Friday with Friends

Last year friends D&W moved to Philly, and Friday they came back for a visit! A large group of us waited for 90+ minutes for a table at Moonshine (no reservations on Fridays- be prepared to wait at the bar) and had such a fun time:

 

Thanks to Chantal for sharing her pictures!!

Festive Cocktail Options...

Because I'm very strange, I like to start planning parties MONTHS in advance. And what is xmas eve but a tiny little party of 4-5 people? The menu planning started last month so now it's time for the ever important "what to drink?"

I like to offer 2 festive drinks, plus the usual eggnog, wine, and "whatever's in the fridge, help yourself, be creative." These are my options:Going from 12 and roughly clockwise*

The Grinch: lemon juice, simple syrup, midori, marachino cherry. (Served before, good.)
Hot Brandy Alexander: milk, brandy, creme de cacao, whipped cream & chocolate shavings. (Never had before.)
Candy Cane Martini: vodka, peppermint schnapps, club soda, candy cane. (Served before, yum!)
Hot Buttered Rum: brown sugar, boiling water, butter, dark rum, nutmeg. (Never had before, Mom loves them.)
Foamy Mexican Hot Chocolate: milk, wedges of mexican hot chocolate, marshmallows. (Never had, virgin.)
French Kiss: lillet, champagne, orange twist. (Think I made a few years ago, can't remember. If I buy more Lillet I can make Vespers.)
The Snowplow: aquavit, lemonade, lemon. (Never had, but am curious about the aquavit.)
Pear Champagne Cocktail: pear eau de vie, champage, frozen pear. (Never had but it sounds lovely!)
Silver Bell Martini: gin, vermouth, pearl onions, silver candy balls. (Pretty standard classic cocktail + candy. Wonder if the candy will sweeten it at all?)
The Elf: lime, sugar, midori, champagne. (Believe I made this before too. Think it was good, but it was *quite* the new year's eve party so...)
Mulled Cider: apple cider, maple syrup, lemon, orange, nutmeg, cinnamon. (Pretty standard, but am used to brown sugar instead of the syrup. Virgin.)

*these are from the Holiday Cocktails Deck.

Okay Readers, what looks good to you? Anything else I should consider? What will you be serving?

HouseWarming Party

Party was last night and I think it went pretty well. A few neighbors showed up and were really nice! We set up washers and ladder golf in the backyard, and the tree had colored holiday lights wrapped and draped on it, with chairs underneath.
I think we were right about the "party flow" of the house- conversations outside, by the sideboard, on the sofa, by the dining table, and at the kitchen. Good flow.

The Food:
Grape skewers, watermelon skewers, strawberries, with fruit dip (marshmallow creme w. cream cheese- de-lish!)
Cheese straws (puff pastry with parmesan cheese, some with fresh ground pepper as well)
Pigs n blankets, with dijon mustard
Fresh veggies with edamame dip (edamame with oil, garlic, s&p, some cream, and lemon. Feta would have been good too, next time i'll throw that in and see how it goes.)
Pita bread with hummus (chickpeas, teeny bit of tahini, s&p, lemon, garlic, water)
Mini cupcakes
Red Velvet cake balls (yummy but not pretty at all. sad.)
Chips & queso
And Mom brought some whole wheat breads quartered, brushed with olive oil, sauteed with garlic and topped with brie. Yum!The Drinks:
Lots of beer on the patio (and friends and neighbors brought more)
Margarita mix (sad that it has nasties (HFCS)- can't anyone make a mix easily available that *doesn't* have nasties? Where does a lazy girl have to shop?)
Liquors with sodas, tonics and italian sodas
and lemon iced tea

New Year's Eve

Celebrated the end of 2008 with "sips and sweets-" a two-hour cocktail party with some friends. Had quite a few cancellations due to travels (which I totally understand- lot of possible drunk drivers out there; I'd avoid them too!) but the small group who came was a lot of fun and it was good to catch up.Had eggnog and some hot chocolate (with liquors to add), and champagne (of course!); sugar cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, oreo truffles, mini-lefses, grape skewers, and mini-cranberry muffins. Played my "cocktails and cafe" pandora station.

Wore my "new" vintage dress, a score from a Naked Lady Party.

Costume Party Photo 10/25

NLP & Voodoo Ladies

Had a Naked Lady Party, where I scored a cute vintage dress (thank you, Allison!), on Saturday. Was good catching up with some girlfriends, and finally taking out the box that has been collecting things since the last party.

Served Voodoo Ladies, which can be served hot or cold.
1 tsp Kahlua
1.5 oz Dark Rum
1/3 c Chai tea concentrate (if serving warm, heat in micro or on stove)
Serve over ice or, if warm, a dollop of cool whip and a sprinkling of nutmeg.
(First had these at Halcyon downtown, but this recipe is from Atomic Cocktails.)

Surprise Bridal Shower

One of my dearest friends got married on Saturday and the bridesmaids threw her a surprise Stock the Bar shower Thursday. Bride had designated a counter and cabinet in her kitchen for the bar but hadn't stocked it yet, and with a Rat Pack themed event, bringing bottles of booze seemed more than appropriate! She decided in the spring that she didn't want a bridal shower or bachelorette party, but we knew we had to celebrate, so, "surprise!"


