Shortbread

I've been making this for years in the winter holiday season, and sometimes make a LOT, package it in waxed paper sandwich bags with ribbons and hand it out to friends and neighbors.  This was one of those years, and one colleague asked for the recipe, so here it is!

This makes two circular pans of cookies, about 28.  I doubled it and made cookies twice this season, and just now made another batch for an upcoming party.  They last for weeks and get even better as they dry out.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ½ sticks of salted butter, softened
• ¾ cup confectioner's sugar
• ⅜ teaspoon salt
• ⅜ teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.  Put parchment paper into the bottom of two 9" round cake pans, simple metal ones work well
2. In a mixer on a slow speed, mix together first 6 ingredients until evenly crumbly, do not overmix into a batter - this should be pretty dry
3. Divide the mixture between the two cake pans
4. Using a wide spatula and another piece of parchment paper, press down on the crumbs and compress them into the pan
5. With a spoon, sprinkle the granulated sugar on the top
6. Put the pans in the oven in the middle, and bake for 7 minutes
7. Take them out and use a silicone knife (if you have one) or a sharp knife and cut wedges, you can also press some decorative patterns on the edge with a fork at this time if you want to
8. Return the pans to the oven and bake another 7-12 minutes, or until lightly browned
9. Let cool, and separate carefully

Christmas party and Children's play

When we were young, my parents threw an annual Christmas party where one of the features was that the children put on a holiday play.  It was so much fun!

I am my mother's daughter, and decided to attempt to replicate her insanity this year.  We've had over a dozen kids over here rehearsing for the production and generally making (adorable) menaces of themselves.  The house has been transformed into a space suitable for putting on a play and having a bunch of people over.  This weekend, we are decorating, cooking, cleaning, and shopping for the party next weekend.

I find that a lot of advance planning and cooking are the key to enjoying myself at parties.  Luckily, Meli agrees!  The shopping list is being split into "today" and "later", the cooking list has assignments and days written on it.

Here's the progress on the menu so far:

• Spanakopitas - Mom will make these, they can be frozen and reheated night of.
• Gingered Pear & brie triangles - I'm going to make this up today, I'll be creating the recipe so will blog about it later (hopefully).  Also will be frozen and reheated night of.
• Deviled Eggs - Meli will make on Friday
• "Crack" dip and Tostito scoops - Meli or I will make on Saturday, it's so easy...look up Rotel Sausage Dip on the web
• Fried duck, pancakes and duck sauce - Meli will fry the duck on Saturday and chop it up, I'll make the pancakes and duck sauce on Thursday and steam them right before serving.
• Crab beignets and Aioli - Meli will make these right after frying the duck, the aioli will be made Friday night.
• Roast beef sticks - deli roast beef (Whole Foods in-house is the best!) spread with a horseradish garlic oil, covered in arugula and wrapped around grissini (skinny Italian bread stick).  I'll prepare those Saturday morning or possibly Friday night.
• Dolmades!  I'm going to make these Tuesday or Wednesday, put them at the back of the fridge in their serving dish, which is a nice stoneware pot with a lid.
• Gravlax and toasts - Meli will make the gravlax on Thursday evening.
• Crudites & blue cheese dip - day of.  Crudites also include "ants on a log" which is something I had never heard of before, celery sticks filled with cream cheese and topped with raisins.  Meli makes the blue cheese dressing and it's fantastic, I think he'll make it Friday night.
• Cheeses and crackers - Baked Goat Brie with Fig Preserves, Cheese ball, and cream cheese topped with Jezebel sauce.  Jezebel sauce will be made today by Meli, cheese ball will be made Thursday or Friday.
• Hummus and pita
• Fruit tray with yogurt sauce and chocolate fondue - I already made an orange pound cake for dipping last night, it's in the freezer.
• Scotch egg nog, will be made early in the day on Saturday.
• Cookies - I made chocolate-hazelnut meringues this morning, Meli made dough for sugar cookies last night, we'll decorate those today, Meli will make raisin filled sugar cookies as well, and macaroons will be made on Wednesday or Thursday.

New Year's Resolutions

Goodbye, 2009! You were an interesting year, to say the least. I can't remember all my resolutions from last year, but know that losing weight was one of them, and I did manage to lose 20 pounds, so hooray!

