Skip to main content

Fall Party

Finally, the temperatures in the Sonoran Desert have dropped below 90 degrees Fahrenheit!

Excuse me while I break into a fit of dance and attempts at cartwheels. (I never figured out how to do a cartwheel)

My girlfriends Michelle, Heather, and I decided to co-host a fall-themed party. We co-hosted the "White Party" right before Labor day, and loved entertaining together so much - that we decided to do it again. All 3 of us love parties, love cooking, and we just work together so well.

Menu theme: Chili bar. Heather made a traditional chili with ground beef and beans. Michelle made a chili with beef tenderloin. And Ryan and I made a Green Pork Chili with tomatillo and roasted chiles. (I have to give Ryan credit since we came up with the recipe together)

We had a bar of various "chili toppings" (chives, black olives, cheese, tomatoes)

For the desert we had s'mores. There was a bon fire, and Michelle made miniature mason jars filled with s'more fixings (grahams, chocolate bar, marshmallows, and oreo cookies). It was adorable. But I was having too much fun to remember to take a picture!!

For libations, I made a Bourbon Apple Cider and a Cranberry Vodka Punch. Delicious.

And our friends brought a variety of comfort foods such as queso dip, crock pot apple crisp, butternut squash pudding, sweet potato cheese cake, jalapeno popper dip, Ina Garten's cornbread.....There is never a lack of abundance of food & drink at parties with our friends!

This was such a fun gathering before the holiday craziness begins.

My face still hurts from all the laughter.

Here are a few photos we got of the night:



 Serrano Cheddar Cornbread Muffins I made. They were the perfect combo of sweet (from the honey) and spicy (from the serranos). And the cheddar cheese made them chewy and delicious!

Over the years, we have become rather fond of hosting parties. And I have found the best party is one where the food can be pre-made. We had the chili slow-cooking by 1pm. That way 2 hours before your guests are to arrive, you can sit on your patio with a book...:)

This was a shot taken of the girls at the end of the night, before we sat down for a feisty "match" of Cards Against Humanity. The guys weren't as thrilled about taking group photos.

But we did sneak one of these 2.  :)

 
Me with my lovely co-hosts Michelle and Heather. We absolutely did NOT plan on wearing flannel shirts. We are just that awesome that we coordinated naturally. When we saw each other, we were laughing hysterically.
 
I absolutely adore these 2 women. We plan these parties during our "Book Club". Which is really just an excuse to get together and drink wine and catch up on life. We still read the same books - but we aren't very good about actually discussing it (besides via text while we are reading at night). This is the kind of friendship that is just comes easy! Thank God for girlfriends.
 




Comments

Lisa's Yarns said…
Sounds like a fun party! And low maintenance food is definitely smart so that you aren't stressing and running around like a chicken with her head cut off before your guests arrive. The food all sounds delicious! I'm glad that you've made such great friends down in Tucson. Having girlfriends is SO important - I am definitely thankful for my girlfriends as well!

We hosted dinner on Saturday, too, but it was smaller as we only had 3 other guests. It was a really fun night, though! But it is NOT fall here anymore with our cold temps and snow!
Marlys said…
That sounds like a lot of fun! And the food sounds so good! I am happy you are having cooler temps so fall feels like it is in the air! It is the dead of winter here - no kidding! I am thankful that you have such good friends to spend time with!

Popular posts from this blog

What is your color?

Green My favorite color ever! I have to control myself to not purchase too many green things. If I had no control, my house would be green. My kitchen would be lime-themed. With greenery everywhere. My bathrooms would be green. My bedroom would be green. You would all feel nauseated-green after entering my home. (So I don't have a green-themed home) Many things I love are green, such as: Spinach (I eat it a minimum twice a day usually) My weding color was green. (clover green) Limes (I have at least one time a day) Grass. I love the feel of grass, especially since I see it so rarely in AZ (except in my neighborhood that has amazing landscapers with grass-galore) Palm trees. Any tree. Christmas trees. I love Christmas Green Beer. I think the green beer on St. Patty's Day tastes better. My favorite color of eyes. When I was in 9th grade, I so badly wanted to get green contacts. But they made me keep my brown eyes. Diet Mountain Dew (my guilty pleasure) Granny Smith...

One Confused Lady

Yesterday morning was packed with a session of cross training.....rushed home to shower and get professional-looking....headed across town for an interview.....kicked butt at my interview...."bopped" over to our house to see the progress of the build......headed to the "design center" to sign more paperwork.... (Side note: I cannot get over just how much paperwork is involved in building a house. Holy Hannah. And we haven't even closed !!! Iy-yi-yi....Those lovely people in history who got law-suit-happy.....God bless 'em.) Yesterday was a good day! So here's a little humor for your Thursday. A little thought. A little depth.....( A little cynical rant ) Afterwards, I decided to head to one of my favorite places to peruse.... Target. But my experience at Target was far from fun, relaxing, or pleasant. Just confusing. Loud. Crazy. Despite many screaming children-temper tantrums.... Which is common and un-escapable. Although screaming chi...

A weekend of the great outdoors

As I am preparing for my return to the real world tomorrow, I feel a strong sense of dread. As I won't have a weekend or free week for a long while! Instead of focusing on that.......I'm sharing a few snapshots from our awesome weekend! This weekend we were in Big Lake, AZ -- which is about 20 miles from the New Mexico border (just 5 1/2 hours from our house). (last weekend we were in Parker Canyon...which I will blog about another day) We camped from Friday-Monday, which was the perfect length of time. The temperatures were a great escape from hot Tucson. In fact...it was VERY cold at night. It was in the low 30's at night, 60's during the day. The trout fishing was incredible. Here's a few snapshots: Home Sweet Home for the weekend! Look at the giant tree I cut down!!! Wow!! (Okay, this was posed...) But...Ryan did teach me how to use a wood-saw! There were tons of dead/fallen trees lying around. So we cut all our firewood for the weekend! I felt very ...