A Dinner Party for 14 Day After New Year

Foodie Friday is hosted by Michael over at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/. Visit her to see more scrumptious food.

Susan of http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ is hosting Tablesape Thursday. Go check out some amazing tablescapes by going there.

I was scheduled to have a dinner party before Christmas but I got sick so I rescheduled it to Jan. 2nd. Since it was originally intended to be a Christmas party, I left my Christmas decorations up. I set 2 tables, the formal dining and the kitchen by the fireplace. I used the same tablescape I already showed with a very slight change. I took out the tray with a tea set and I added the tall peacock candle holders.

I wanted it to be a sit down dinner but I had so much food that I knew would not fit on the table so what I did was served the salad on their plates and told them after they finish eating the salad, I will collect the salad plates and then they can get their food from the buffet table set on the kitchen counter. I used place card holders so all the guests would know where to sit.

I placed the adults in the dining room and put the kids, not really young kids but teen-agers, in the kitchen.

Below is the dining room. For salad, I used spinach drizzled with Balsamic vinaigrette dressing, sprinkled with goat cheese and I added a slice of tomato on top and then dabbed tomato pesto over it. Very simple and the guests liked it.

Here is the setting for the youngsters. One of them commented that my kitchen looked like one of the shows on TV, lol.
There is the buffet. I served stir fried noodles with shrimp and veggies (Pancit), baked stuffed chicken, baked tenderloin stuffed with crawfish, baked cubed potatoes with rosemary, chicken tinola (a chicken Filipino soup dish with papaya and spinach), Pork Afritada (another Filipino dish with potatoes and bell peppers sauteed in tomato sauce) and beef with macaroni. For dessert, I made flan, (recipe of which is posted below), fruit salad, rum cake and fudge.

I made 2 kinds of punch, one with just fruit punch with 7 Up for the youngsters and a Vodka spiked one for the adults.

I used clear Princess House Fantasia clear dinner plates and green salad plates and goblets.

Coffee and tea were served on the game table in the family room.

We were stuffed. After we ate, we played Guesstures and we had a blast. You could hear laughter all over the house. What a fun evening!

Here is my recipe for the Flan:

1 can condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 doz. egg yolks

caramelized sugar

When I make flan, I always double the recipe.

Preheat the oven at 325 degrees F.

Mix all the ingredients except for the sugar. Set aside.

Melt the sugar in a pan on the stove, stirring occasionally so it does not burn.

Once melted, pour into a baking dish. It will liquify as soon as it touches the pan. Pour the mixed batter into the pan with caramelized sugar. I usually use a strainer to make it smooth.

Bake at 325 degree F for about 45 min to an hour, until set and toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center. Enjoy!

Thanks Susan and Michael for hosting these 2 events.

And thanks y'all for coming by!