I have some resolutions for this year that I think should be easy to keep. :)

1. Enjoy my time with Kiddo, friends and family to the utmost.
2. Get divorced.
3. Stay single! Continue to explore this wonderful state of single-hood. Try to avoid falling in love.
4. Date as many interesting men as I can handle, but don't waste time on dating anyone more than once if they don't impress immediately. Continue to be happy going out without a date.
5. Travel more.
6. Try new things.
7. Cherish my friends, and make new ones.
8. Lose 10 more pounds, and then be content.
9. Turn 40 with flair!
10. Start updating this blog with new recipes and entertaining notes -- I've never stopped doing either, just wasn't in a good place to be writing about it.

Speaking of entertaining, I had a very fun group of people over last weekend (the day after Xmas) for a "top-your-own" pizza party. I made the dough on Xmas and then for the party set out crusts and toppings, and everyone topped one and then we shared the results. Very fun, very easy! Because I am who I am, the toppings were fairly gourmet -- I had marinated and grilled some chicken breasts, there was a salad with a caprese dressing, artichoke hearts, black olives, pesto and tomato sauce, mushrooms, mozzarella and feta cheese, anchovies, sliced tomatoes. My favorite pizza was pesto, artichoke hearts, feta and grilled chicken.

After eating, we all headed to the Carolina Hurricanes game, which was a nail-biter! Unfortunately, we lost in a shoot-out at the end.

Pies 'n' Play

We threw our first official party since July last night.  It was very unsettling not to have Ms. N there.  But I had to get back on the horse sometime!

It was a "pie party."  If you've never heard of this concept, don't worry, neither have I.  I just happen to like to make pie and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  So I thought it would be nice to have people over to make pie with me and let the kids run around like maniacs and take over the neighborhood.  Both things happened quite well.

I made 18 Butter Pie Crusts (click on the title to link to the recipe) the night before.  As people arrived with their filling ingredients, I asked them to write down on a whiteboard the temperature they would require and whether or not they needed one or two crusts.  Then I got to rolling and the other pie-makers got to filling.

Since the oven was occupied, Hub grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers, and Ms. P threw together a potato salad for me.  Ms. J brought some fabulous crab dip from Whole Foods and we also had lots of cheeses, crackers, cantaloupe, pretzels, chips, hummus, etc. for nibbles.  We started at 3:00 so the kids would have ample time to play outside and stay out of the kitchen.  According to Hub, Kiddo did a great job hosting the kids and leading the charge.

It worked out well.  Not a bad first foray back into entertaining...but I do miss her terribly and kept on looking around for her last night.  I'm sure that feeling won't go away for a long time, and in some ways, I'll be sad when it does.

Another odd thing?  I bought N-friendly foodstuffs for last night, like turkey for burgers and I thought about using shortening instead of butter for the pie crusts and had lots of goat cheese out and had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't necessary.  Like I said, unsettling.

Butternut Squash Soup with Chestnuts & Hazelnuts

The party people are back in town! Hub and I realized recently that we just haven't had a party recently, and were feeling itchy. We spent most of the summer as gym rats and hardly cooked or entertained, instead working on our health and hotness factors. Well, now we're ready to let loose again, so we had a cocktail party last night. It was lots of fun, and the kids are getting to the point where they pretty much entertain themselves, which is a relief.

One of the dishes I made was a lovely winter squash soup -- I had first made it back in 2001 or so for the C's. Since Ms. C can't digest any milk products, this soup is perfect -- very different from most squash soups in that it is entirely vegetarian. I gave her a call yesterday to see if she still had the recipe (I couldn't find it) and she did...but I didn't get it early enough to get some of the key ingredients. Besides, my farm guy had been producing lovely acorn squash that I wanted to use instead of butternut squash. Anyway, I did a few substitutions and it was just as delicious. I'll transcribe both the original recipe and my modifications in italics.

Oh, and smooth soup is excellent for parties with an appetizer motif -- just put the soup out in a crock pot and put small cups out for sipping. It was all gone at the end of the evening, which is kind of too bad since I didn't have any leftover to take over to Ms. C, who couldn't make it to the party.

