Holiday Party, Chez Snobby Bear

My gorgeous wine glasses & the silly wine charms that actually came in very handy.  Check this out: the wine glasses were $9.99 for a box of 12, so I bought one box of red wine and one box of all purpose (they unfortunately did not have any white wine out).  Oddly enough, I greatly prefer the red wine glasses despite being a white wine drinker, while B, a red wine drinker, prefers the all purpose.  Either way, I now have plenty of cheap wine glasses for all parties to come, so no worries about breaking them and having to replace for astronomical prices.  (PS Can you spot B reading a comic book in the above picture… while I rush around frantically preparing for the party?  In his defense, it was a party for my friends, so no worries.)

(Courtesy of Target!)

A close up of the Caesar salad I threw together; my usual Romaine lettuce, homemade croutons and fresh Parmagiano-Reggiano grated on top.  I desperately now want the acacia salad servers from Crate & Barrel though.  (For lack of serving platters, I served it in my giant Pyrex glass bowl.)

My crudite table- I love how festive and Christmas the broccoli with grape tomatoes looks!  Hummus for dipping of course; not homemade though I endeavor to make that this year.

Homemade salsa (recipe to follow), homemade guacamole (with the new addition of cilantro), Tostitos chips
(Don’t you love my little hot pepper salsa bowl?  It was a gift from Santa!)

Christmas deviled eggs- why Christmas?  I diced up red bell peppers, green bell peppers and the usual celery to go into this (hard boil the eggs, peel and cut lengthwise.  Scoop yolks into a bowl, fork to break up, then add personal choices of ingredients; for these I used the peppers, celery, and Thousand Island Dressing [store bought though yes, I do know how to make that from scratch] to taste- my sister likes to add more pickle relish and sometimes uses a mustard/mayo combo instead of Thousand Island dressing, but it tastes almost exactly the same).  I think it looks so pretty and these were yummy with a nice crunch from all the veggies.

Bacon & corn chowder by BB– you’ll need to ask her for the recipe as she hasn’t quite yet divulged it to me yet.  Hound her!  This was delicious!

BB’s boyfriend’s offering- homemade/handmade summer rolls, yum!  The only thing missing was peanut sauce, but delicious nonetheless dipped in the fish sauce he brought.  StB announced that these were also really good with the homemade guacamole.

A view of the table with much of the offerings in sight: bottom right going clockwise: roasted potatoes with bacon & corn courtesy of HB; collard greens with bacon courtesy of StB; sweet potatoes and marshmallows from ShB; salad in the big bowl and homemade stuffing adjacent from me (SnB); baked rigatoni with eggplant, fresh mozzarella and sweet/hot sausage; edamame (SnB).

My perfect, even slices of (honey brined, roasted turkey.  Recipe to come.

My plate- the only item on there not already mentioned is the fried rice, which might look blah but is anything but: dried scallop fried rice.  OMG, that was easily one of my favorites of the night; the dried scallop flavor totally permeated all of the rice.  Courtesy of LTS’s boyfriend.

My fridge at the end of the night.  THIS IS AFTER I made everyone take home huge Tupperwares with food!!!  I’m still eating them, but no complaints here~ it was delicious.  My friends really stepped up to the plate and impressed me with their offerings.

Before I go, the full menu:
Dried scallop fried rice (LTS’s boyfriend)
Tong Shui (not pictured, but delicious, with tapioca pearls and yams throughout, from LTS)
Collard Greens & Bacon (StB)
Baked rigatoni with eggplant, sweet/hot sausage, and fresh mozzarella (StB’s boyfriend)
Roasted potatoes with corn & bacon (HB)
Mango bars (not pictured, but sticky good yum, from HB’s boyfriend)
Gingerbread with cream cheese frosting and cheesy cornbread (not pictured, but super moist and dense cheesy-yum, respectively, from SpB)
Sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping (ShB)
Bacon & Corn Chowder (BB)
Summer rolls (BB’s boyfriend)
Whatever you see above that isn’t listed here was made by me, SnB.  (I’m pretty sure I didn’t forget to snap any pictures… oh of the giblet gravy, which was really yumm, too!)

And two pictures of me proudly displaying (and attempting to carve into nice, even slices) my first ever foray into roasting a whole turkey:

I hope you enjoyed reading about this party just a fraction as much as I did throwing it- if so, that’s HUGE!  Thanks to all who came and contributed!!  I had a total blast feeding my friends, mixing groups and just mingling with everyone; Yankee swap was fantastic and the other games were great as well.  Perhaps a new tradition?!  Time will tell…