Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Hallow-tini party

We held a party for about 50 people last evening (October 30). The idea was to serve "martinis" where the gin/vodka were chilled (freezer then dry ice) and a dozen or so mixins were made available. Using medical pipettes, guests could doctor up their drinks to make flavor combinations that they wanted.

We had a variety of hot/spicy flavorings and some milder ones. The glasses were small, so folks could have several and try lots of flavors. Since the theme was halloween (and slight geek) we named the flavors appropriately. The one that had the best cross over name was dragon drops (drag and drop?) which was vodka infused with dried habaneros. We had some habaneros left from last years crop so dried them.

The spicy flavors were
  • Habanero vodka
  • Tabasco pepper vodka (made with the peppers not the bottle)
  • Black pepper vodka
  • Ginger vodka
  • Kaffir lime vodka
  • Joy (pickled jalapaneos) pickle juice
 The milder flavors were:
  • Blue Curacao
  • Lime juice
  • Tia maria (dessert anyone)
  • Sweet pickle juice
  • Vermouth
Of course we had cocktail onions and stuffed olives too.

We decorated the yard (thanks Lisa) with appropriate pagan symbols, and fired up the fog machine, played suitable music, hired fantastic help and served the drinks and food.

Outdoor food
  • Empanadas from the Argentinean bakery
  • Various wings from wing stop
  • chips/salsa (hardly touched!) Too much fun
Indoor food
  • Pumpkin soup served in its shell (recipe in a following post)
  • White Chili (recipe in a following post)
  • Lasagne (recipe in a following post)
  • Mac and cheese (recipe in a following post)
  • Cheeses - details in a bit + crackers
  • Soprasetto salame
  • Olives, roasted red peppers, cippolini onions 
Desserts
  • Party tray from Corner bakery
  • Fantastic cookies made by Claudia
  • Halloween M&Ms
The cheeses:
  • Delice de Bourgogne -  A triple cream cows milk cheese from Burgundy
  • Pierre Robert  - Another very decadent French triple cream
  • Keen's - Cheddar from England
  • Morbier - A raw milk cheese from france
  • Gorgonzola - from Italy
A good time was had by all.

1 comment:

Etienne said...

Thank you so much for having us. We had a great time. The food was great. The "chemistry" experiment was a great, fun idea! Loved that Morbier particularly. I hadn't had that in a while and it was delish.