3 1/2 pounds butternut squash or acorn squash, halved and seeded
6 Tbs olive oil
1 1/4 cups chopped shallots
1/2 cup dry marsala
2/3 cup coursely chopped peeled roasted chestnuts from a jar or pine nuts, not chopped
2 cups plain soy milk
2 cups vegetable broth (I like the Pacific brand)
1 Tbs dry white wine
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme, rosemary & marjoram or 2 Tbs thyme, rosemary and sage
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted, husked, coarsely chopped since this is a garnish, I skipped this entirely for a drinking soup

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Brush cut sides of squash with 2 Tbs of the oil. Place brushed side down on large baking sheet. Roast until tender, about 40 minutes. Cool slightly.


• Meanwhile, heat remaining 4 Tbs oil in large pot on medium heat. Add shallots; saute until soft, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add marsala. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until all liquid evaporates and shallots are deep golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add chestnuts or pine nuts, saute 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Scoop squash flesh into pot, combine.


• Working in batches, puree the mixture in a blender or food processor (or use a soup wand), adding the soy milk and broth, until smooth.


• Strain the soup back into pot. Stir in wine and herbs. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead -- cool slightly, then cover and chill)


• Bring soup to a simmer. Ladle into soup bowls; sprinkle with hazelnuts.

Sunday Night is Party Night!

We are finding that Sundays are great nights to have casual dinner get-togethers with kids. Last night we had the C's and the M's over for the first cook-out of the Spring, since it was 80 degrees yesterday. I tried to keep things simple, but I can't help myself and cooked waaay too much food.

Assorted cheeses and crackers - I tend to keep an assortment on hand, especially a wide range of goat's milk cheeses
Old-fashioned potato salad like my mom used to make, with eggs, pickles, carrots and a little bit of red onion, mayonnaise and mustard and a hint of fresh thyme
Fruit salad
Teriyaki salmon - I got this idea from Bro, who likes to use Soy Vay's Very Teriyaki sauce. Just pour on salmon, let sit for about 30 minutes, then grill
Grilled asparagus - put in tupperware container, squeeze a lemon over, drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper, put lid on and shake. Then grill. :)
Turkey burgers with fixings
Brown rice

It was a lovely time, but did mean I didn't get the taxes done like I was supposed to.

Oh, and last week we had another two families plus a neighbor who was in town from China over. I made two lasagnes (one meat and one veggie) and we are still eating the leftovers. That's another bonus to Sunday night cooking -- lots of leftovers to eat throughout the week.

Mushroom and Tomato Lasagne

I must be crazy to attempt this recipe. It's from the Food & Wine 2001 cookbook (I always get their year-end cookbooks, even though I no longer subscribe) and it took something like 5 bowls, 4 pots and 3 1/2 hours to make. It's not even done yet, and I started cooking it at 4:30 -- it is now 7:30. Here's hoping it's worth it!

On Friday, we had the M's over for supper and play, which was lovely. I hit 40 hours at 4:15 on Friday, and left promptly to swing by Whole Foods and pick up a couple of chickens, 3 huge beautiful locally grown Ruby Red sweet potatoes and some wine. Hub and I are cutting back on alcohol during the week, but were happy to enjoy some wine with our friends. We rotisseried the chickens, roasted and mashed the sweet potatoes and also had orzo. Delicious, and the kids ate some of everything...except for Kiddo, who didn't even try the sweet potatoes with brown sugar sprinkled on them. Ah, well.

Last night Hub and I dropped Kiddo off at YiaYia and PaPou's to spend the night, as we were invited to a party in town. What a great party! I. was "re-warming" her house after moving back in recently. She asked guests to bring an appetizer or a beverage. There was so much food! I brought the Minty Lamb meatballs and tzatziki that I had frozen...unfortunately, it did NOT thaw well. The best part was the great conversations with intelligent, engaging people, most of whom we had never met. I. has a charming, small house in an old neighborhood in the city, and the floor plan plus her lovely back porch was very conducive to mingling. She spread the appetizers through several rooms, and the whole party was both easy and elegant.

