Girl's Night In
The long, lazy days of summer allow us to enjoy a much more relaxed schedule. So while we still can, several of my friends from high school and I try to get together at least once a month and we've been doing a good job of that. Though with the end of summer bearing down on us, we figured we better try and plan one more night of fun before we run into the "who-knows-when-we-can-get-everyone-together-for-a-girls-night-out-again" time of year.
This time we did things a little differently. Instead of a Girl's Night Out where we head to a local restaurant for what could be questionable food, unstable service or just an overall unpleasant dining experience with overpriced drinks, we planned a GNI.
That would be a Girl's Night In.
Karen's daughter is out of town, so she volunteered (or perhaps I casually suggested?) her house at the hosting spot. I offered to cook and everyone hopped on that train. Each person was then assigned something to bring.
I wanted to make an easy and healthy dinner as well as create a dish where we could all "dress" according to our own likes and dislikes. Having so many food issues myself, I thought swordfish and shrimp tacos would fit the bill.
We started off with my new favorite white wine cooler but this time used cucumber and melon instead of mango--to accommodate one person's dislike of mango. See, I told you I am not the only one who has food issues...
I made a green and a red salsa. I added a roasted poblano pepper to the salsa verde and then made this authentic salsa de tres chiles.
I also mashed up a bunch of avocados, chopped Serrano chiles and onions for some homemade Mexican butter as it was named that night. Again, omitting the ubiquitous cilantro for a friend. We served these with z variety of chips and tostadas.
To accompany the fish tacos, I chopped up loads of fresh veggies including cabbage, onions, jalapeños, avocado and tomatoes. I whipped up a bit of homemade mayo and swirled in some chipotle peppers to make a fabulous chipotle mayo that we drizzled on the tacos.
A side of black beans rounded out the meal.
To cool us off a bit, I made vanilla frozen yogurt which we topped with a few raspberries.
Suffice it to say, that night we ate and drank with abandon, laughed until our sides hurt, solved a lot of the world's problems, collectively addressed each of our own strengths and weaknesses, shared secrets and unrequited loves, uncovered commonalities and less than three degrees of separation, laughed some more, cried, hugged, clarified a few misunderstandings, stayed up way past our bedtime and then laughed some more.
It was a perfect night of caring and sharing. And plenty of good food.
Buen provecho!
This time we did things a little differently. Instead of a Girl's Night Out where we head to a local restaurant for what could be questionable food, unstable service or just an overall unpleasant dining experience with overpriced drinks, we planned a GNI.
That would be a Girl's Night In.
Karen's daughter is out of town, so she volunteered (or perhaps I casually suggested?) her house at the hosting spot. I offered to cook and everyone hopped on that train. Each person was then assigned something to bring.
I wanted to make an easy and healthy dinner as well as create a dish where we could all "dress" according to our own likes and dislikes. Having so many food issues myself, I thought swordfish and shrimp tacos would fit the bill.
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| All of these amazing photographs were generously taken by Luminosity Photography & Design By Karen Green Pirinelli |
We started off with my new favorite white wine cooler but this time used cucumber and melon instead of mango--to accommodate one person's dislike of mango. See, I told you I am not the only one who has food issues...
I made a green and a red salsa. I added a roasted poblano pepper to the salsa verde and then made this authentic salsa de tres chiles.
I also mashed up a bunch of avocados, chopped Serrano chiles and onions for some homemade Mexican butter as it was named that night. Again, omitting the ubiquitous cilantro for a friend. We served these with z variety of chips and tostadas.
To accompany the fish tacos, I chopped up loads of fresh veggies including cabbage, onions, jalapeños, avocado and tomatoes. I whipped up a bit of homemade mayo and swirled in some chipotle peppers to make a fabulous chipotle mayo that we drizzled on the tacos.
A side of black beans rounded out the meal.
To cool us off a bit, I made vanilla frozen yogurt which we topped with a few raspberries.
Suffice it to say, that night we ate and drank with abandon, laughed until our sides hurt, solved a lot of the world's problems, collectively addressed each of our own strengths and weaknesses, shared secrets and unrequited loves, uncovered commonalities and less than three degrees of separation, laughed some more, cried, hugged, clarified a few misunderstandings, stayed up way past our bedtime and then laughed some more.
It was a perfect night of caring and sharing. And plenty of good food.
Buen provecho!
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