Ted’s Birthday Bash 2013

We celebrated my husband’s 31st birthday last weekend with food, friends and frivolity.  I’d call it a simplified menu compared to past years however it was still a fair amount of cooking.

Anywho, here’s the menu.

Apps
Deviled Eggs
Roasted Brussels Spouts canape with black pepper Greek yogurt
Vegetable dumplings with soy-ginger dipping sauce
Guacamole & chips
Crudite and onion dip

Main
Hamburgers
Hotdogs
Veggie Burgers
Potato chips
Pasta, pesto & peas
Black Bean, Corn and Tomato Salad

Desserts
Brown Sugar Cookies
Spice Cup Cakes
Salted Caramel Shortbread bars (from Honeybee Baking Company via the Mass Local Food Co-op)
Eddy’s Lemonade Bars

Holiday Party 2012

Here is the menu for the 2012 edition of our annual After-the-Holidays Holiday Party.

Appetizers

• Chili-cheese puffs (from the Uncommon Gourmet’s All-Occasion Cookbook)
• Polenta pizzas with walnut pesto & roasted cherry tomatoes
• Beef crustini with horseradish cream
• Roasted Shrimp Cocktail
• Pigs in a blanket
• Cheese, crackers, mixed olives and grapes

Main dishes

• Turkey and Spinach Curry (roughly based on this recipe from the NY Times)
• Black Bean, Corn & Tomato Salad (from the Joy of Cooking)
• Curried Cauliflower
• Roasted Indian-Spiced Pork Tenderloin
• Coconut Rice with mint

Dessert

• Cranberry-Walnut Cakes
• Pumpkin Cheesecake
• assorted pastries from Madrid bakery

Ted’s Birthday Bash 2011

Friends and family came over on Saturday to help celebrate ted_badger‘s 29th birthday. Other than a brief shower as I was grilling the chicken the weather was pretty great.

My biggest worry when having people over is that there won’t be enough food for everyone. This has led to chronic over-preparing of food for years of parties. I’ve been trying really hard to cut back on the gut reflex to double recipes for parties. It seems to be working out OK. Only the good lord knows where where the fear comes from.

Anywho, here’s the menu.

Apps
Deviled Eggs
Roasted Brussels Spouts crustini with Greek yogurt & black pepper
Vegetable dumplings with soy-ginger dipping sauce
Hummus and pita
Gaucamole, salsa & chips
Fritos & onion dip

Main
Pulled pork
Buttermilk Roast Chicken
Grilled vegetables, marinated
Pasta, pesto & peas
Red Quinoa Salad, sort of based on this

Desserts
Meringues w/Pear, Chocolate Sauce & Whipped Cream
Brown Sugar Cookies
Honeydew Lime Popsicles
Ice cream sandwiches

The 2009 After-the-Holidays Holiday Party

Well we definitely had a houseful last night. Everyone seemed to have a good time. ted_badger and I enjoyed cooking all day. I will say that we couldn’t have gotten everyone done without the help of Isaac, Sylvia & Dave. You guys rock.

Here’s the menu.

Appetizers

• Roasted Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce
• Parmesan Cheese Twists
• Basil-Mushroom Cups
• Dates stuffed with goat cheese & lemon
• Endive Spears with Stilton Cheese, Toasted Pecans, and Sauteed Pears
• Roasted Eggplant Dip, Hummus, Pita

Main dishes

• Veggie Green Curry with white rice
• Pomegranate-glazed Turkey Skewers
• Roast Pork Loin with Prosciutto on Crostini
• Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte with Parmesan
• Orecchiette with Chickpeas

Dessert

• Pinenut & Honey Tart
• Fruitcake
• Thumbprint cookies with Nutella or Raspberry Jam
• Vinatetta (provided by miss_jenith)

Links to recipes are provided however they are often only used for gathering ideas rather than the actual creation of a particular item.

Ted’s Birthday Bash 2009

On May 23rd we celebrated my husband’s 27th birthday. Here’s the menu with links to the sources for some of the recipes.

Appetizers

• Spinach and Cannellini Bean Dip
• Roasted Brussels Sprout Canape (from the mind of Ted)
• Deviled Eggs
• Chicken Empanadas

Main dishes

• Veggie Chili
• Meated Chili
• Alton Brown’s No-BBQ Ribs (from I’m Just Here for the Food)
• Veggie Patties (offered with cheddar cheese and bacon)
• Moroccan Couscous Salad
• Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad

Desserts

• Brown Butter Cookies
• Cupcakes
• Fruit Swirl squares
• Homemade Marshmallows with chocolate ganache

Ted’s Birthday Bash 2008

We celebrated ted_badger‘s 26th birthday with a gathering at the house on May 30th. Here’s the menu for future reference…

Appetizers
Chickpea patties with cranberry-apple relish & farmhouse chutney
Mini tomato tarts (from my sister)
Deviled eggs
Mini pizzas
Crackers & cheese
Hummus & pita
Olives

Main entrees
Grilled Moroccan drumsticks
Grilled kielbasa
Veggie kebabs (summer squash, zucchini & onion)
Corn & black bean salad
Tabbouleh salad

Desserts
Cupcakes
Brownies
asst cookies
Ice Cream Sandwiches

Holiday Party 2008

Our annual holiday party was last night. Here’s a recap of what we served.

Guacamole & chips
Stuffed mushrooms
Veggie spring rolls
Dilled Shrimp mini-quiches
Chicken satay
Brie bites

Fennel & orange salad
Vegetable Frittata
Cumin dusted sweet potato “fries”
Orange-marinated turkey breast (from The Way We Cook)
Curried chicken salad on pumpernickel
Ted’s vegetarian chili & rice casserole

Blueberry gingerbread (from The Way We Cook)
Pine nut tart
Mini carrot cake w/cream cheese icing
Fruit cake

Christmas Eve 2007

As has become something of a tradition we invited friends without plans to join us Christmas Eve for dinner. As this tends to be a childless gathering we up the ante on ourselves, cooking something new or time consuming or both.

My husband and I recently watched an episode of Kylie Kwong‘s Simply Magic where she made a poached duck. It looked tasty and I decided that would be the Christmas Eve centerpiece this year. It was more work than I expected however it came out very tasty. I sliced the breast thin and we served it on Chinese moo shi pancakes with an assortment of raw vegetables & a couple of sauces.

I rounded out the menu with a veggie pad thai and stir fried baby bok choi. Dessert was a chai tea custard.

Hope everyone ate well over the holidays!

Ted’s Birthday Bash 2007

Good party last Saturday to celebrate Ted’s 25th birthday. A little over 60% of the RSVP’d guests actually made it which is pretty good. The weather was hot which made it nicer to sit on the deck than in the house. It’s almost time to move the a/c out of the garage and into the windows.

Menu
Deviled Eggs
Turnip Tots
Mini crab cakes (based on with Remoulade Sauce
Curry roasted chickpeas

Hamburgers & Hot Dogs
Veggie Burgers (Cooks’ Illustrated recipe)

Black Bean & Corn Salad (Joy of Cooking)
Tabbouleh (mind of Ted)
Meated Chili (mind of Bob)
Vegetarian Chili (mind of Ted)

“Pricey” brownies
Brown Sugar Cookies (Cooks’ Illustrated recipe)
Various purchased Italian cookies from Panzano Market

Special thanks to Tom for his help in setting up and dkeali_i for clean-up assistance the next morning.