Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Cheers to 30 Years

Conor & I recently made a trip to Spokane to help my parents celebrate their 30th anniversary!  Since this is a big milestone, I decided to throw a cocktail party in their honor.  We invited a few of my parents close friends and asked if they would send us some pictures from the last 30 years to contribute to a surprise slide show that Conor & I were putting together.  Wow did we get some great pictures!!!  Conor and I were hysterically laughing as we pieced together all the photos!  Let's just say, my mom has had some awesome hairdos and dresses with shoulder pads, while my dad has apparently been known to wear some of the shortest shorts I have ever seen, my closet included!
The party went wonderfully, and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves!  The old fashions were flying off the bar, wine corks popping around every corner, and people trying not to stab each other with skewers as they really got after the delicious snacks!  The food was particularly a big hit, which made Conor & I happy since we made it all ourselves.  We make quite a good team!  I picked the menu, but Conor made almost everything.  I was just the chef's assistant and mostly did prep work.  In case your curious, here's what we served: chicken, steak, and shrimp skewers with three sauces (chipotle mayo, mango herb, and thai peanut), bruschetta, better cheddar (a cheese dip), guacamole, and lots of fresh fruit and veggies.  We did our best to keep my mom out of the kitchen, but of course she just can't stay away!  Normally, she'll switch into her sneakers, even while she's all dressed up, to get work done in the kitchen.  When I decided to throw the party at their house, it became Conor & my main objective to make sure her sneakers stayed in the closet!  We were at least successful at that!

Here are some of my favorite pics from the party:

the happy couple






The rest of the visit was fun and relaxing.  Conor had to leave on Sunday for business in Alabama, but before his flight, we met up with Ryan, Chelsea, and my parents at Press for their famous (and absolutely delicious!) bloody mary bar.  Since Conor and I have really been lovin the bloody marys lately, this was a hot sauce, vodka, and pickled vegi heaven!  To use a tried and true Simpson Family catch phrase: It was just a "reeeeal nice" little Sunday morning together.  With how busy everyone seems these last few years, it seems rare that we get to spend quality time together like this.  After dropping Conor of at good ol' GEG, I spent the rest of the day with my brother, Ryan. We took the Costco samples by storm as we worked through our list and then headed out to Tonicx for my new favorite cocktail, the creamsicle: whipped cream vodka and orange San Peligrino!  It's even better than an actual creamsicle, but that may be on account of the vodka!  I plan to add this great find to the Keenan bar repertoire back in AZ very soon, yummers!  Later that night I tagged along with Ryan, Chelsea, & Linnea to their friends' (Jon & Shelby) house for a BBQ.  This is where I had my first experience with the X-Box Kinect 360!  We had a blast playing dance central (or at least I think that's what it was called...).  And I don't mean to toot my own horn... but SOMEbody ended up beng pretty darn good (Toot! Toot!). It so much fun playing with Ryan and all the kids.  What a great night!

As always, I was sad to leave Spokane. But lucky for me, Conor & I decided to head to San Diego the following weekend after he got back from Alabama to see TJ, Erin, and Conor's brother, Kyle, who was planning on being in town for an architecture conference. I'm sure we'll have a post up soon about that trip.

3 comments:

  1. Well, my mom was RAVING about your cooking skills! Maybe you should post the recipe for the sauces? (: They sound amazing! So glad you had such a fun trip!

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  2. I'm glad your mom enjoyed the food! I will post the Thai peanut sauce (which I made) and try and convince Conor to write the ingredients to the other two sauces. He came up with them on his own, so there's no recipe to look at... I wish I could do that!

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  3. Ugh, my dad cooks like that too - I wish I could! Yes, I would LOVE your peanut sauce recipe....sounds delicious! Hope to see you guys this summer!

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