Every year, we host a party to wrap up Christmas on (or around) Three Kings Day. We spend way too much money and time to cook up all sorts of Spanish yummies. We invite friends who might appreciate it, and we have a good time. As Three Kings Day was last Wednesday, we had our 4th annual Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos fiesta this weekend!
I felt all sophisticated and child-free for about 23 seconds Saturday evening when I dashed in and out of an old friend's wedding reception, telling him I couldn't stay long because "I have a dinner party going on at home right now that I have to get back to."
I had beautiful visions of getting the kids in bed and enjoying an evening of adult conversation and eating my own food (while it was still hot!) from my own plate while seated at my own chair.
I was jolted back to the reality of my life when I realized Squeak hadn't eaten dinner yet (it was 7:30 by this time) so he would have to join our "dinner party." And when we all sat down to eat, Pixie made it known that the days of her sitting idly by while we ate were over.
So BOTH my kids crashed our sophisticated party. There was very little adult conversation going on because Squeak's voice has a way of overtaking the voices of even the loudest of our friends. Santiago had to stand up to eat because Squeak insisted on sitting in our very last chair at the table, and I barely sat down at all between trying to be a good hostess and get everything on the table and trying to be a good mommy and get everything onto my children's plates.
But eventually, the kids did go to sleep, and we did get to have some good conversation. The food was delicious and enjoyed by all. And hopefully, we didn't scare our childless (but pregnant!) friends out of going through with the whole kid thing. Our other friends have more kids than we do so they're not easily scared. And our other friend, the umarried one who brought a date, well, I just have to apologize to him for ruining any chance of a future date with her, because I'm sure she was a little scared off by our littles...
I did have grand plans to photo-document the entire cooking process but we got so busy that after taking ONE (horrible) picture, the camera got pushed aside and forsaken for the rest of the evening.
Imagine all sorts of delicious Spanish food, and my cute hubby wearing a (sort of girly) apron and slaving away at the stove!
The Menu:
-Paella. My lovely Santiago made a chicken paella and served the disgusting shrimp on the side (he's so nice to me!). How people eat those spiny little things is just beyond me. I've tried and tried again to like shrimp, clams, scallops, and all other "briny" tasting seafood, but I just can't. Sad for me, I know, because I miss out on some seriously delicious looking stuff. When we (and by "we" I mostly mean Santiago) make paella, we always add lots of garlic, artichoke, fresh green beans, tomato pulp, red bell peppers, peas, lots of saffron, and fresh rosemary.
-Tortilla de Patata. Commonly called a "Spanish Omelet," it's made with potatoes, eggs, and onion and garlic. Seriously a crowd pleaser. I've never met anyone who didn't like Tortilla.
(photo courtesy of: Eat Catalunya)-Manchego stuffed Peppers. We looked everywhere for Padron peppers, or even their substitutes, Shishitos, but no dice. We used Anaheim peppers instead. We also couldn't get Tetilla cheese, so we used Manchego. They turned out differently than expected, but still yummy!
-Tapas included: olives of all kinds, pickled cherry peppers, pickled (maybe? I didn't try these so I'm not sure) onions, Marcona almonds, membrillo (quince paste), fig & almond pate, several different cheeses (I believe this year we had 3 ages of Manchego, Cabra al Vino (Drunken Goat), Garrotxa, & Campo de Montalban), and of course, Jamon Serrano and Chorizo.
-"Mormon Sangria" to drink, and Churros y Chocolate for dessert. We did have two bars of Turron, but we "forgot" to break into them! Shoot, I guess now I'll just have to eat them BOTH...
Everything was so.good. Unfortunately, we decided to go low-key this year, so we have NO leftovers. And I really want some after posting this.
And if you're wondering where a Utah girl gets her hands on some of this stuff, I have two words for you. TONY CAPUTO. What a man.
2 comments:
Lol. We had my sister and BIL and one of their friends over for dinner yesterday and none of them have children. After dinner we were sitting around trying to talk while Evelyn tried to talk over us declaring her turn to speak and we had to listen up. She broke into some 30 min story and got mad no one was listening to her and had a meltdown. I'm single handily preventing myself from becoming an aunt.
You seriously didn't end up with any left overs? Your husband sent us home with an entire bag full of food.
And your dear-ones weren't nearly as obnoxious as you made them out to be. However, if it were me writing about my sweet kidlets at a sophisticated dinner I was hosting . . . they definitely would have been that obnoxious.
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