Post-Party Post
First off, I would like to tip my proverbial hat to all the fine folks who joined us for our winter warmies pajama party this weekend - thanks for making it a fabulous night all around. We ended up with a respectable crowd of 22 and got to see many lovely faces that we had been missing for a while. Robes and PJs were sported by nearly all, and we spent the night eating, drinking, playing games, and generally making merry.
One of the many reasons I love hosting parties is getting an excuse to do a lot of cooking and baking, so I tend to go a little overboard when it comes to party food and am prone to making a tone of different things all from scratch. This time around, I ended up making a spread of the following:
-Fig, Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Gallette (in the form of a stuffed braided pastry thing that I don't know what to call)
-Wine-marinated grapes
-Cheese plate of Brie, Iberco, and Asiago, with a trio of spreads: sage-pepita pesto, smoky sun-dried tomato and walnut jam, and lemon-thyme herbed goat cheese spread (okay, so I didn't make the actual cheeses from scratch, nor the bread and crackers served with; I'm not that overboard)
-Spicy fennel-rubbed roasted sweet potato wedges with saffron greek yogurt dip
-Roasted pork tenderloin medallions with pomegranate-cranberry-rosemary reduction
-Brandy-spiked pumpkin cheesecake
-Rum-spiked pumpkin pie
-Cinnamon-spice caramel corn
-(Originally there was also an autumn salad planned, with persimmons, pecans, cranberries, feta and a hazelnut-citrus-cardamom vinaigrette, but I didn't end up putting it together).
Adding to the mix, salix42 baked up a big batch of pecan ball cookies that were divine, Ms. Honeybee brought a tasty spinach-cranberry salad, M.S. brought a pot southern veggie soup, and flitterkit brought some TJ's peppermint oreo-type cookies.
On the drinks front, riodutchie mulled up two tasty batches of mulled wine and mulled cider (did I mention that I'm a horrible side-seat chef, btw? Poor Rio is very tolerant of my fretting), which we had keeping warm on the stove throughout the evening, and we had our usual card-table-full-of-booze-and-mixers. My Personal favorite drink of the evening was champagne with a glug of blackberry cordial, brilliantly concocted by one Miss L, dressed head-to-toe in pink thermals.
On the games front, we finally managed to crack open two of our still shrink-wrapped games that have been laying in wait. To start things off, I, a mere two drinks in to the evening, challenged the room at large to a match of PJ Twister. My challenge was met by a handful of brave souls who all found gravity less persuasive than I did. Our cat Loki took it upon himself to be our spinner for several turns, unable to resist the whirring hand. Then there was a game of team Pictionary, in which the green team clobbered the red team amidst ongoing argument over what constitutes a gesture, and after that, and game of Taboo, in which the girls trounced the boys.
The last of us departed or wandered off to bed around 3:30 am. paulwheeler, lt_kitty, flitterkit, salix42, D.S. and their friend M. ended up crashing over for the night. Paul snuck out earlyish to Dickens' fair, and the rest of us had a more leisurely morning, snacking on persimmon bread and left-overs, and lolling on the couch. Aside from pie and cheesecake, I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had very few leftovers. Win! I knew two desserts were going to be overkill, but I decided to make them both anyway for the sake of shortening my nagging 'bake-me' list.
After everyone had headed home, Rio and I went for a nice, refreshing walk in the rain and ended the day with a quiet, relaxing evening. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I am reluctant to pry my head back into work-week mode. But, alas, there are deadlines and a lot yet to get done in this last full week before the holidays. So I'd better get to it.
Cheers.
One of the many reasons I love hosting parties is getting an excuse to do a lot of cooking and baking, so I tend to go a little overboard when it comes to party food and am prone to making a tone of different things all from scratch. This time around, I ended up making a spread of the following:
-Fig, Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Gallette (in the form of a stuffed braided pastry thing that I don't know what to call)
-Wine-marinated grapes
-Cheese plate of Brie, Iberco, and Asiago, with a trio of spreads: sage-pepita pesto, smoky sun-dried tomato and walnut jam, and lemon-thyme herbed goat cheese spread (okay, so I didn't make the actual cheeses from scratch, nor the bread and crackers served with; I'm not that overboard)
-Spicy fennel-rubbed roasted sweet potato wedges with saffron greek yogurt dip
-Roasted pork tenderloin medallions with pomegranate-cranberry-rosemary reduction
-Brandy-spiked pumpkin cheesecake
-Rum-spiked pumpkin pie
-Cinnamon-spice caramel corn
-(Originally there was also an autumn salad planned, with persimmons, pecans, cranberries, feta and a hazelnut-citrus-cardamom vinaigrette, but I didn't end up putting it together).
Adding to the mix, salix42 baked up a big batch of pecan ball cookies that were divine, Ms. Honeybee brought a tasty spinach-cranberry salad, M.S. brought a pot southern veggie soup, and flitterkit brought some TJ's peppermint oreo-type cookies.
On the drinks front, riodutchie mulled up two tasty batches of mulled wine and mulled cider (did I mention that I'm a horrible side-seat chef, btw? Poor Rio is very tolerant of my fretting), which we had keeping warm on the stove throughout the evening, and we had our usual card-table-full-of-booze-and-mixers. My Personal favorite drink of the evening was champagne with a glug of blackberry cordial, brilliantly concocted by one Miss L, dressed head-to-toe in pink thermals.
On the games front, we finally managed to crack open two of our still shrink-wrapped games that have been laying in wait. To start things off, I, a mere two drinks in to the evening, challenged the room at large to a match of PJ Twister. My challenge was met by a handful of brave souls who all found gravity less persuasive than I did. Our cat Loki took it upon himself to be our spinner for several turns, unable to resist the whirring hand. Then there was a game of team Pictionary, in which the green team clobbered the red team amidst ongoing argument over what constitutes a gesture, and after that, and game of Taboo, in which the girls trounced the boys.
The last of us departed or wandered off to bed around 3:30 am. paulwheeler, lt_kitty, flitterkit, salix42, D.S. and their friend M. ended up crashing over for the night. Paul snuck out earlyish to Dickens' fair, and the rest of us had a more leisurely morning, snacking on persimmon bread and left-overs, and lolling on the couch. Aside from pie and cheesecake, I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had very few leftovers. Win! I knew two desserts were going to be overkill, but I decided to make them both anyway for the sake of shortening my nagging 'bake-me' list.
After everyone had headed home, Rio and I went for a nice, refreshing walk in the rain and ended the day with a quiet, relaxing evening. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I am reluctant to pry my head back into work-week mode. But, alas, there are deadlines and a lot yet to get done in this last full week before the holidays. So I'd better get to it.
Cheers.