Potter Party

A continuation of the HP geek-out...

My House-Elves Prepare... {via}

Many of you were seriously interested to hear about the HP-themed Halloween party we threw, so I'm gonna do my best to remember it all. This was 2007, I apparently had either a non-functioning camera or had tested the libations way too many times and didn't care about a camera at that point. So, no pictures, sorry. I'm seriously disappointed in myself for that faux pas!

Decor: 
For our front door, I made a wooden sign that said "Platform 9 3/4" on a scrolled wooden plaque painted with black and gold paints.

Then with calligraphy brush pens on "parchment" scrapbook paper, I made signs for various parts of the apartment. The living room, with our red sofa was the "Gryffindor Common Room." Our half-bath that happened to be under the stairwell was the "Cupboard Under the Stairs." The dining room was divided into four different "stations" labeled "Potions Dungeon" (the bar), "The Great Hall" (savory finger foods), "Honeyduke's" (sweets), and "Three Broomsticks" (HP-themed drinks).

Also, in the "Dungeon" and "Great Hall" parts of the dining room, I hung bulletin board paper (yes, I'm a teacher...) that looked like stone castle walls. We lit a lot of candles and turned off many of the lights.

Food: 
To be honest, I can't remember many of the savory finger foods I made, even though everything was inspired by the books in some way. I do remember making mini cottage pies.

The sweets, however... I bought some 1-quart Mason jars and labeled each one with a gold paint marker. There were licorice wands (Twizzlers), Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (Jelly Bellys with some actual BB beans thrown in for random surprises), Cockroach Clusters (Dark chocolate and Rice Krispies candies), and Blood-flavored Lollipops (got them at Borders, officially licensed HP candy).

Drinks: 
In addition to our regular bar set-up that we keep stocked, I made a few themed beverages.
The cold butterbeer was:
vodka
soda water
Torani English Toffee syrup
 It was fizzy and buttery, just as it should have been.

I also made a Dragon's Blood cocktail: (This was stronger)
tequila
rum
orange juice (just enough to make it slightly opaque)
Torani Blood Orange syrup
splash of grenadine (if you need to get it redder again)

There were also ale (bucket full of beer) and Firewhisky (Jameson, I believe).

Costumes: 
At the time, my hair was cut very short, so I thought I'd use Halloween spray-in color and make it pink to be Tonks. I wore my black graduation robe, had a wand, and wore jeans with a homemade black and pink "Weird Sisters" t-shirt.

Sticking to canon, Hub was a partially changed Lupin. Sprayed his black hair with white to make it gray-ish. He wore a robe, and we took werewolf costume gloves, cut one apart, and used the gray fur to make it stick out of places in his clothes. He wore the other glove.

The costumes I can actually remember our friends coming as: Grown up Harry and Ginny, a Firebolt (I LOVED the costume made out of a cardboard box at the last minute!), Rita Skeeter, Madam Rosmerta, and Professor Trelawney.

It was a ton of fun, and I love throwing and/or going to theme parties. What are your favorite memories of theme/costume parties?

My Friends Are Made of Awesome

As you may or may not know, in the US, we have somehow misappropriated the Mexican Day of Beating the French into Submission (Cinco de Mayo, not a true Mexican holiday) as a ridiculous excuse to go out to the nearest Mexican restaurant, eat lots of enchiladas, and get drunk off as many Dos Equis, Coronas, and margaritas.

Also, this year, said holiday of American debauchery (do we REALLY need an excuse to drink and eat lots of cheese?) fell on a Wednesday. Most of our friends are no longer in university. They have real jobs, like us. Those that are still in school at the local university had final exams that week. So, as it starts to be come clear, we were completely unable to celebrate said fiesta. But some friends came up with a brilliant solution. As we're not really celebrating 5/5 for it's true purpose, can't we just celebrate some other time?

This is how yet another great theme party was born. Last night, we celebrated Catorce de Mayo. And here's how:
(I apologize none of these pictures are mine. The food was too awesome and disappeared too quickly!)

{via}

I made turkey enchiladas. I've made these in a more "gourmet" way before, but since I had all of 45 minutes last night, I used canned enchilada sauce... They were still delicious.

{via}

Another food geek friend made carnitas de puerco , pico de gallo, and guacamole all from scratch. EVERYTHING was delicious. I bow to his kitchen skills. And he's like me. If he's gonna cook at someone else's house, he travels with his own chef's knife, salt, and pepper grinder. Yeah, we can be picky.

Of course, there were margaritas. I love margaritas, and one of my friends once gave me his awesome recipe. Now I use it, and share it. He's from San Antonio, TX, so he knows his Tex-Mex stuff. I will now share my recipe with you. If you're not in the US, use whatever you can find that's acceptable. This recipe takes the pre-mixed Jose Cuervo Golden Margarita mix and makes it MUCH better.
PS - Margaritas shouldn't be fluorescent green! 


Margaritas of Awesome
This is for each serving: 
2.5 ounces margarita mix (75 mL)
1.5 ounces gold/reposado tequila (45 mL)
1.0 ounce orange juice (30 mL)
0.5 ounce *good* orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau (15 mL)
0.5 ounce triple sec (15 mL)
1 pinch kosher salt

Stir together in a pitcher and serve over ice. I will warn you, these are strong, not for the faint of heart. If you need to cut anything down, go a bit easy on the tequila. I also recommend trying different juices, not just the orange. Lime works nicely as does my favorite, blood orange! Enjoy!

Then, we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles and decided to apply fake tattoos. I have kanji that does not mean what it claims to mean on the inside of my left wrist. It was a wonderful night!