Italian veggies

Yesterday we went for a play date/supper at Ms. J and Mr. B's house. Kiddo and M. had a grand time after learning how to negotiate with each other -- it's a little odd having two such verbal and manipulative small ones to deal with. I've learned from another parent at Kiddo's school that he is a "ringleader." I'm not quite sure what to make of that, if anything. Hub asked at school and they very diplomatically said he simply takes the lead on activities, because he is so excited to be doing them. They're so nice. :)

Ms. J toiled over a lovely dish that her father makes. She was nervous to mess it up on two fronts -- one, it's one of her Dad's signatures, and she had a mental taste/look picture that she was going for. Two, she was cooking for me. I reassured her that honestly, I was just happy to be there! And I was.

Funny thing is, I don't usually like peppers very much. Hub loves them, so I kind of put up with the occasional grilled or roasted pepper. The dish Ms. J was making was ALMOST ALL PEPPERS! And Mr. B even was amazed at how much they had cost...so I was steeling myself for disappointment.

It was lovely. I mean it. I had seconds and thirds. Whee! I've found a way to enjoy peppers! This had 2 red onions (two!), something like one green, one yellow and one red pepper (but it may have been two of each?), garlic, a quart of cherry tomatoes and bowtie pasta, with parmesan on top. I'll either ask Ms. J for the recipe, or try to figure it out on my own.

She also has a HUGE frying pan that I covet.

Tonight, Hub made dinner and it was edible. Enough said.

Thanksgiving at my brother's

Whoo hoo! For one of the first times in years, I didn't host Thanksgiving at my house. Instead, we went down to Bro and Sis-in-law's down in Wilmington. Bro had always wanted to try a deep-fried turkey, especially since he now resides in the South. Hub picked up a fryer at Home Depot a few days ago, and since then, the two of them have been studying up on the dangers and methods of using the thing.

1. Make sure the turkey is completely defrosted (or fresh, which is the option we went for) and dry. If not, kaboom!
2. Make sure the fryer is outside, not under a roof, and not on a combustible surface (we had it on the patio surrounded by sand). If not, kaboom!
3. Make sure the oil is not too hot and not overfilled. If not, kaboom!

The guys did a fantastic job, and the turkeys were amazing (they did two). I've cooked a lot of turkeys in my life, have done some pretty interesting things like injecting them with wine/butter solutions, roasting them in a bag, brining, etc. I've even roasted a goose. Never has the carcass been subject to every single adult picking at it. And a super-bonus is that the oven was free to make/heat big pans of macaroni & cheese, stuffing, dinner rolls, sweet potato casserole, turnips & greens, gravy...the only "missing" item was mashed potatoes, but since Sis wasn't with us, no-one cared.

My contribution to the meal was to make two pies and bring the leftover frozen turnips and turnip greens from my last big dinner party. I actually made a fresh pumpkin pie, which was 100 times better than any pumpkin pie I've ever had before. I don't usually like pumpkin pie, to tell the truth. This was great. I'll post the recipe when I get back home. The other pie was a chocolate scotch pecan pie, also delicious. Kiddo helped me in the preparation of both...if by "helping" we can also include the slurping of leftover pumpkin pie filling with a spoon.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Iron Man

Congratulations to Mr. B! Last week, he competed in his first Iron Man triathlon, and finished in under 13 hours, which is an excellent time. Last night, Ms. N threw a party to celebrate his achievement, and to celebrate that she'll get a little bit more hub-time for a while. Except that he's already signed up to do two more of these crazy races in the next 12 months. And he has a full-time job and is getting his MBA at night school and has two small daughters. I thought I was tired...obviously I'm just not doing enough.

The party was lovely, with lots of cheeses and dips and crackers and chips and wine and turkey meatballs (Ms. N's signature appetizer) and wine and friends and more wine. And small children running around like maniacs.

My small child wasn't there until late, because he went to the NC Zoo with YiaYia and PaPou and his cousins. Hub and I had ALL DAY to ourselves. We went to the mall and shopped for work clothing, since he also has a new contract starting on Tuesday. Then I spent the afternoon cleaning the crud out of my closet so I'm no so overwhelmed in the mornings. And Hub raked leaves.

