff member would call the recipeient to see if she was up and moving to schedule the delivery- everyday!

The smile on her face when she opened the door was so precious. You could see that it was like getting a present everyday and one less thing to worry about. The simple gesture gave her the assurance that she had one meal a day that she did not have to worry about and could eat as she felt up to it. By Wednesday, she would ask energetically, "What is my surprise today?"

We will be happy to work with you planning a single meal or a week of meals and would be honored in assisting in any way that we can.