Tapas feast

Yesterday my friend, E-Yoak, graduated with a Masters of Public Policy from the Humphrey H. Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. It was a perfectly good excuse for a party! E-Yoak and I are in a supper club together; so is his wife and my bud, auntlyh. About a month ago E-Yoak said something like, "Unless you guys want to cook for my party." The power of suggestion is strong. That was all it took....supper club catered his graduation party yesterday.

Between his classes and her new job I haven't seen much of them outside of supper club dinners. So it was good to see them yesterday. They were relaxed and happy and had time to enjoy their party and guests. It felt good to do this for my friends.

I have to say this....we do good work. S&M, Kris, and I put on quite a spread. Nevermind that we made way too much food - better that than not enough I say. To make your mouth water, here's a run down of all the yummies: chorizo-stuffed dates, lamb meatballs, pork empanadas, chicken skewers, smoked salmon on toast, caramelized onion-cheese-asparagus pizza, patatas bravo, potato tortilla, breadsticks wrapped with proscuitto, cheese-stuffed cherry tomatoes, stuffed piquillo peppers, crudites with lemon-herb dip, a cheese plate with fruit and nuts, a selection of olives, and various sauces and dips to try with everything. Bags of maple-chile popcorn were the party favor.

I'm worn out! It truly was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and would probably do some things differently if given the opportunity to do this again. While I was only joking when I said something about buying a white van yesterday, today I thought about the idea of breaking into the catering business. I don't know anything about the market here, but I imagine it would be difficult to break into it. Then there's culinary school. Oh, and the minor detail of food safety. Auntlyh and I share a pipe dream of opening a yarn shop....at least with yarn, you don't have to worry about poisoning someone.

A-Mo helped me out in a big way for this party. He helped stuff the smallest cherry tomatoes known to man and figured out how to use the top loader on the food processor for the tortilla. But more importantly he kept our cranky, teething, and demanding toddler amused, fed, and out of my way. To thank him for all his attention, she gave him her cold. Thank you A-Mo. I've got the next one. :)