The Best Kind of Team

Aren't we a great team?

Artsy-artsy

I've always wanted to go to an exclusive art gallery opening. First, I wanted to know what that experience would be like. Second, I've always wanted the opportunity to have a private tour by a museum conservator.

So it was my very good fortune that my company is the presenting sponsor for the gorgeous Kimbell Museum of Art's fall 2012 exhibition: The Kimbell at 40.

As part of our sponsorship, I was able to attend the exhibition opening events and it was everything I could have hoped it would be...

A lovely light lunch with the press and art community, including the director of another local museum.

And a wonderful guided tour of the exhibition, where I was able to learn many inside stories about the various collection pieces.

Happy 40th anniversary, Kimbell! You're only getting better with age.

Yes, Yes, We Know How to Party

With all of the everything that was last week (funerals, new water heater, work events, World Series, deadlines), I completely forgot to talk about the Third Annual Hayley House Party.

Yes, we had a party. Yes, it was fun (of course!). Yes, we had to turn on the Texas Rangers World Series Game 1. Yes, I learned that one should always check the school calendar to make sure it's not a 4-day weekend for the school system. (Can't do much about the World Series, though.)

But we had a crowd. We had a great time. And we had a fantastic dessert - as usual. Some shots and commentary...

Chocolate fountain (yay - Christmas present!) with an assortment of dippers:

Always buy enough chocolate. Then make sure that you melt it properly. After a movie-worthy dash to Michaels before the party started (complete with me running into the store shouting I'm the woman who called about the chocolate!! and a less than 2-minute cash-for-chocolate exchange), Baby Sister learned the hard way that lumpy chocolate doesn't flow. Oops.

Ah, friends...staying inside because it was cold!

And babies! And children! And children chasing happy babies!

Lots of work friends...we've learned over the years that we never have the same party twice. A different group comes every time and it's a fun party - every time.

And I learned something else that is very important. If you hear hysterical laughing from the clean up crew while you're making final goodbyes, assume that The Boy is up to no good.

It also cracks me up that The Boy was so tired
that he put his t-shirt on inside out...and no one noticed!

Let's just say this:

Chocolate Fountain + Leftovers = Experimentation

For the in-house party crew, the Third Annual Hayley House Party will forever be known as

Chocamole

{Sigh} I can't take him anywhere.

How to Host a Dinner Party

Are you wondering how to host a wonderful party? Here's a simple step-by-step:

1. Work for many years with your husband to develop the very best grilled salmon recipe, making sure it becomes his signature dish.
2. Finally figure out how to make incredible mini-chocolate tarts.
3. Invite good friends who are also good cooks (who are dating good and interesting guys) to come over. While you're at it, ask them to bring something to round out the meal.
4. Enjoy an amazing meal of goat cheese stuffed/prosciutto-wrapped figs, salmon, squash frittata, roasted market vegetables and chocolate tarts.
5. Tell lots of stories, laugh a lot and forget to take any photos of the evening.

See - it's easy!

A Royal To-Do

Do you remember that I said my office likes to have fun? (A few reminders here, here and here.)

Well, we certainly couldn't let anything as important as the Royal Wedding happen without having our own celebration. So a few mischief makers (and you know that I'm certainly not one of those) put together a little tea for the office.

When the majority of the studio rolled in, bleary eyed and exhausted from a rough presentation deadline the day before, they found this waiting in the breakroom:

Veddy veddy posh, don't you think? Linens and silver, doilies and a tiara. Proper, festive and suitable for the notable day.

On the menu? Tea, of course. Strawberries, cream and scones.

Plus our version of Prince William's Groom's Cake:

Please note that some scallywag snuck into the breakroom and scored a tremendous wedge of cake (bottom center) before the tea officially began. Despite a quite intimidating Q&A with each staff member and a thorough search of individual rubbish bins, the perpetrator got away scot-free. For shame.

Interested in the cake? Here's a recipe to make your own - be careful! It's exceedingly yummy, but I'm addicted to biscuits (English, that is) anyway.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

• 1 (14-ounce) package digestive biscuits
• 5 ounces dark chocolate cut into small chunks or 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 ounces (1 stick) butter
• 1 (14-ounce) can condensed milk
• 5 ounces dark chocolate or 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips for glaze

Line a 9-inch cake pan with a sheet of foil or film, making sure that it will be large enough to overlap the finished cake.

