Unless its 101 degrees outside and my tiny apartment has ten people in it.
This weekend I had my first housewarming party. In hindsight perhaps not the best idea ever.
Friday night I had a spare five seconds between the most recent fight my Stepmom had with my dad and me trying to sleep to get my grocery shopping done. I had mini mac n cheese, "meatless" meat turnovers, home made guacamole and a shit ton of Champagne on the menu. So while listening to my stepmom bitch about things both of us know are never going to change about my father, I picked up my room and whisked Ace hair off everything.
Saturday night after going to an interesting grad show with The Boyfriend, (I say interesting because one artist was a sub par comic strip artist and the other was a pretty amazing digital artist who specialized in fantasy art, not really my cup of tea.) I cleaned like a bitch. I even mopped the floor. I stepped on glass, found enough stray cat litter to fill a box, and washed every dish we owned. I went to bed twitching, trying to figure out how I was going to fit everything I needed to do into the hours before 4pm the next day.
Saturday dawned balls hot. Its never THAT hot in LA. Yeah, it may hit about 100 in the valley, but the South Bay area is NEVER that hot. 91 degrees, is too hot! I delayed the cooking as much as I could. I kept everything in the fridge prepared and ready to stick in the oven. I drank as much water as my bladder would hold in the meantime as I washed dishes and dished out ice water to Ace. I knew I'd be drinking once guests arrived and I did not want to become the one to pass out because I was dehydrated. I am so glad to have moved out and have such a large kitchen at my disposal. It was fantastic despite the heat.
Gem of the Day: Appetizers you can make the night before are amazing! You can make them the night before and stick them in the fridge to be ready to just pop in the oven the next day before your party. This is great so you can focus on more important things like your apperance.
Sadly I didn't plan for this since I was so busy thinking about my dirty faux hardwood floor the night before. So while I wanted to look cute, I instead had messy hair from the oven heat and sweaty clothes. I
I made
Mini Mac N Cheese, Meatless Meat Turnovers and Guacamole.
The Mini Mac's came out delicious. Unlike the recipe I did not use american cheese. I hate it with a passion. In hindsight I probably should have since they didn't quite stay mini. They fell apart and I ended up having a plate of macaroni and cheese. I also used cayan pepper instead of paprika, because I like spicy. I think there may have been like a cup full of the stuff left over once everyone was gone.
The Meatless Meat Turnovers are called that because usually one uses ground beef, onion soup mix and browns it then sticks in cheese to melt. You then place the mixture into the triangles of the crecent rolls and bake for 15 mins till they bake. The Boyfriends good friend is a vegitarian so I decided to try using smart meat, with success. I'd never want to eat tacos with the stuff, its much too salty and weirdly flavored but paired with the bread it was just perfect. I'd use it again because its lower in fat, but I would probably not add extra garlic or onion. There were five left over after everyone left, which I ate for breakfast this morning and they were SO good.
Of course despite the fact that I forgot tomatos and added too much jalipeno for most of my guests my Guacamole rocked.
My almost disaster: the couch. Since the only shared space is the Kitchen I had to figure out a way to fit 10 people into my room. Now I definatly didnt think about this all the way through. My mother has a love seat in her bedroom. My brother and I had the WORST time trying to get it out. It involved alot of cussing, some sibling regressive fighting, (you know the kind, where you're a college graduate with a mess of experience under your belt but for some reason your little brother can always bring out the yell-y, scream-y, 'I hate you' claiming bitch in you, never mind that you deal with more irritating people on a daily basis) removed couch legs, and a removed door from its hinges. After all that headache, my brother sits down for, like, five seconds and is able to figure it out himself. Talk about almost tear inducing.
As "payment" I was charged with helping him hang posters. Which was frightening enough. I encouraged him with the phrase "less is more." Thankfully, I only had about enough tacks for 4 posters. Only one which was atrocious, a Gundam Wing poster of some sort.
Once guests started ariving and food was put in the oven, the temperature in the room went up a good ten degrees. Thankfully everyone was a good sport, no one stayed too late, the not so much Star Trek fans left by 6 or 7, and the die hard fans stayed till about 9 and everyone pitched in to help clean.
For my first housewarming party in my new apartment we did pretty well. And now I have enough left over beer to fill a keg. I want to have people over more often. Yay!
That's an awl, hammer, box cutter and self healing mat. In the 3 hours I was playing with cutting these corks I kept feeling like a pioneer splitting tiny logs with an ax. My hands kinda ache.
