New year bonanza

We took a risk on our holiday party menu. We didn’t do test runs and we didn’t have recipes. It was cooking on the fly at its finest and the food and the party turned out great.

Jeanne and I woke up early-ish on Saturday to make sangria. We were still in our pajamas, with sticky mouths from a night’s drunken sleep and hair jutting out at sharp angles from our heads, slicing thin rounds of oranges, limes, and lemons and opening bottles of red wine. We had our priorities in order. After hours of chilling in the refrigerator and an added glass of spiced rum for extra kick, our sangria was ready to party.

Our menu also consisted of skewered shrimp wrapped in bacon, which took Jeanne a good hour and lots of complaining to finish. We cooked a few of those on a frying pan to make sure they were decent, and they turned out okay, just a little bit too salty. We learned our lesson to not use thick sliced bacon when wrapping delicate shellfish.

We continued our spearing of meats with pieces of chicken marinated in an Indian curry sauce. The sauce was something I had mistakenly bought for Scott and knew that he wouldn’t be using it any time soon. We had no idea what it tasted like though. I thinned the thick concentrate out with some oil and water, and added a dash of cayenne for added heat.

Stevie boiled up a large pot of eggs for his deviled egg creation. I’d never had a deviled egg before and was a tad bit wary of egg yolk mixed with mayonnaise and then squirted back into the white. It sounded like continuous trips to the toilet in the making. But, it was surprising good. He also added onions and bacon, and finished it off with a dash of paprika. The yellow middle was dense, lush mound of creamy, tangy, bacony goodness, a nice balance to the bland boiled white. [Digression: Jeanne tried to push a piece of the bacon-filled egg to Juan, the vegetarian, who I don’t know ate it or not. However, I did apologize and Juan still wants to be friends.]

Jeanne also made her stuffed mushrooms that were overwhelmingly peppery.

We also heated up some appetizer foods from Trader Joe’s (if Bakesale Betty could do it for her holiday party, so could I). We had party-sized mini meatballs and small spinach things in some sort of puff pastry. Both were decent.

For those with sweet cravings, we made bite-sized brownies and rice krispie treats (another holiday party idea stolen from Bakesale Betty). The problem with them was that they were placed in the living room and eaten by people other than me.

Vegetable plates with grape tomatoes, celery sticks, baby carrots, and a spinach-artichoke sauce as well as a cheese platter with goat cheese, brie, and gouda completed our party menu. Stevie was very artistic in his presentation.

I would say it was a successful party, even if only a handful of people wanted to dance and the only person to kiss me was Scott.