Since the winter dinners at School Woods have not been selling – no winter – and because her fiancé is in town, Rach and I hijacked one of the dates, and threw a cocktail party. There was a really nice crowd, somewheres above 30 people plus a lot of little kids toddling and crawling and being jiggled on hips. We think that the continuing warm weather revealed a pent up demand for a party. For us older folks who do not necessarily go lolling on Bascom Hill.
Here’s the menu:
- Corn & black bean salsa w/ corn chips [sour cream on the side!]
- Shrimp & cocktail sauce
- Asian Beef & lettuce wraps w/ spicey peanut sauce
- No-cheese bacon dates – stuffed with h20 chestnuts
- Vegetables & brok hummus
- Sausage & cheese plate* – the state dish of WI. John sliced up enough cheese & salami to fill the plate and it got all eaten; I refilled and it was 3/4 eaten
- Goat cheese topped with sun dried tomato pesto, served with baguette slices
- Crab Rangoon dip with crackers
- Deviled eggs
- Big fruit platter – that turned into a plate of strawberries with the brownies, and a platter of grapes, orange wedges, and Asian pear
- Gluten free & dairy free brownies
- Nuts & olives
Since my professional photographer #1 son is in town, I had him take the pictures – they’ll be coming along soon.
My standard brownie recipe worked great in the gluten-free and dairy-free versions. I couldn’t decide if I liked the gluten-free or the non dairy better – the gluten-free were made with butter and I frosted them with perfect chocolate frosting, again butter, so they had the whole butter & chocolate thing going on. The dairy free ones, made with oil, were intensely chocolaty. My recipe’s got twice as much cocoa & sugar & chocolate chips as flour, so it figures it’d do well in these variations – since the flour is outnumbered, doesn’t matter if it’s real flour or gluten free baking mix. And if you use good cocoa and chocolate chips, then even the butter won’t be missed.
*I haven’t looked this up, but I have been told that there is a state statute that says that a government official may accept a gift of a sausage & cheese plate, and it is NOT considered lobbying.
