It’s fitting that a 4th of July party that included people from Italy, Canada, China, Japan and Venezuela would take place on July 1st. I love entertaining! I feel so proud of myself when people have a good time. This party has to be one of my proudest moments. My cleaner is out of town for an undefined amount of time so I cleaned the house, unpacked and did laundry from a vacation, cooked and baked all while taking care of a baby who has gone back to 20 min. naps. Z was a good sport. I put him in the bouncy seat a few times and would come talk to him between chopping vegetables or doing dishes. I made oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies, brownies, hummus, chicken tenders, meatballs (well Ikea made the meatballs), and pizza bread. I also served chips and salsa that I didn’t have to smuggle from Hong Kong…I just picked them up at the new grocery store.
Everyone brought snacks and we had a wonderful time…the last people left at 3 am. I really needed the adult conversations and I liked having some fun couple time with Adam and the other couples that came. Z didn’t let the party keep him from his routine (sounds like my Grandpa Dalland). He fell asleep and didn’t let the noise keep him from getting a good night sleep.
The day of the party I stuck to a tight schedule so that the hot food would stay hot and the cold food would stay cold. Everything went in shifts (unfortunately you can’t keep everything cold when your refrigerator is the size of a large cooler). I chopped everything for salads the night before and put them in baggies stuck wherever they would fit. After I made the salads and cut the fruit I took all our drinks out to make room. Two hours before the party I switched the salads and fruit for the drinks. I cooked all the hamburgers and chicken wings in a frying pan early in the day then heated them in the oven starting a half hour before the party. I cooked the pigs in a blanket an hour before the party. I put the cobbler in the oven right before people were scheduled to arrive so that we had cobbler smell and not meat smell in our apartment. When people arrived I had just finished setting up and had a mouth full of chip and guacamole. Everyone liked the food and had a great time playing wii…and as always I have a ton of leftovers.
