a party!

I have a daughter, Nikole, getting married in early April.  On Saturday evening there was a party honoring her and Brad, her groom. Her sister, Caitlin, who is her maid of honor planned the party and it was part couples shower and part engagement party.  It was a lot of fun, both the preparation and the party itself.  The wedding, just a few weeks away, is a destination wedding in the Dominican Republic and so some of the food was traditional Minnesota party fare and some was Dominican food, from recipes found on the internet.  The groom's parents, and the bride's family divvied up the food preparation.  Cait wanted to use only white serving pieces so  the majority of my collection made the trip across the state to the site of the party.  Between she and I we had sufficient pieces.  I am a little embarrassed to admit that although Cait was taking pictures I did not take a single picture.  I am hoping that she will share.

Cait's menu plan was appetizers, snacks and dessert.  It was a cocktail type party, guests milling about, eating and drinking and visiting.  It was a large crowd so lots of visiting. The appetizers and snacks were put out first with dessert served in the last hour of the party. My contribution was my usual--deviled eggs but I also did the research into the Dominican foods.  I found a few possibilities that I thought looked interesting and that fit the categories on Cait's plan.  But most important was that the foods could be sourced locally.   I sent my possibilities to Caitlin who sent back her list of the ones that jumped out at her and my part of the menu was set.  

For my part, I provided more Minnesota deviled eggs and bacon wrapped little smokies..  I also brought some Dominican offerings.  For the desserts, a coconut rum raisin ice cream, individual Dominican creme caramels (flan) and a second flan that was made with RumChata.  For the appetizers and snacks I brought a pineapple cheese ball, some pineapple wrapped in bacon and two versions of pastelitos (a fried empanada) one beef and one veggie. Not all of our food was eaten so I have been having leftover pastelitos for breakfast and left over flan at least once a day.  Three family members commented on the fact that they just couldn't get past the texture of the flan which had never occurred to me. 

Others also provided food so we had the more traditional cheese dip and chips, a fruit plate with fruit dip, cupcakes, two kinds of bars, hummus with pita chips and veggies, guacamole and chips, a pepper jelly with cream cheese and crackers.  Wine and beer were the more traditional beverages but there were also pitchers of margaritas and mojitos which provided the island/Latin America feel.  All in all it was great fun.