Crush the biscuits — using your hands — into a large bowl. Do not crush too fine; the cake should show some chunks.

Combine the chocolate, butter and condensed milk in a microwavable bowl and microwave on High (100 percent power) for about 1 minute or until the mixture is mostly melted. Stir until smooth.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the biscuits and mix thoroughly so that all the biscuits are completely coated.

Pack into the lined cake pan, fold the foil or film over the top of the cake and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours.

To finish the cake: Remove from the refrigerator and open the foil or film. Turn the cake over onto a serving plate and remove the foil or film.

For the glaze, break the remaining 5 ounces chocolate or chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl and microwave on High for 1 minute to melt. Repeat in 20-second increments if necessary. Stir until smooth.

Pour the glaze onto the cake and carefully spread it over the top and down the sides. Allow to set. Refrigerate, but bring to room temperature before serving. This cake is very rich, so cut thin slices.

Will serve 12 Texans or 24 Brits.

Note: The biscuits referred to in the recipe are digestive sweetmeal biscuits, which can often be found at large supermarkets in the British foods aisle. I recommend McVitie’s Rich Tea Biscuits. For complete authenticity, buy 3 (3.5-ounce) bars of Cadburys Royal Dark Chocolate. Use 1.5 bars for the cake and 1.5 bars for the glaze.

This Year's Theme

It appears that the theme for the Hayley's Christmas 2010 was Let Us Entertain You!

Nearly every gift related to our love of food (cooking utensils), of the furbabies (toys and favorite food), of the Hayley House (decor items) and of entertaining (see below).

Believe me - we are not complaining. In fact, we were overjoyed!!!

From the gorgeous ceramic serving pieces from The Niece (and The Sister-in-Law) that perfectly match our everyday dishes:

To wonderfully aromatic organic hand soaps (sorry...no photo!), to glass display pieces:

To a cupcake stand:

The Hayleys sure are set to party-hearty.

But the show-stopping-all-out-party-topper is:

Hmmm....what do you suppose the Hayleys have in mind for the Hayley Party 2011 dessert extravaganza?!?

Should I?

I would be terribly remiss if I didn't say that great parties require great people to pull them off.

Of course, The Boy and I are great people. That goes without saying.

But so are our dear friends, J and S, and my Baby Sister. Without them, we really would have had a rough time getting everything ready in time. (Particularly with the crazy week we both had leading up to the Hayley Party!) They helped us clean, move furniture, prep food, set up stations, welcome guests and clean up.

It should come as no surprise that great people sometimes have disasters happen. Particularly at midnight when finishing clean up. Yet somehow I was still caught off-guard by an shout from the bar, followed by tired (yet hysterical) laughter. I looked up to see:

The Baby Sister had an epic plastic wrap fail. Plastic wrap+large foil container+unstable surface=

It makes me want to post these photos on Cake Wrecks.

But I won't. Because it was midnight. And great people have bad things happen to them sometimes. And I want them to help again for Hayley Party 2011.

2nd Annual: So It's An Event

We love parties! And we loved the Hayley Housewarming 2009 so much that we decided to make it an annual event.

The problem with annual events is that you start to forget some of the basics - like taking really great photos. So we don't really have any photos, other than set up and prep shots.

But I like this photo of the signature Hayley dessert 2010: A cupcake bar. How fun is this?

We provided yellow and chocolate cupcakes, half frosted with homemade vanilla buttercream frosting, half frosted with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. {Yum}

Toppings included:

• Crushed Heath bar
• Crushed Oreo cookies
• Chopped Reese's miniatures
• Toasted coconut
• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Chopped pecans
• Mini M&Ms
• Mini chocolate chips
• Chocolate sprinkles

Guests simply had to get a cupcake(s) and then pick toppings of their choice. {Double yum!}

Anyway, we had a lot of fun - as we always do. The house was full, drinks and food were plentiful and it was terribly late before we all went to bed.

Today we've been enjoying reading the various notes from our friends about the party. I told The Boy about one note, which read:

You have such a welcoming house.

