I am at Karen and Spanky’s house. There are Street Fighter 4 sounds and egg beater sounds in the background. We have had a Tea Party, limited in size but not limited in scope. We don’t have pictures of our full spread, because food pretty much disappeared when it hit the table. Also, the table was not large enough for all the food we made. Also, our designated food photographer was too busy stuffing her face full of food (and thus taking care of our table space problem) to document all of our spread.
Drinks:
- Earl Grey Creme tea (from Teavana)
- Homemade ginger beer
- Storebought ginger beer
- I had a muthafuckin’ Vault. But that was just for maximum cooking power
Food:
- Cucumber, cream cheese, and whole wheat mini sandwiches
- Rosemary ham, cream cheese, and whole wheat mini sandwiches
- Bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapenos
- Cranberry scones
- Bacon and cheddar scones (see recipe below)
- Mumsy’s buttermilk cake
- Vanilla cupcakes with strawberry whipped cream
- Clotted cream and blackberry jam from jars
The Baconator
The sandwiches ended up leaving us prematurely, and Gloria ate all of the cucumber, so I could not make more. The rosemary ham is delicious–I found it at my local Harris Teeter, so you might find some where you are too. The bacon-wrapped jalapeno thingies were from a recipe I got from The Pioneer Woman, who has uncontrollably good taste in food. Even people who couldn’t take the heat did not in fact have to get out of the kitchen. Gloria’s bacon and cheddar scones rounded up the savory foods. We remarked later that they tasted a lot like the Asian pancakes Yulin posted about. They would probably taste like a complete breakfast with a side of scrambled eggs.
Oh god... cupcakes...
I could comment on the cranberry scones and clotted cream and the buttermilk cake, but I couldn’t do them justice. Not when my heart belongs to the queen of all desserts, the vanilla cupcakes. Although I love cupcakes, I have never eaten one and been utterly consumed with the urgent need to eat another. These cupcakes were like watching a hot chick happen to drop a quarter in front of you. You watch her bend over, and all you want to do is throw another quarter out there, so it can keep bending over. And you know, because of the delicious whipped cream, that she will still be moist and not overpoweringly sweet and perfectly flavored and covered in strawberries again and again and again………..
Shit.
The point: I could eat a lot. Karen has promised that she will post her exact demon recipe, to capture the hearts of men by singing them into the sea.
Quote from the room: “Oh god, he’s got a purple thong on. Oh shit.”
I think I have to go.
To make matters worse: it was E. Honda that had the purple thong on. *Shudder*
Relevant bit! I made some of the bacon-jalapeno things at home tonight, and both my mom and brother enjoyed ‘em (they’re both even wussier than I am over spicy foods!). I was extra-careful about carving the innards out, and I even trimmed 1/5th off the stem ends–the end result had just a tiny hint of spice. There wasn’t any need to chase these with a drink to wash down the burn.
(I also used 1/2 strip of bacon per pepper, for extra bacon-y fun.)
So here’s my amendment:
-prep peppers with extra clean insides and trimmed stem for the mild crowd.
-prep peppers with a bit of membrane left for more heat (and leave the stem).
It should be easy to distinguish between the two visually and everyone can munch within their comfort zone.
Karen’s cupcakes are the Magnolia Bakery (the one in NYC) vanilla cupcakes. I introduced her to the recipe during the prep for out office bakesale. The recipe’s on Foodtv.com.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/magnolias-vanilla-cupcake-recipe/index.html
Also – replacing the butter with oil (same amount of oil as butter), makes them really light and moist (they also tend to rise as perfect little domes w/oil). Not necessarily better than the butter, but I found it to be more appropriate for my Indian cupcakes. So if you decide to use it as your base cupcake recipe (which I highly recommend), the oil variation might prove to be a better texture/flavor for whatever experiments you may try.