Boxing Day Party

Now, if I were a decent blogger I would have a bunch of artfully arranged pictures of our food and guests, maybe a glamourous candid shot of myself, holding a glass of wine and laughing.

I have none of that.  I was too busy partying.  Also, my friends would probably think I was weird.

Instead I have a few completely random pictures hurriedly snapped as the last of our guests departed and I cleaned up.

There is something about a fire roaring during a winter party that's just so lovely.

We set up a bar on a large folding table in the den.

Look at my poor wilted hydrangea- the heat of the adjacent ovens was just too much.  

So the details- we had about fifty people.  After a mad dash through Trader Joe's and Kroger with Dell Harper in tow, I picked up a ton of cured meats, assorted cheese, olives and crackers.  The night before I made a batch of mini Natchitoches meat pies, and the base for a huge pot of jambalaya.  Thanks to Deeds' ear infection, fever, and resulting rare neediness/grumpiness, I was a bit in the weeds day of party.  Thank goodness for the Baby Bjorn- DH was packed off to my parents, and I rushed around flower arranging and vacuuming with a 22 pounder strapped onto my chest.  I managed to get the baby in bed, slap some makeup on my Christmas-weary face, and throw on some party pants right as my guests arrived.

Here's the recipe for the jambalaya- it was excellent.  I made the base the night before, then just added the rice and cooked it during the party.  We rented bowls and forks for easy clean up.  I've found that renting dishes is less expensive than buying disposable for a crowd, as well as less wasteful and more, um, genteel (apparently I have the vocabulary of a 90-year old woman).

I used this recipe for the meat pies, which disappeared quite quickly.  I used one pound sausage and one pound ground beef, and have enough filling for probably four packs of pie crust.   

The last of the guest and dirty dishes were gone by about one AM, so I was rather bleary the next morning.  It was well worth it though.  So fun to have some adult time, libations, and relaxation after the blur of wrapping paper, expectation, sugar and excitement of the previous weeks.

Next year, I will try to not enjoy myself so much and take some actual pictures before midnight.