Saturday, 9/4/2010

Our dear friends Karen and Michel invited us all, Matt, Jenna, Braelyn, Ben, Katie, me, Jennifer, and Spencer, over to their home for dinner tonight.  Jennifer is in town to celebrate Spencer's birthday tomorrow.  They had a lovely spread of veggies, crackers, cheeses, cured meats, fresh berries, and wine ready when we arrived. 

For dinner, they roasted potatoes and carrots, had mixed salad greens and a variety of dressings, jalapenos bread, corn on the cob, and roasted pork tenderloins.  Everything was delicious!  At the end of the evening, we enjoyed a fantastic birthday cake for Spencer.  

Michel got the cake at a local French bakery.  The cake was chocolate; the filling was chocolate mousse; the outer frosting was unlike anything I have had before.  Without knowing for sure, I would say it was a French buttercream.  I think it was made with shortening, instead of butter.  All I know for sure is that it was fantastically delicious.  Ben had to share quite a bit with Katie...she loved it too!  Not only was it wonderful to the taste, but it was beautiful too.  I just love the lettering on the cake. 

Sunday, 7/4/2010

We were invited over to Chris & Larry's house for dinner tonight. They told us they would provide hamburgers and brats with condiments. Everyone else was to bring the sides. Ben's mom made a macaroni salad. Ben and I took chips, beer, and wine. Other than having to go back to Fred Meyer for more beer and wine, our contribution was pretty easy.

Spencer made a jalapeno appetizer. He sliced jalapeno peppers in half, scooped out the seeds, filled each half with cream cheese and wrapped them in bacon. They went onto the grill, cheese side down first, just long enough to cook the bacon. There was quite a range of hotness (taste not temperature) to each pepper. My mom had one that had hardly any heat to the pepper. Ben, on the other hand, had one that was soo hot that he frantically grabbed Katie's sippy cup after one bite, expecting it to have whole milk in it. He was sorely disappointed to find it had water in it. He suffered while the rest of us laughed at him:) Despite Ben's reaction, we all found them quite tasty. I think I will try to make this appetizer someday.

My parents took brownies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. No problem with the ice cream, but the brownies presented a challenge. My dad baked the brownies last night. When he started to cut them up this afternoon, he realized that they were super hard and would not be good to share. Thankfully, he had a 2nd brownie mix. Although our departure was delayed while the brownies baked, we were able to take our annual 4th of July family photo while we waited. A great use of time--if I do say so myself. I must thank Jennifer for suggesting we take a silly photo too. The shots below are priceless!