A Summer Party!

Hi Biddy!

This year, we threw our second annual July 3rd party. Theory being - the actual holiday can be used for recovery. Which turns out is a good strategy for me. I needed the recovery day! We worked hard on this party, spending an entire Sunday at work for our party on Tuesday - a summer party buffet for ~ 30ish people. I'm ordering these pictures as they were taken - see if you can keep up.

My favorite party dip - do you know what this is? As it turns out, I'm the only person who enjoys this, so maybe I won't make it next time.

George is the baker in this household. Here we have the beginnings of Julia Child's hamburger rolls. They are GOOD!

We are up early and tired!

First rising in progress. We'll return to hamburger rolls soon...

My favorite discovery this summer - PUNCH! Requires an ice round, of course!

Preparations for the trifle custard begin. 

I begin prepping my (or really Mark Bittman's) french onion dip. It's so simple - slow-cooked onions, full-fat yogurt, some spices and flavoring and you're done!

Separating eggs. So many of our dishes required separated eggs.

First deflation for the hamburger rolls.

Beginning of the custard!

Beginning of french onion dip on the left. George working custard on the right!

Sieving the custard! Note the color. We've had a hard time with too-thin custard, so I stopped George from adding milk as the recipe calls for. This was a mistake because the custard ended up being too yellow and a little too heavy.

Angel Food Cake - for a trifle! 

French Onion Dip - step 2.. sooooo easy....

Angel Food Cake!

George starts to form the rolls after at least two risings.

George makes perfect cakes. Really.  This one was fated to be just cut up for the trifle!

Resting rolls!

Hamburger Rolls! 

Transferring to the pizza stone after rising is a pain - if you aren't careful, you'll deflate the rolls and they will be a little denser! We use parchment paper, but it's always a bit stressful. 

Lane Cake Preparations!!

The nut frosting barely covered the cake - we put too much filling between the layers!

George did the sausage pin wheels for me...  

Nothing but the best. One day, ask George to play the Jimmy Dean phone call for you.

Slow-cooking the pork as described in our James Villas pig book - it was a South Carolina recipe. We wanted to barbecue, but since George had to work the day of the party I was really happy to find a Sunday solution that George could do himself. 

George is so precise!

Watermelon punch!! Thank you Scott and Edna!! 

Mmmm....mmmm.... 

The finished pork product - this was delicious, super tangy, and DONE ON SUNDAY for a Tuesday party. Awesome! 

We had big plans for special corn bread and other things I can't remember, but never got to these plan. At some point, things start dropping off the planned menu. 

Fast forward to Tuesday - day of party!! George worked all day, but I took the day off to make a couple of very unimpressive pies and other things I can't remember.

The trifle! The custard is too dark - my fault. We were too behind schedule to do the star-shaped cake cutouts like in Cook's Country!

As is typical for us, we weren't done preparing by the time guests were showing. So I took whoopie pie assembly outside. These are easy, but I forgot to take the filling out of the refrigerator early; spreading the filling was hard! It was too stiff!

PUNCH! I was all excited about the watermelon-themed dispenser, but it was cracked by the next day. Unclear what happened. We provided ice and small glasses for folks and encouraged stirring before self-serving!! 

The outside spread. Near table: sausage pinwheels, black-eyed peas (A chilled salad from Craig Claiborne), potato salad, green beans (Craig Claiborne's memorable meals - delicious because of the dressing!), and various appetizers including the french onion dip. Far table pictured below.

It was in the high 50s/low 60s. COLD. Not ideal party conditions. The dude to the right is our landlady's gardener. Not kidding. More stories later.

Pork, rolls, cole slaw (Recipe from Scott and Edna - We didn't make enough!), and a small ham from Safeway (it was actually really good. What's missing is the corn muffins (Paul Prudhomme; I overcooked them, so they were a bit dry) and George's BBQ sauce (James Villas!). 

Potato salad from Scott and Edna. Wow. People were raving. Have to hard boil the eggs in  advance and make your own mayonnaise - it's worth it!

Desserts were inside! My pies sucked (filling never set, and I burned them trying to get it to), but everything else was delicious!

PHEW! More posts on the way!