Yes folks, call me crazy, that's two parties in three days!
Monday's gathering was our local Bunco group. Bunco is a fun, mindless dice game. Our group consists of 16 women, neighbors and friends.
So, to recap, on Saturday evening we hosted a formal dinner party for 6 and on Monday I hosted 16. It was my turn to do Bunco (once every 16 months) and a neighbor convinced me to volunteer to do a dinner portion of the Progressive Dinner. Her logic was that the house would already be cleaned and so, why not?
It did involve a total repositioning of furniture and crawling around the garage to find a card table. Cooking for the Bunco party is a matter of putting together some finger food, appetizer and some type of dessert.
I did put the $30 cake pan into service and this time it released from the pan without crumbling.
The trick is to let it stand for 10 minutes after you pull it from the oven before you turn it over on the cake plate. My version of the cake is draped with a layer of icing glaze that mimics the effect of an ice storm.
After the icing glaze has a chance to set I sprinkle confectioner's sugar over it to mimic a snowstorm after an ice storm. Unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of that stage. You can see a little bit of it in the back of the after-party wreckage.
I served Swedish meatballs in this chafing dish.
The meatballs were purchased frozen at IKEA and I made the sauce from scratch. The meatballs were very good and saved me time.
Do you have one of these chafing dishes? I have two and I love them.
Red velvet cupcakes. Made from a box mix. Everybody seemed to love red velvet.
I dragged my chalkboard down from the sewing room and wrote out a menu.
What do you think was the hit of the evening?
I only spent $1.99 at the local Italian market for 5 pink tulips.
Everyone went crazy for the tulips, and the Pesto torte.
This week I'll give you recipes for some of the food that was served and I'll also tell you how to make one of those chalkboards on the cheap.
The party is over and it's time to get back to the sewing room.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to visit with me. I appreciate your company because it means I can stave off cabin fever a while longer.
12 comments:
That's so funny! We had friends over for dinner on Friday night and I'd bought a $5 bunch of red tulips at Safeway and they were the hit of the evening too! And we also had meatballs, but in spag sauce and on rolls as subs. We also had spring mix salad and those deadly little eclairs-in-a-box from the freezer. The kind you can eat a dozen of without thinking about what you're doing?
Your crazy!
Tulips. They look so lovely.
And may I just say yet again how absolutely stunning your hand writing is.
Wow! We do Bunco over here, and I love it! But, we don't do dinner along with it! Wow...
Love Bunco.
Love tulips too! I'll be getting some for our party this weekend...
:)
Ooh! I want the recipes for the pesto torte and the curried chicken salad. They sound wonderful!
Suzanne, sounds like a great party! I like the 'blackboard' idea. And your special cake pan cake would be a great cake to serve during the up-coming Olympic Games... it looks, when iced, like a ski resort.
Now it is time to relax after all your entertaining ~ you deserve a rest from a job well done!
Lovely handwriting.
Great menu. Looking forward to the recipes....and the chalkboard tutorial too. I suddenly feel a need for a chalkboard.
I love having people over for dinner. It gets me to clean the house, I get to make dinner for someone else (much more fun than making dinner for complaining children!), and the visiting and laughter are so much fun!
I love the cake with the glaze and icing sugar - beautiful!
You have beautiful handwriting! I might be a bit jealous...LOL.
I am glad to know you will be sharing some recipes because I'd love to know the recipe for the meatball sauce and pesto torte. Both sound really yummy.
Aha! The best way to avoid cabin fever is to have a party. Splendid idea! I really like your tulips and your chalkboard menu. The cake is gorgeous...yes, that ten minutes makes all the difference. Also, I found that I was using way too much spray...just a bit brushed around is all that I needed.
(My niece arrived for a brief visit last night...car left running, coat remained on...but somehow I managed to coax her into staying for supper. Mercifully, she took pity on the three of us cabin fever sufferers.)
Suzanne, your menu sounds delicious and looks beautiful in your elegant writing. Is that done with the chalkboard marker you mentioned a while back? Ever so much nicer than dusty old chalk!
And your cake!! I love the ice & snow effect. All you need for the Olympics is a little marzipan skier going down the slope.
I agree, anyone who does dinners like that ought to have a chafing dish. You can buy a nice one like yours for under $50, or buy disposable ones in the wedding section at Wal-Mart or Party city. It's much better than letting the food get cold in a casserole dish. The sterno can be difficult to find--I get mine in the BBQ section at the grocery store.
Oooh yes... tulips in the midst of winter are lovely!
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