Iron Chef Party!

Last Friday night I hosted a dinner party with 20 women from my Boot Camp class. Since we couldn't invite more than a couple people over to our previous residence, as soon as we rented this one, I scheduled the party. Even before we moved in.

We ate in the backyard and I rented tables, chairs, put out flowers and candles and even got some of those out door heaters. The party had a theme too. It was a Bacon and Mushroom Iron Chef party. That meant that everyone had to bring something that had bacon or mushroom in it. Or both.

We had salads, sides, mac n cheese (with both!), appetizers, enchiladas, rissoto with quinoa and even dessert. In addition to the bacon rice crispie treats that I made, there was bacon cheesecake brownies, and maple bacon ice cream with candied bacon. And one truly inspired lady made merigue in the shape of a mushroom with chocolate in it. It didn't have the secret ingredients, but it was awesome. Then we voted and the winners got prizes.

It seemed everyone had a lovely time (since they stayed very late) and it was nice to hang out with people I usually only see half dressed and sweaty.

Special thanks to Michael for helping me set up, fixing the heaters, taking the kids out of the house and doing a lot of the clean up. He was super supportive of this ridiculous event.

Here are the ladies after a few left. Our instructor Kym is holding the camera everyone is looking at.