Saturday's Christmas Supper with Friends!

This year Aleksy and I wanted to hold festivities for our friends at our place and invite everyone and have a Christmas supper. We suggested this idea to Warren and Chelsea who thought it would be fun if they invited some of their friends, and we invited some of ours. We extended the invitation to LOTS of people, and unfortunately many couldn't make it but we had 10 people for supper and a few for appetizers before supper or dessert after supper. It ended up being a tremendous success with lots of food that all turned out delicious and good company who all seemed to get along well!

This was the first time that Chels and I have ever made a Turkey independent from family members. We got some tips from Chelsea's Mom... We poured some butter over the bird first then made a flour concoction of AP flour, paprika, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. We covered the turkey in this then put it in the oven on high (425) for about 20 min then cooked it for the rest of the time on 350, basting occasionally. And I must say it turned out FANTASTIC!! Wasn't dry in the least bit!!

I am a large fan of a good bargain. So I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for decorations for one night! So I bought those white trees at the dollar store, some confetti and chocolate bells and those served as festive decorations (and looked great for the price!). Aleksy and Warren were running some errands for us during the day and bought us flowers so we put those up for decorations too! We saved quite a bit of money on plates, napkins etc. by using what we already had at home rather than buying Christmas themed disposable items. We also saved money by not buying expensive wine- I showed Chels about the 1.5 L bottles of wine under $15 - keeping it classy ;)

We started the evening by having appetizers at 5pm: dips & pitas, the oriental party pack (good ol' M&Ms), stuffed baguette with cream cheese, pesto, artichokes, sundried tomatoes and spinach, seafood stuffed mushrooms (Chelsea's creation: delic!), brie with red pepper jelly wrapped in pillsbury croissant dough  (simple and so good). Then supper was at 7pm. This is Chels loading up her supper plate. Everyone brought different items to help us out (like potatoes, vegetables) so we didn't have to spend the entire day cooking, which made it a lot easier!

Everyone getting ready to start their supper! And Al & Steph being posers!! :)

My favorite shot of the night. This is only those who could make it for supper (we didn't get a picture of those who made it before/after, but we're very glad they could come for even a little!!) and this is actually the picture Alejandra took with her camera - it looks a bit nicer than the one taken on our camera!

Ah dessert. My favourite part of life. And we had a great variety too! Alejandra made the cake on the bottom: a pound cake of sorts with meringue on the top, Steph made an AMAZING PB ice cream cake, which satisfied my undying love for PB, and Chelsea and I had the 2 plates of assorted desserts. Chelsea made her yummy treats with her Mom: truffles, shortbread, peanut brittle, "souped up rice krispie sqaures" (Chelsea's words!! ha) and I made sugar Christmas cookies, shortbread, PB balls, and brownies.

It seems that every time Steph and I want a picture of just us, Al needs to be in the picture. This is a very regular looking picture for Steph and I!

We're definitely going to have another supper next year (hopefully by that time we'll have our own house to have it in!) and hopefully everyone can come out again (and hopefully more can come too!).