last week, blakey & i hosted an applicant dinner for the obgyn group at uab. the program gives you a maximum spending limit & asks you to provide dinner for about 35 residents & applicants & spouses.
throw a party... & you'll pay for it... deal!
i love throwing parties. especially when food is involved. & desserts. & maybe a glass of wine or two.
to welcome the potential new friends of ours, we decided to have a mexican-themed dinner. well, the oklahoma version of mexican food.
{let me start out by saying, i bit off insanely more than i could chew. i wasn't near ready when everyone arrived, but the wonderful wonderful ladies & gents in blakey's group were incredibly helpful. chopping & sautéing & shredding & stirring & arranging & hosting. i can not thank you all enough! not that any of you have enough time to read my blog :) }
with all of my incredibly behind-ness, i didn't take a single picture. but i have to share some of these recipes & ideas with you!
for our appetizers, we had my favorite homemade salsa {
recipe HERE}, nebbia's wonderful black bean & feta dip, & blakey's favorite chorizo queso. chorizo queso?! yes. make this for your next gathering. you will be so happy:
blakey's favorite chroizo queso!
1 lb chorizo from your local mexican market
1 block velveta
2 cans rotel - 1 hot & 1 mexican
1. brown the chorizo in a hot skillet. "brown" is a bit misleading because the stuff we buy just stays red. it's ok. it takes about the same amount of time as browning ground beef would.
2. throw everything in a crockpot & heat on high until melty & delicious!
3. serve with chips or any other vessel you'd like.
for our meal, we had my incredibly over used but always always delicious pioneer woman pulled pork! {
recipe HERE} i have learned that if you cook it on low in a crockpot for hours & hours, it will be delicious. oh, but the most important part - sprinkle liberally with salt before cooking. not for flavor, necessarily, but to break down the meat, so it becomes ridiculously soft.
so pulled pork tacos it was! tortillas, pulled pork, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream... & sauteed onions & bell peppers & jalapenos for the vegetarians.
& for our sides, i decided to try a couple of new recipes. why not?? you are just hosting a dinner party for 35 people for the first time in your life.
recipe #1: ranchero beans. these turned out quite beautifully. we've eaten the leftovers for days. & as most things in a le creuset dutch oven do, they only get better each day. the original recipe is
HERE. first thing to note is this recipe makes an absurd amount of beans. after our party for 35 people, i've eaten it for at least 3 meals & have more left. my changes: canned beans because i couldn't find dry. vegetable broth instead of water because we had some leftover. i used a ham shank instead of bacon because someone suggested it & it sounded awesome. do this. fabulous decision. loved these.
recipe # 2: papas fritas. my attempt was to have something like those awesome potatoes from abuelo's in okc. they didn't really turn out anything like that. but they were good. chop & boil red potatoes. saute some onions in evoo to add. also throw in some butter & salt & garlic & cream/half & half/milk. & then the mexican part: add a few cans of chopped green chiles. more than you'd think. for 7lb of potatoes, i added 5 cans & could have definitely added more. & of course throw some cheese in there because who eats potatoes without cheese? delicious!
you think i would be finished now, right?
you should know me better than that.
desserts!
there is nothing mexican about my desserts. but they were good :)
i attempted my very first solo batch of my grandmother's english toffee! julie & i had a refresher course the week before, so i was feeling brave. with all of our written down discoveries, i actually had success! except for the minor detail of not making it early enough, so it wasn't hard enough to cut. so no one actually ate any. but know, it actually turned out! julie will be so proud.
my current fave dessert of mine is the chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. they are gooooooood. & rich. ridiculously rich. i told you about them
HERE. they are a gooey brownie on bottom...with an equally large layer of chocolate chip cookie dough minus the raw egg on top. {sub milk for the egg for bacteria & texture purposes.} so good.
& everyone else's fave dessert of mine: pumpkin whoopie pies. the cake/pie/cookie portion is my version of the city bites pumpkin cookie. it has always been super cake-like, so it works quite marvelously. & a maple cream cheese frosting sits between the two. they are pretty darn good.
so that, my friends, is my first dinner party for 35. there were quite a few snags along the way. & i could not have come any where close without blakey & his wonderful residents. but it was a ton of fun. & a great learning experience. {note: make less next time.}
if you aren't hungry yet... then you must not know about an oklahoman-in-alabama's love for mexican food.
love love,
kjp.
