We had a lovely party! Some friends who hadn’t been to our house before came and we got to show off our lovely flamingo kitchen. The previous owner was an artist and we have a flamingo mural in the kitchen, a vineyard scene in the hallway, and the guest room  has fish everywhere.

We love them all, but my favorite are the flamingos, of course. My love of flamingos is pretty well-known. We got two flamingo themed cards and several flamingo items as gifts. The Husband has accepted his fate of living in a mildly flamingo themed house well so far. He’s even bought me a few himself. Granted, I tend to like the less cheesy flamingos better, so that probably helps.  Our house isn’t the subject of the post though, the party foods are!

I had a few recipes from the week too, although not that many. We had a lot of late nights and leftovers. I did make a crockpot pot roast, beef fajitas, and a mushroom/squash/onion goat cheese tart.

1- Crockpot Pot Roast with Gravy from No. 2 Pencil. http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/07/16/easy-crock-pot-pot-roast-with-gravy/

Modifications: I used one can of soup and added potatoes and carrots under the roast. I also threw in half a can of water. I was concerned that the veggies wouldn’t cook. The Husband liked this more than me, but I dislike the cream soups in general. No pictures.

2- Beef Fajitas from Freezer Meals by Julianna Sweeney. 

Modifications: I think I added more spices than it called for. This was very good and we have two bags of  the mix in the freezer for later dinners.

3- Veggie Goat Cheese Tart, recipe by me.

I used puff pastry for the base and sautéed mushrooms, zucchini, and red onion over goat cheese and Asiago cheese pieces. It was delicious.

Now, on to the party recipes!

1- Rosemary Bundt Cake from Cooking From the Gourmet’s Garden by Coralie Castle and Robert Kourik. Section: Rosemary

Modifications: I didn’t have rosewater, so left it out. I also made the cake the same day, not realizing it recommended making it the day before. It tasted delicious and held up well for slicing. I made it in my dragon bundt pan. I’ve had it for about 2 years and been too afraid to use it. I decided our 5th Anniversary was enough of a big deal though and it turned out really well. I used way too much flour in the pan being nervous about it sticking. I know for next time now.

The back of the cake:

The front of the cake:

We’re going to have an Elevensies party again this year and I’ll be making another dragon cake for that too.

2- Raspberry Chocolate Cake from A Quilter’s Christmas Cookbook by  Louise Stoltzfus and Dawn Ranck. Section: Cakes

Modifications: I used a regular buttercream recipe, as I didn’t have a pan or the time to melt everything for the frosting in the book. I think I had less puree than called for and it kind of sunk right into the cake, but it still tastes good. I used a Love Bar with dark chocolate and freeze-dried rasberries for the cake. It was a tiny bit over-baked, so it’s not as moist as I would like.

3- Goat Cheese Truffles from The Vintage Tea Party Year by Angel Adoree. Section: Coming of Age Tea Party.

Modifications: None. These were just goat cheese balls dipped in various toppings. I used toasted sesame seeds, paprika, poppy seeds, and dried parsley. They look very elegant, but were the easiest thing to make.

4- Crab Dip. I originally used a recipe online, I think from Our Best Bites, but I can’t remember. For this batch, I used a block of cream cheese, 8 oz of real crab meat, about 1/4-1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 c. Mayo, garlic powder, onion powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, 4 chopped scallions, and about half a bag of a shredded 5 cheese Italian blend.

Mix it all together, top with more shredded cheese and bake at 350 for about half an hour or until the edges are brown and bubbly. I normally use greek yogurt in place of the sour cream, but didn’t have any. The Husband decided he likes it better with fake crab. 🙂 He always requests it for parties.

We also had an ice cream bar with all sorts of toppings, homemade chocolate ganache and Saunder’s caramel sauce. We have so much ice cream left over.

Pico and chips and a veggie and pickle tray rounded out our table.

I sent this picture to my Mom, since she was making snarky remarks about how many pickles made up a pickle tray. According to her, there had to be more than one pickle at the party…

Rest assured, there were actually 3 types of pickles. These are the sweet and spicy pickles and there were mini dill gherkins, and my homemade pickle chips.

The homemade ones were a surprising hit. My in-laws and two of our friends with Polish heritage hoarded the pickle chips and polished off the entire jar. 🙂 I had two cloves of garlic in that jar and it was a very good idea. They do need a little more dill, but I think I’ll keep that recipe in my back pocket.

Some friends also brought treats. We had Bailey’s mousse, which was delicious, but could possibly be contributing to my headache today. We also had delicious lemon bars with a pomegranate glaze. Fancy licked an entire row of these before we could get to her… Terrible dog.

Fancy always has fun at parties. She has had an exciting couple of days. She met a new possible friend, a Malamute named Blaze, on Friday and then got to see so many people at the party. By the end of the night she was zonked out on the couch. She and I may need many naps today to recover. Here’s a picture of her last night.

My friend came wearing a dress she had made with flamingos on it and it has motivated me to try to make some more dresses. I did not mug her for her dress, even though I could have given her something else to wear. I wore my strawberry dress to the party and got lots of compliments, so if I can figure out which pattern it is, I will have to make some more.

Hopefully after some more water and dog snuggles, I can go play in my craft space and come up with something to post about tomorrow!

I’ll leave you with a quote that we got on a picture frame from friend yesterday.

“It’s not where you go or what you do, it’s who is beside you that counts.”