Dinner Party report

I'm only now feeling somewhat recovered from last night. It went both really, really well and also maybe not so well from a planning/execution standpoint. But did we have fun? Oh, yes, oh, definitely, oh my was my head hurting this morning. But not so much that I don't remember the excellent conversations we had, and I did manage to make it to church to sing a gorgeous piece that I didn't want to miss.

I think I forgot to mention that this was a politically-themed party, and I selected my guests carefully to ensure that we all fell on the liberal side of politics -- not necessarily Democrat, but definitely liberal. This close to an election, I get very, very sensitive about politics, and I wanted a group where we could loudly declaim this or that policy, and not get into actual fights about it. That's exactly how it turned out -- we had wonderful, very loud discussions about a fascinating array of topics.

The loudness was one of the logistical problems. Kiddo, E. (5) and A. (2) were upstairs with the hired sitter, as planned. But they did not go to sleep. I've discovered that our house, with it's open floor plan, is just not suited for our party-loving children to tune their party-loving parents out enough to go to sleep. Hence, Kiddo and I did not go to bed until 1:00 AM. Oops! I think next time, I'll have him stay at Yia Yia's and Papou's house.

Logistical problem #2 - the schedule slipped due to A. still being asleep at 5:30. So the first guests didn't arrive until about 6:15. The rest of the adults trickled in over the next hour, with the final couple arriving at 7:15 or so. No big deal...Ms. C and Ms. J brought appetizers, so no one was hungry. I had made some cheese quesadillas for the boys - since they arrived a bit late, it was already too dark to play outside, so they went upstairs to the pinball machine, skipping dinner downstairs. I think it was close to 8:00 when Ms. C reminded me that they should probably be fed! The parenting skills were definitely a bit loose last night.

Logistical problem #3 - after we had soup, we convened back in the kitchen so I could cook the dinner. I don't have enough burners on my stove for the menu I had planned! So it took a fair amount of time -- enjoyable, loud, fun time, and Mr. M and Mr. E both chipped in to help (they are both excellent cooks in their own rights). So, in a way, this was not at all a bad thing. Dinner parties are NOT restaurant experiences!

I think we finally sat down to eat at around 10:00. On a plus note, everything turned out absolutely perfectly. On a minus note, I made waaaay too much food. I think we have enough chicken/duck to last a week of sandwiches. And I've frozen the turnips and turnip greens in the hope that they will reheat well for Thanksgiving.

Mr. D called to say he and Ms. P and their girls would not be able to make it after all, which was too bad. But the ice cream and dark chocolate bark worked just perfectly for dessert. And then everyone pitched in to help with the cleanup. Mr. T and Hub stayed up until 3:30 or so gabbing (T is Irish and Hub is Scottish, they are both champion talkers), and then Hub stayed up even longer to do more cleanup.

Exhausting, fun, delicious and we met two new friends who are thinking of moving to the area (Ms. C and Mr. M brought them, and we clicked immediately). Overall, a success. I'll be ready to do it again in about six months. :)

Dinner Party prep

I just spent an enjoyable evening preparing for a dinner party I'm having tomorrow night. I really can't remember the last time I had an honest-to-goodness sit-down dinner party. With china and everything. I think it was before Kiddo was born.

Dinner parties are quite different from bigger, appetizer-heavy grazing parties. The menu planning must include courses, side dishes, presentation. I am not a Martha Stewart fan...for the most part, I let the food speak for itself, and any presentation finesse is provided by Hub. In our house, he's the one who can arrange flowers, he's the one who will drizzle sauce expressively on a plate, he's the one I turn to when meats must be sliced Just So.

And really? It's because I think that's all hooey. What I always remember from any party or gathering is the conversation, and how happy and comfortable I felt. Too much presentation lowers actual hospitality, in my opinion. In fact, my brand of cooking may even lower the hospitality meter, because I love to cook...sometimes it dissuades those who don't love to cook from inviting me over for dinner. What most people don't understand is...I'd be happy with pizza and beer! Plus the right combination of people to talk to.

For this one, I've hired a sitter to watch kids here, if the parents so desire. Partly that's because I remember being sent upstairs when my parents had parties, with my siblings and the other children who came. We always had an excellent time. Our children are still a bit too small to send up on their own. Not all the participants are planning to bring their kids (some have decided they'll have a better time if they don't have to think of them in the house) but enough are coming to provide playmates for Kiddo.

