{dinner party? what are we, adults?}

Happiness challenge #2 (we did them out of order, sorry kids) came from a female co-worker and in the form of a dinner party.  Considering that I started this blog to write about new recipes I was trying in 2011, I'm not going to complain even a little bit that the first three challenge cards we picked were all related to food in some way (or in every way, for that matter).  The level of deviation from my original plan is minimized this way.  Shout out to all of you who haven't yet given us back your cards -- make 'em about food, please!  Also, get them in, the year is flying by!  But back to the matter at hand...

Step one: choose people.

Step two: choose food.

Admittedly, we probably should have done those two items in the reverse order, but the first step was way easier to complete, and we're "path of least resistance" girls, generally speaking.  The original idea was for each of us to invite one person (for a total of six eaters), but whaddya know, we ended up with nine.  Once we sent out the formal invites (read: BBMed and texted our way to a semi-confirmed guest list), it was time to hit up Whole Foods.

Our plan was to ask the experts at the seafood counter what they recommended, both fish and recipe wise.  The reality?  We just held up the line while staring blankly at several men in rubber gloves.  We ended up with two pounds of cod, which we figured was a whitefish that is hard to screw up, and whioh our friends and relatives found it to be good fodder for mockery.  "Who the heck gets cod?" was a common utterance from said loved ones.  WE DO, darnit.

After the fish incident, we stopped asking people for approval and just whipped out our plastic left and right and shopped til we dropped.  Well, dropped a lotta money anyways.  Three girls, three days, three stores (Whole Foods, Balducci's, and Harris Teeter), and waaaaaay more than $25 a piece later, we had a whole lotta food and a whole lotta work in front of us.

Final Menu:

Appetizers:
-Brie En Croute with Cherry Sauce 
-Spinach and Artichoke Dip with various dippers (heck yes for the Pepperidge Farm Entertaining Quartet!)

Main Course Meats:
-Backyard Bourbon-Marinated Flank Steak
-Tequila Lime-Marinated Cod

Sides:
-Grilled Asparagus
-Steamed Haricots Verts
-Ina Garten's Rosemary Roasted Potatoes (I love her like a fat kid loves cake)

Dessert:
-Paula Deen's Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake (This is why the above kid who loves cake is fat)


We cooked this monstrous menu on a typical Tuesday night.  I raced out of work (definitely a minute or two early, but I just couldn't contain my excitement) and began making the above cake heart attack at approximately 6:02 p.m.  While I did this, teacher roomie made an excel spreadsheet of all our dishes, including prep and cooking times, and taking into account oven temperature and cooling period requirements.  I make no apologies for our nerdiness here, this is where we went to school together, after all.

Despite teacher roomie's laudable attempt to keep us organized and our pulses from reaching "target heart rate" status, chaos ensued and we all almost lost our minds (and at one point, the entire uncooked cake).  Taking into account the novice-level culinary skills we possess, as well as the cramped kitchen we were working in, I think the dinner was a wild victory for us.  Not so sure Gail from Top Chef would agree, but our friends did (or at least they're good liars).  And I don't like Gail anyways.

Pictures of Note:

{coulda eaten only this and been happy}

{always a crowd pleaser}

{you say potato, i say YUM}

{two veggies? mom would be so proud!}

{perfectly pink}

Events/Things of Note:

1) Paula's cake begins with a chocolate cake mix.  Oh, and a stick of butter and an egg.  Also an entire box of powdered sugar, a whole package of cream cheese, another two eggs, and another stick of butter.  I couldn't even believe the recipe as I was following it, although I also couldn't believe how incredible good all that fat/sugar/cellulite tasted, so I guess I'll promise myself only to make it for very special people and very infrequently in the future.

2) Roomie #3 (I need an awesome nickname for her) remained in her work wear during the entire cooking process.  Maybe "work wear" is a good alias for now.  I, on the other hand, took a page out of Pebbles Flinstone's book and put my hair up like this (sans the bone):

{where's bam bam?}

 Also, I changed out of my chef's attire of choice (flour-covered yoga pants and an old sorority tee) just seconds before my invitee arrived.  We were quite the pair zooming around the kitchen. Our antics/outfits made things just a tad bit funnier for our guests.  It was like dinner and a show.

3) After all the cod mockery, it was a hit (and the favorite dish of several dinner guests).  Ha! Take that, haters!

4) There is such a thing as too much spinach and artichoke dip.  I ate it for lunch yesterday.  The original dinner party?  Nine days ago.  Thank goodness for modern refrigeration. 

5) On the contrary, you can never have enough wine. Ever.