Dessert Party in West Roxbury

Andrew and I had a great time hanging out at Z 's and T.D.'s new house in West Roxbury last night. Not only were we celebrating their status as new homeowners of a FABULOUS house, but we were also helping them cash in on a dessert buffet option.

Let me explain - Z and T.D. were married last August and had a beautiful ceremony and reception. One of the standouts of their reception was the awesome food provided by their caterer. Unfortunately, the creme brulees (Z's favorite) that were supposed to be served along with the wedding cake for dessert never made it to the reception, due to a mishap in the caterer's van. To make it up to her, the caterers offered a dessert buffet party for 12, complete with creme brulee. To me, this speaks volumes, you can develop a better opinion of a vendor based on how they respond to a problem. Anyway, Z and T.D. decided to expand it to an appetizers and dessert buffet party, and I am so glad that they were kind enough to include us!

The passed hors doeurvres included:

Smoked chicken quesadillas with avocado salsa
Tuna tartar on crisp wontons
Mini beef wellingtons with bearnaise dipping sauce (best sauce ever!)
Bacon wrapped scallops
Parmesan crusted artichokes filled with goat cheese
Crab cakes topped with chipotle aioli
Mini burgers with roasted shallot jam and Stilton

The apps were surprisingly filling and my mouth is watering just thinking of them! Luckily, I did save room for dessert - here is the dessert buffet spread out on Z and T.D.'s new dining room table:

The catering company was smart enough to leave some of the extra appetizers plated on the table - from top left, two plates of the chicken quesadillas (stacked high and thick) with some parmesan crusted artichokes in the center, bacon wrapped scallops (yum!), spicy tuna maki from Fugakyu (Z's favorite) and the mini burgers on the bottom:

One of Andrew's favorites, the crab cakes - they were adorable and tasty!

Now for the desserts - the creme brulee that was responsible for it all. It was soooo good, that I wished that there had been enough servings for us to have seconds and thirds:

Also on the dessert menu - three types of dessert shooters including key lime pie:


Chocolate decadence and strawberry cheesecake - they were the perfect size to get a good sized bite that left you wanting more (you better believe that I tried all three!):

Chocolate bread budding - this is the only one that I skipped just because I was getting full and full chocolate desserts aren't usually my thing - did I also mention that homemade whipped cream that we lavishly topped all the desserts with (left):

Here's a close up of the key lime pie shooter, complete with a cute mini dessert spoon:

There's the hostess herself pushing desserts on us - if you squint, you can see the apple crisps that were Andrew's favorite of all the desserts:

Here's Andrew with the aforementioned apple crisp - this is about the point where I put down the camera and starting pigging out!

Thanks to Z and T.D. for hosting a lovely evening filled with good food and tons of laughs! Here's hoping that Andrew and I are as lucky in finding a house as nice as theirs.

Friday Night Lights (in Randolph)

Friday night found us in Randolph, of all places. After promising Z for years that I would go to a game, Andrew and I joined her for the season opener for the Randolph Oilers, a semi-pro football team. Z's husband T.D. is in his early forties but has poured his heart, soul and some ribs into playing his heart out for the team.

Not only were the stands crowded but we were surprised when three large motorcycles entered the field:

Turns out, they were there to help introduce the home team Oilers onto the field:

The whole atmosphere of the game reminded me of high school football games at Zama - you had families, community members, teenagers, and members of competing semi-pro football teams scouting out the competition. Adding to the school-like feel was the concessions stand and its fundraising efforts. It's hard to beat hot dogs for $1 and nachos for $2 and great popcorn for $1 a bag.

We made sure to cheer loudly for T.D., shown here (#77) in a captain's meeting on the field:

Admittedly, Z and I also spent much of the game talking about wedding planning, as Z herself just got married last summer:

After a tough overtime loss, we headed to the local "V" for drinks - as you can see, it's the home of the Randolph Oilers!

Unfortunately for us, it was karaoke night and let me just say that the singing was a little interesting, as you can see from T.D.'s expression:

Andrew and I had a great time at the game and we'll definitely be keeping Z company at another Oilers game soon.