So here's the plan -- I'll let you know how it actually turns out:

Start at 5:30 pm -- adults start grazing on appetizers (which my friends Ms. C and Ms. T have graciously voluteered to provide, we thought cheese fondue with bread and crudites would be lovely) and the kids in attendance will have quesadillas, veggies and juice boxes, then be sent out to play on the playset with the sitter. Hub's planning on mixing his killer martinis.

When the light starts to fail (7:00 or so), send the kids upstairs with the sitter. At our house, the TV is upstairs, along with Dance, Dance Revolution, Kiddo's playroom and a real, full-size pinball machine. The hope is, they'll mostly stay there. Sitter will be provided with popcorn when needed, and pajamas, and maybe we'll set up a group bath. Or what we call "Penis Soup" since most of the kids in the cohort are male.

Actual recipes for the following will depend on whether they turned out well or not...

Soup course. Roasted Butternut-Squash and Garlic, which I prepped for by roasting the squash and garlic and doing the food-processor thing (Kiddo ran it). I'll reheat, add Greek yogurt and seasoning tomorrow.

Dinner. Spice-Rubbed Chicken/Duck with Port Wine Sauce. Hub removed the skins from the duck breasts tonight and I made, then rubbed in the spice mix. Also, I prepped the sauce.
Brown-butter orzo, no prep needed
Turnips and greens, no prep needed

Dessert: I made a dark chocolate/dried cherry/walnut bark last weekend, which I will serve with vanilla ice cream. And Ms. P (who can't make it until dessert) promised some kind of divine-sounding chocolate pie.

I don't have enough good china to go around. Oh, well. Like I said, that's not what matters!

Dance party!

Last night was busy for us - we had two parties to go to. Kiddo was so excited he couldn't nap, and instead bopped around the house singing "We're going to a party, a party, a party, we're going to a party, yay, yay, yay!" Of course, by the time 4:30 rolled around he was about to fall asleep on his feet, but as soon as we got to the first party he perked right up. Nothing like the promise of birthday cake and the presence of lots of kids to get that boy's motor running.

The first party was a 2-year-old's birthday party in the cul-de-sac behind us. Ms. D had sandwich makings, chicken nuggets, yummy chips and dips, meatballs and plenty of adult liquid refreshments...after all, how do we parents get through the 2's? It was great fun.

The second party also started at 4:30, and I had promised Ms. K to make Mint Pesto pasta, so I had run that over at 4:00. We arrived at about 6:15 and the fun was in full swing. Although Ms. K's birthday had been the week before and her eldest daughter's birthday was on Friday, this party was really more in celebration of her mother-in-law's visit. Sort of a "meet our crazy friends" event. And we lived up to it! Mr. J's mother is a hoot, and we had a fun, fun time...by the end of the evening, we were all dancing to 70's and 80's music. Kiddo did not want to leave, but we managed to drag him out just before 10:00. He fell asleep within about 30 seconds of his head hitting the pillow.

Tonight we're off to see Aimee Mann and the Indigo Girls. Whee!

Kiddo is 3!

In the airport on Friday evening, Hub called in a bit of a panic - E. coli had been detected in our town, and there was a Boil Water Advisory. This put a wrinkle into our planned water play for Kiddo's birthday party. But a quick call to Ms. C netted us the use of their big bouncy castle.

I made a solemn vow to NOT COOK A THING for this party. This is really hard for me. I guess I'm cook-proud -- I feel like I have a reputation to uphold or something stupid like that. I am proud to say that I managed to do this party without breaking the vow. And remember, this was a 4-7 pm party for kids and parents. Dinner was expected.