We rented out half of the Peacock Lounge, which wasn't necessary as it turns out, but was good insurance in case the place got packed, and made a Rat Pack-ish playlist. The wife of an attorney made mini-cupcakes of 3 flavors: Marilyn Monroes/coconut, Rita Hayworths/ red velvet, and Grace Kellys/vanilla. (I took the idea of bombshells as flavors from Let Them Eat Cupcakes; the owner never got back to me on prices for mini-cupcakes.)

Summer Party

We hosted a summer party last weekend. I didn't take any pictures but a friend did so hopefully, when I get a copy, a couple of those will be useable.

We served pigs n blankets, watermelon wedges and chunks, chips and queso, chicken and prosciutto skewers, edamame, and cupcake bites. The cupcake bites weren't very pretty but they were good. Didn't provide any beer so guests were encouraged to bring that, but we had the bar set up with some mixers, and some more 'natural' fizzy fruity drinks for the non-drinkers (or the mixers. Newman's Own Raspberry Kiwi drink was very good with vodka.)

The next party likely won't be until October. And I've got a good scary decoration idea.... heh.

Update: Here are a couple pictures from the party:

NLP

The party went well last night and I've got TEN bags of clothes and accessories to drop off at SafePlace tomorrow. Usually my trunk can hold everything but this time it's overflowed into my back seat. 

I served my cherry vodka and champagne cocktails (1/2 shot cherry vodka, 1 sugar cube, 1 maraschino cherry, top w/ champagne) and "Fancy Panties" (2 oz pink lemonade, 2 oz vodka, top w/ champagne) which sounded better than they tasted.

 

Guests brought quesadillas, cream puffs, sweet pea crostini, brownies, white chocolate chip cookies, mozzarella-basil-tomato skewers, and chocolate chip cheesecake. Yum. 

Playlist was jazzy music, like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Nat King Cole, and Henry Mancini.

(You can see there were a lot of shoes to try on! One NL left with 3 pairs of boots. Lucky her!)

Naked Lady Party This Weekend

And I'm very excited about it. Of course I always am. They're great fun.

For those who haven't heard of NLPs before, they're clothing swap parties. I get a group of young women to come over, after cleaning out their closet of things that don't fit or that they're tired of, they bring a snack to share and anywhere from a grocery bag to three trash bags full (I think that's the record) of clothes/accessories (or sometimes they bring a friend who has lots), we sort it in my living room, make drinks and try stuff on. If you like sometime, just put it in your pile. There's no sitting around reminiscing about an item, or bargaining with another guest over an item. It's totally laid back. And whatever's leftover at the end of the night gets bagged up and taken to SafePlace of Austin the following week.

It's great girl time, and an inexpensive way to update your wardrobe. I host them twice a year.

Regency Style Invitation

Someone on  the RSA board was kind enough to post a link to an image of a Exhibition Ball invitation from 1807. Very helpful!

RSA and Kelly Green

In efforts to make my (hopefully thirtieth) birthday party as accurate as possible, I've joined the Regency Society of America, a "Community Board for the Regency Obsessed." So far people seem quite eager to help me find some regency style invitations to use as a guide. Very cool.

Also, just got the latest issue of Domino and I gotta say, Kelly Green just makes me happy. And in this kitchen, everything looks so fresh and just pops. Can't wait to own my own home...

Summer Party

To celebrate summer, and our birthdays, T and I throw a party during the last bit of july. 2007's was one of the best. We had a great turnout and it was so much fun.

Let's see... what did i serve?
Salmon on pumpernickel
Chicken Caesar Salad Bites
Mini Pigs in Blankets
Melon/Berry Skewers
Chocolate Mini Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Bars
We had beer on the patio and open bar for our guests.

New Year's Eve

With enough food and drink for a small army, T and I welcomed 2007.

Our home was cleared out of extra seating (to encourage mingling of course), with exception to the patio for the smokers, and was simply decorated with x-mas garlands, lights and glittery snowflakes. I set up some glass tiered plates loaded with sweets on the coffee table, set up pitchers and bottles at the bar, prepped champagne glasses at the pass-through bar to the kitchen, and set foods out on the dining table.

We played on shuffle Rolling Stone magazine's best 100 songs of the year- a very interesting mix which we are un-hip enough to be unfamiliar with most. T's favorite is the Dropkick Murphys (?) with the song from The Departed (one of the coolest movies of the year, no question) and I mention it only because I heard it probably 20 times that day while he was collecting the songs. Other songs I swear I heard earlier in the year at a strip club (a friend's birthday celebration ended up there) which was totally weird- images of poles while preparing the foods.

Like I said before, too much food and drink. Some people couldn't stay the whole evening due to work the next day, and others were party-hopping. I should have planned better. Eh, nothing wrong with leftover party food. :)

While a smaller party that I'm used to, it was nice and cozy and I feel that overall it went well.

WHAT WAS SERVED*

7 layer dip and chips
Olive Tartlets
Cheese Straws (cheddar and gruyere)
Baked Brie Parcels
Smoked Salmon on Pumpernickel with dill
Oreo Balls (amazing)
Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Chocolate Covered Pretzels and Fortune Cookies

Peppermint Martinis
Cranberry Martinis
Partridge in a Pear Tree (virgin)
Beer (Shiner & Rolling Rock)
Spicy Bloody Marys
Cherry & Champagne Cocktails (The best drink EVER)

*I'll share the recipes upon request.