Mr. & Mrs. Hawthorne And Mr. & Mrs. Xmaskatie Go To A Partay!

I will preface this post with a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yesterday) to GLOWRIA! Xmaskatie and Mr. Xmaskatie are headed out to the beach for Glowria's birthday and will be bringing Dixie's cousin Katie and staying the night with the Hawthornes. Fun will be had by all parties. I'm preparing my version of Mr. Hawthorne's version of the the Amish Yoder's market version of corn salsa.

My ingredients: 1 can diced tomatoes, drained 1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and chilies, drained 1 can corn, drained

coriander salt and pepper

sugar cilantro from my garden that made it through the snow (YAY!)

Action shot of diced tomatoes going into the container.

Then I added the can of Rotel 'maters and chilies.

Can of corn went in.

Then I got smart and figgered out I needed to put it all into a big bowl to mix it. And I added a few heaping tablespoons of Mr. Hawthorne's canned jalapenoes.

A tablespoon or so of sugar went in.

And some salt, pepper, and coriander.

Minced cilantro went in. I tasted this and deemed it quite respectable. When Mr. Hawthorne got home from work and Mr. & Mrs. Xmaskatie arrived at Casa Hawthorne, I took out Mr. Hawthorne's corn salsa alongside my corn salsa for a corn salsa throwdown. Corn Salsa A. (Rosie's) Corn Salsa B. (Mr. H's) Taste test for the Xmaskaties. Mr. Xmaskatie remarked that Corn Salsa B was HOTTER than Corn Salsa A. I beg to differ. Then he rambled on about some sweet, foreign taste in Corn Salsa A that wasn't in Corn Salsa B. Could it be the CILANTRO? Who knows? Then Xmaskatie made a few forgettable and regrettable comments about my salsa and they both declared Corn Salsa B to be the WINNER! FIE!!!! Of course, Rosie did her bottom lip quiver, her sniffling, and her teary-eyed, pitiful, hang-dog look. Then Xmaskatie felt sorry for me and changed her verdict, saying, "You know, really, after the second or third tastes, Corn Salsa A is MUCH BETTER!" Yeah, Xmaskatie, a Pity Vote ALWAYS makes me feel better. In the meantime, Mr. Hawthorne, ever the credit whore, started his little sing-songy chant: Nonny nonny boo boo Stick your head in doo doo. Bastard. Well, back to my preparations. And don't worry. I'll get over it. Next, I made a Velvet Cheese Dip.

My ingredients: 1 part cream cheese 2 parts Velveeta cheese Heavy Cream Milk Cumin Chili powder Cayenne pepper Salt and pepper

I melted the cream cheese and the Velveeta with some cream and milk. Then I added in the rest of the ingredients to taste and stirred until nice and smooth. And I'm taking the corn salsa and Velvet Cheese Dip with some sour cream and Tostitos Scoops to Glowria's Birthday Partay.

Here are Mr. Hawthorne on the left, poor crippled Mr. Xmaskatie in the middle, and Xmaskatie on the right. And Xmaskatie, what is that yellow blot on your sweater?

Here's my dip and salsa. AncanIjestellya? Glowria had a wonderful spread.

Check out the food.

I don't even remember what this was. Xmaskatie?

Xmaskatie made the lovely crudite platter and Ranch dressing dip.

This was a shrimp mousse which was quite good. I might even get the recipe for this.

Antipasti platter.

From top middle, and continuing counter clockwise a pasta dish, some very good toast, chicken wings, roast beef, and a puff pastry/mushroom encrusted pork loin.

Some really nice roast beef in the foreground on a bed of lettuce and 3 types of meatballs on the black serving platter on the right, the antipasti in the background, and then the toast on the left.

Here's what I picked out: toast, 1 each of the meatballs, roast beef, and some of the antipasti platter.

Pizza.

Desserts.

Check out this sub. It was HUGE. However, I thought it needed more filling seeing on how much bread there was.

Check this out.

Oh, now this was good. Pork roast, with a layer of mushrooms, then wrapped in puff pastry. Hmmmm. Didn't I just see Tyler Florence do something similar with beef tenderloin? I need to ask Glowria who brought that. Definitely a foodie.

Close up.

This beef was quite tasty.

And here's the platter with 3 types of meatballs.

The antipasti plate.

As you can imagine, Rosie was in hog heaven. So much food. And good food at that!

Here's the birthday girl, Glowria.

Nice bar setup on the porch.

Champagne was flowing freely.

Ah ... toast time! Thanks, Glowria, for a lovely party. And again, Happy Birthday! Whilst the party was still going strong, The Xmaskaties and the Hawthornes left.

Katie and Dixie were let out to wee-wee and here's Dixie coming up on the deck with wild eyes and licking the glass. Why do dogs do that?

Here's Katie, with wild eyes, waiting for some boring-ass dogfood.

And here's Rosie cuddling with Katie. Nitey nite!