Several Down and One Left

I know I have been delayed on posting a few pictures but lately on Sunday after partying on Saturday I am pooped. Plus Monday - Friday I am strapped to an office chair trying to make money for all these fabulous parties.

So... Jimmy and Donald's Housewarming has concluded as has the crawfish boil and Miriam and Tom's Housewarming/Cinco de Mayo. Below is a summary and results for each party.

Jimmy & Donald's - They couldn't have picked better weather that weekend. It was amazing. We all sat outside among the wonderfully shaded backyard drinking some purple passion concoction of Jimmy's. The menu was well executed by Jimmy and consisted of a really awesome spicy bean dip served with veggies. I was also a fan of his black eyed pea dip. For this party as you remember I just contributed cookies and my goat cheese spread (recipe below). Perhaps I can talk Jimmy into releasing on of the previously mentioned recipes for me to post.

Crawfish Boil - Where to start.... Dave and I prepared the red beans Friday night as well as the pasta salad. This allowed for us to have a little more time for set-up on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we created a guy by the name of Homer in the parking lot of the Hideaway on Richmond and Dunvale at 10:00am. He sold us 3 sacks at a $1.50 a pound. It was quite the spectacle. He had two huge trucks with big freezers on the bag and they were full of large sacks. Now these crawfish were not small. They were quite large so I think we got a great deal.

After picking up the mudbugs we were off to Deidra's house to drop them off. We set up the tables and taped newspapers to them as our table cloths. Let me tell you this was high class. Jenny (our recruited chef) and Adrianne arrived at 1:00 and we started to purge the bugs and make the seasoning. Now Jenny did something quite interesting, she steamed the bugs not boiled them. The seasoning consisted of garlic, italian seasoning, crushed red pepper, seafood boil, orange juice, lemon juice. She mixed all of this together and would pour this mixture over the bugs as they were dumped into the hot pot. They were absolutely wonderful and were quite spicy. My lips burnt for days afterwards. I do have to say that steaming them was awesome however made them a little more difficult to peel. I look forward to trying this recipe with more of a boil soon before the season ends. We also boiled 10lbs of shrimp and 5lbs of sausage.

The sides for the party consisted of the usual corn, mushrooms, potatoes, potato salad, pasta salad and lemon bars provided by Breann and brownies provided by Christine. Not to many leftovers as the crowd size was about 50.

This brings me up to Miriam and Tom's - This event was held this past Saturday. The crowd size was about 20. We had tons of food with Dave grilling the fajita beef and chicken. I made a 7 layer dip and Trey's Mom's green sauce. Miriam made a fresh pico, quacamole, veggie skewers and a wonderful tres leches cake. We of course over did the food but it was great.

Dave marinated the beef on Friday. The marinade was garlic, lime juice, liquid smoke, olive oil and seasoning. This really makes the flank steak succulent. He also used a tenderizer to make the meat absorb the flavors and really adds a great texture to it. The chicken was also marinated in lime juice, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Needless to say after a month of non-stop parties and one more to go with Elizabeth's Bridal Shower on the 18th I am going to need a vacation. So after the 18th I will be taking a month off from hosting parties. Dave and I will be in Cabo for a week starting Memorial weekend. Dave has told me that if I can go all of June without hosting a party I get dinner at Mark's http://www.marks1658.com/ which is definitely a treat for me.

So my next post will be on Elizabeth's shower and maybe if I can get off my lazy bottom I will post pictures from the last three events.

Cheers!