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

Ready, Set...

Last year's Superbowl party was my first party to host entirely on my own. Since then, I've had the Fourth of July and the Second Annual Fleet week, both of which were pretty successful. This year's party should be even more of a success, just judging by the fact that people were asking me before I even had a chance to get the invite out if I were still having the Superbowl...because if I was, they were going to be there for sure. I'm pretty stoked.

I'm still working on how to manage to feed a hungry lot of people with a wide variety of pseudo-gourmet food without 1. going broke 2. spending all my time in the kitchen during the party and 3. not completely exhausting myself. I'm learning to balance home-made with store bought and I'm attempting to learn how to delegate tasks in the kitchen (I've had a pretty nice handful of volunteers this go around).

1. Going broke - I'll quote the party invitation (which was a premade one from Evite, btw...not my not-so-subtle hint that I created myself). Show Up. Bring beer. Lauren has also suggested a "tip" jar by the food. Something along the lines of a threat of no more future parties due to a chef gone broke. That should encourage them!

2. Spending all the time in the kitchen - I am the proud new owner of two Vollrath Trimline II chafing dishes. These things mean business. I've also made sure to balance the menu (see below) with cold, hot and room temperature foods.

3. Not completely exhausting myself - OK, this is probably not possible because I derive my fun out of overwhelming and stressing myself out. Pseudo-masochistic, I know. But heeding my mother's advice, I'm attempting to plan ahead for once, which brings me to the party menu:

Cold
Chips with roasted salsa and guacamole
Vegetables
Hot spinach artichoke dip
Ranch dip, hummus, onion dip
Shrimp spring rolls with peanut sauce
Shrimp ceviche
Deviled Eggs
Pepperoncini/salami and ham/cheese rollups

Hot
Chipotle chicken skewers
Pigs in a blanket
Meatballs in Bourbon sauce
Crabcakes with mango salsa
Roasted potato fries
Chili
Buffalo wings
Mac n cheese

Room temp
Pretzels
Cheesestraws
PB chocolate cookies
Bruschetta
Chocolate chip cookies

Of course, I'm open to suggestions and always looking for new things to serve...