On Sunday we hosted a BBQ for our friends from Cinncinnati.  It was fun, but tiring, and the kids ended up with a few broken toys from the chaos of all those kids in the house.  I think we can fix a few of them, though. 

I always think it is interesting what people make for a large group, and we had 19 adults and 20 kids (yes…the little monsters outnumbered us!).  I wasn’t sure if I would have enough, but being that half of them were kids I actually made more than enough food.  On the whole they don’t eat much.  In hindsight I should have had more of the fruit, maybe some cut cheese and more deviled eggs.  Finger friendly kid food should have been more plentiful. 

Appetizers:
Gorgonzola dip with low fat Wheat Thins
Fruit salad (red and green grapes and mandarin oranges…basically a snack for the kids)
Cowboy Caviar with scooping tostido chips
Deviled eggs (need to get my recipe up for this yet…that would mean actually measuring what I put in it, though)
Kettle cooked chips from Costco
Mixture of greek olives from the deli

Dinner:
18 hamburgers (I now fully appreciate my friend’s angus beef after buying ground beef from the store for the party)
18 brats (boiled in beer ahead of time)
15 hot dogs
Turkey and dried cherry salad – only I had to put in cashews since I was out of almonds
Taco salad (a salad staple in our family)
Baked beans – cooked in the crockpot

There was another salad brought by one of the couples and some desserts, as well.  I’m not a dessert maker, and unfortunately they all got left behind.  Not good.  Fortunately, by Tuesday I felt like absolute crap and didn’t want to eat anything and had no problem saying “No” to the sweets.  I’d say I put in about 4 hours or so in making the food and I was actually being pretty efficient.  Anya helped me make some of the food.  She cut up a few of the deviled eggs with this little kid-safe knife (which she loved having her own knife, of course!) and helped me mix up and spoon some of the sauces.  She really loves to help…and sample.  I think she thought that the mayo was like whipped cream and asked to lick the spoon.  I stopped her before doing something so horrid to the taste buds. 😉

We have another dinner party tonight and then I get a bit of a break.  I am partied out right now.

Sampling the appetizers…gotta make sure they taste alright!