Home Sweet Home

The housewarming party has come and gone, and I suppose I'm now officially moved in. Thanks everyone who came (or sent their best wishes) and for letting me pretend to be a chef for a day!

I had this perfect plan to start party prep a week in advance, but plans are meant to be broken, right? When Saturday arrived and I still hadn't bought everything I needed, you'd think a reasonable person would lock themselves in the kitchen and get to work. But perfect San Francisco weather just doesn't come around that often and the warm sun was just teasing me all day long, so I spent most of Saturday outside soaking up the rays. Didn't you know basking in the sun gives you super cooking powers so that you cook with twice the speed of light? :P

I have to give a big shout out to my last minute "sous chef" friend, HL. The extra set of hands for those last couple of critical hours (and the reminders to breathe and eat) were priceless.

Unfortunately for the blogsphere world, I don't have many good pictures of the feast; I didn't even manage a picture of the entire spread. Part of the drawback of still being in cooking mode when guests arrive is that having 20 hungry people attempting to be patient before digging in makes you take really quick, not well thought out pictures.

It's nothing compared to the 70 person party that the White on Rice Couple threw a couple of weeks ago, but here's a quick peek at my housewarming party! (Recipes to come when I'm not quite so exhausted.)

Not pictured: Crabcakes with mango salsa, Lemon bars, Ribs, Salami pepperoncini rollups

The Healthy Side of the Spread - fruit salad, cucumber salad, green bean and tomato salad, orange and mint sugar snap peas, corn and black bean salsa, shrimp ceviche, bbq meatballs (ok, so those are quite so healthy)

Cucumber Salad

Shrimp Ceviche

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

Orange Mint Sugar Snap Peas

The Obligatory Munchies

Pesto Potato Salad and Tortellini Salad

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Orange Carrot Cupcakes