That really made me happy. I told The Boy that if I could pick anything to have said about our home, that would be it. A welcoming home. It's perfect and captures our heart for entertaining and extending hospitality to our circle of friends/family/colleagues.

The Boy's response?

I think the secret to a great party is to provide the opportunity, then get out of the way.

Wisdom, that is.

I think we'll do it again.

House Warming Party: It's a Wrap!

Exhaustion and party clean-up (ok, mostly exhaustion!) kept me from telling the tale of the Hayley Housewarming until now. But rest assured - we did in fact have a party and we have it on good authority that it was a whiz-bang success!

Buckle up while I share with you how to throw an easy and fun open house / house warming party.

Ambiance

Set the mood. Help your guests find your home - especially important when you live in a neighborhood of winding streets and folks are showing up after dark. The old "the party must be where the cars are" adage doesn't really work when you have 40+ guest cars parking here, there and everywhere.

Whet the Whistle

We actually were able to use our wet bar as a wine and water bar. To keep the white wine chilled, I filled our wet bar sink with ice. We kept a small amount of wine in the house, with the rest staying nicely temperature controlled in our wine refrigerator. We simply pulled new bottles when needed. The wine glasses were a great find at Ikea - less than $1/each. Now we have plenty of wine glasses whenever the occasion might call for them!

Guests that wanted something else to drink headed out to the patio where we had beer and sodas on ice.

Feed the Masses

Second only to good company, I think good food is an essential ingredient to a successful party. I put together a series of simple items to keep everyone satisfied.

I put out grabbable snacks in my grandmother's Carnival glass serving dishes. I'm not sure which was more exciting - the reaction to the tasty olives and pecans that I'd whipped up that morning or actually getting to use these pieces that I've owned since my grandmother passed away!

For those who wanted to munch on something different, I set out a cheese sampling of European cheeses (soft, hard and smoked) and the old American stand-by of cream cheese smothered with jalapeno jelly. Yum! Our fab friends gave us this beautiful marble cutting board as a housewarming gift that worked perfectly as a cheese board.

For those who wanted salt and crunch, there were salsas, dips and chips.

Heartier fare could be found in the dining room. Pulled chicken, chopped beef and sauce from a local barbeque joint, combined with sliced King's Hawaiian rolls and a variety of relishes allowed guests to build their own mini-BBQ sliders. (This is one of my favorite quick but fancy party dishes.) I also set out hot bubbly spinach dip with raw vegetables and pita chips.

Inject Some Fun

I believe in having one signature memorable aspect to any party. Our open house signature item was a Make-Your-Own S'mores Bar. We got a good fire roaring in our fire pit (not only great for roasting marshmallows, but wonderful for keeping away the last of the summer bugs and taking the chill out of the early fall evening). Guests could help themselves to graham crackers, marshmallows and an assortment of chocolates.

Remember Your Roles - and Assign a Photographer!

So we didn't get a lot of photos of ourselves (much to our chagrin!), but we did have friends taking photos throughout the evening. I think the shots of The Boy and I capture our focus as party hosts pretty well.

I worked hard at keeping things stocked while also mingling and chatting with our guests.

The Boy took folks on tours of the house, while also mingling, chatting and offering refills.

Invite a Variety of People

I think the very best parties have groups who don't know each other. There's a wonderful pollination of ideas, new friendships begin to blossom and it just plum makes for interesting conversations.

We told our guests (church friends, work friends, friend friends) to come and stay as long as they wanted. Our party "end" time was only a method to keep the party from going all night (we ran nearly 3 hours late - and that was just fine by us!). We also told the moms and dads that kids were more than welcome.

Since it was close to Halloween, we fell on the same night as several kid-focused events. As a result, we had a Greek goddess, a cowgirl and a princess ballerina join us for the fun!

You know it's going well when there are plenty of belly laughs!

All in all, it was a wonderful party. The Boy's ready to throw open the doors again for a spring party. We're thinking outdoors with the grill. Should be fun, huh?

As always, if any of the food items you see pictured strike your fancy or your curiosity, drop me a note and I'll post the recipe. Unless it's a family secret. Then you're just plain out of luck!