Birthday Party

[osprey_archer]

I’m turning 30 this year (July 2! It’s coming up!) and I have therefore decided to throw myself a big party. There will be eleven guests (twelve people including me) which means that we may have more guests than bowls. That’s going to be interesting when we graduate from lentil soup to ice cream… No, we can put the ice cream in little bowls. We should be fine. We will have no clean dishes in the house at the end of the night, but we’ll be fine.

Reader, I have spent most of the month obsessing over the menu. We will have:

A cheese plate
Brie
Goat cheese
Cheddar

With fig jam
And honey
And crackers (regular and gluten-free)

Also cashews for the vegan.

Green salad (with spinach and arugula and all the best greens)
No icky iceberg lettuce
And a salad bar
Cherry tomatoes, avocados, bleu cheese, homemade croutons
Olive oil and vinegar
Chicken for the dedicated carnivores

Lentil soup (both regular and vegan)

And four desserts
Blueberry pound cake (baked in a bundt pan; this will bear the birthday candles)
Brownies
Vanilla ice cream
And Oreo halves topped with raspberries (for the vegan)

There might be two pans of brownies. I bought a packet of habanero sugar and I think it would add a wonderful spicy kick, but the first time I used it I only put in a teaspoon and a half, and you couldn’t taste it very much. Should I try it again, doubling the habanero sugar? Is it wise to experiment with a recipe at a party?

I have also spared a little thought for party games, before finally settling on reverse charades: one member of the team guesses while all the others try to act out the word. Not everyone at the party will know each other, so I thought they might feel more comfortable acting silly all at the same time.

In fact, the guests come in three distinct groups. Two of the groups have some overlap, but the third (my Starbucks friends) have no connection to the others, and I am a little afraid that they’ll form a sad lonely knot in the corner and feel left out.

(I’ve been thinking about my likely reaction if I want to a party and discovered I didn’t know half the people there. I suspect it would be unenthusiastic. But not everyone is me! Some people like meeting people! It will probably be fine. And

On the other hand, they are all Starbucks baristas. That argues a certain ease in interacting with people (Starbucks’ inexplicable decision to hire me aside). So maybe they’ll be fine.

I’ve been giving serious thought to the seating arrangements at dinner. I’m trying to ensure everyone is seated next to at least one person they know, but also make sure that the groups mix to a certain extent.

Also there are sparklers for the end of the night, just in case we run out of activities. I just really want this to be an excellent party.

Comments

[ursula]

I would try sprinkling the habanero sugar on top after baking. This has the added advantage that you can test as you go.

[osprey_archer]

My concern with sprinkling it all on after baking is that it may just fall off; there's nothing really to hold it there on top of a brownie. I suppose if I did it just after baking it might bind itself on?

[genarti]

This sounds like an AMAZING menu, and an excellent party!

And for what it's worth, I wouldn't mind coming to a party where I didn't know too many people, as long as they seemed like cool folk, and as long as I knew or could reasonably deduce that that was a possibility. If I'm coming to a party, I'm expecting to be spending social battery points and having a fairly social time!

Also, reverse charades sounds like a hilarious game.

[osprey_archer]

I would be less than thrilled to arrive at a party and realize I knew less than half the guests, but I am pretty high on the introverted scale so I recognize that my reaction is probably not a good guide to everyone else's. Hopefully it will go well! I think things can't go too wrong when there's a cheese plate involved.

I think reverse charades will indeed be hilarious. All the fun of charades without the potential embarrassment!

[genarti]

I'm fairly introverted, but I'm also very much a social introvert; I can fake extroversion pretty well for a good while, as long as I can hide and recharge after. So parties are very much the kind of thing I expect to be exhausting but fun. Anyway, I absolutely agree about the cheese plate -- a solid maxim for life! :D

[asakiyume]

This sounds *so delicious* and *so fun*

But I'm getting real-life and stories confused and expecting some of your characters to be among your guests.

[osprey_archer]

Oh, now I'm curious. Which characters are you expecting to come to my party? (And how do you think they'll react upon being there?)

[asakiyume]

Well, since I've just read Iced Coffee Dreams, I'm mainly thinking of the characters from it--Wynne and Parker and Ashley and Kayleen and Renee, and--well maybe not Shannon just yet. Maybe next year. But I also imagine the protagonists from earlier books might turn up with their sweethearts.

[osprey_archer]

That would certainly simplify party planning! Wynne could bring the cake - Parker could bring the salad - I'm not sure what Kayleen could bring, but she was a member of Feast Club, so she probably has some delicious specialty too.

Poor Shannon, though. Unless the espresso machine catches fire and she heroically rescues everyone or something of that ilk, I suspect the most of the current baristas will always think of her as "the most annoying customer ever, well she's a little better than she used to be I GUESS."

[asakiyume]

Obviously Kayleen will bring cheese!

[osprey_archer]

YOU ARE SO RIGHT. How could I not see that before?

[littlerhymes]

Happy almost birthday! This all sounds delightful and the menu! omg! I particularly like the lack of iceberg AND the four desserts.

I think knowing just half the people at a party is fine, that's still half you DO know. And 12 people is a small enough group that it's easy to meet people and get to know them without necessarily breaking into smaller groups.

[osprey_archer]

"Is four desserts an excessive amount of desserts?" I asked myself. "WHO CARES, it's my party!"

In my enthusiasm for avoiding iceberg lettuce I may have bought an excessive amount of arugula. We'll see, I guess!