The menu:
- PB&J sandwiches (the frozen Smucker's kind, 32)
- Juice boxes
- Bottled water (lots, especially since tap water was out of the question)
- Mac & Cheese, which Mom made
- Fruit salad, which Dad made (OK, my solemn vow does not include my parents)
- Veggie tray, which Mom made
- Spinach dip, that I bought
- Hummous, that I bought
- Deli station, which consisted of sliced meat and cheese I had to call to Raleigh to order (because of the whole Boil Water Advisory thingy) and which I ordered way too much of, but am very much enjoying the leftovers of...
- 2 lbs roast beef
- 2 lbs roast turkey
- 1 lb sopressata (really not a mover. But I love it)
- 1 lb cheddar
- 1 lb havarti
- 1 lb lemmi (don't ask me, they recommended it)
- mayo
- 2 mustards
- sliced tomatoes
- lettuces
- 3 types of excellent bread
- butter
- assorted pickled veggies
- purchased fancy roasted potato salad
- purchased fancy cole slaw
- beer
- wine

We had 28 kids. Actually, 30 if you count the infants. I'm not even going to try to count the adults. It was a really fun party, with multiple generations and everyone pretty much stayed in the backyard and we didn't lose track of Kiddo too many times and he only had one pass-out episode and no one else got hurt...he has a strange reaction to hitting his head, which is really too frightening to even write about...but luckily it happened 5 minutes into the party and he recovered by 30 minutes in.

Generally, it was a really good party. Kiddo was very happy, surrounded by all his friends. And that was the point.

Today we went for his 3-year well child visit and received a height prognosis...6'1" to 6'4". I'm a little freaked out by that. Where is that coming from? I'm 5'4" in shoes and Hub is 5'9". The only tall guy in my family is my brother, who's adopted. I buy mostly organic milk and meat, so it's not hormones...and yet Kiddo has been at least 95th percentile in height practically since he was born.

BTW, I would be remiss in not mentioning all the amazing cleanup, de-bugging (literally, our backyard is full of mosquitos) and toy setup Hub did for this. He's a rock.

It's (not) my party

It was my birthday yesterday. I threw a party. But not for me...one of my best friends, Ms. N., had her 2nd child on Sunday, and I was hosting a "Sip'n'See". I figured new baby trumped my birthday, and besides, it meant that I took the day off and did something fun -- cooked and prepared for a party, then enjoyed myself during! Not only did I get to see my friends on my birthday, I got to avoid the whole singing thing and the focus of attention was on a beautiful baby girl.

So, this is my first post to a blog. I'm a computer scientist and have been wary of establishing an online "presence", but was reminded recently of how much I really like to write. And cook. And my friends keep asking for recipes. Maybe this format will force me to start measuring ingredients? We'll see.

I also really like to entertain, and am currently blessed with friends who do the same...kids have cramped our styles in some ways, but since most of our children have inherited the "party" gene, it just means we have jumpy castles at many of our gatherings. I thought it would be fun to share some of these experiences, menus, themes, etc., for those out there who feel hosting-challenged. I've certainly known lots of those in the past.

Menu for Sip-n-See (if you can't tell I'm half-Greek from this menu, then you've never had Greek food)

• Wine (obviously - otherwise, what would we be sipping?)
• Lactose-free Tiropitas (Ms. N is lactose intolerant)
• Dolmades
• Corn, tomato & zucchini salad
• Minted lamb meatballs with tzaziki
• Fresh bread and goat butter

Game plan

• Made the tiropitas on Sunday evening, then froze them (we really weren't sure when the party was going to occur -- it was kind of up to the baby)
• Made the dolmades on Monday evening (at this point, the date was set, but dolmades will keep for up to a week in the fridge - if people refrain from eating them)
  
• Treated myself to a spa facial on Tuesday morning (hey, it was my birthday)
• Came home and did the salad and the meatballs (the tzaziki I had actually made for a dinner party last Friday, and I'd frozen the leftovers).
• Tidied up with the help of my Mom (who is the original hostess with the mostess)
• Fielded calls from friends, one of whom volunteered to bring a dessert-y thing (brownies) which meant I was able to cross one of my menu items off the list. I love doing that.
• Evaluated the amount of food and the # of people coming, and realized I could cross another menu item off the list (sandwich assembly station). Yay!
  
• Sat down with a glass of wine and my book. Seriously.

Sorry about all the parenthesis. I'll probably have to work on that. I think for recipes, I'll wait to see if anyone asks for one in the comments, and if so, I'll post that in it's own post and then link to it.

Welcome to my blog. May you enjoy it. May I enjoy it. Slainte!