I'm Goin' to San Fran!

Off to San Francisco... or Fremont rather, I am going. Mike, my beloved brother is getting married this weekend and the whole family is heading out to see him get hitched. I'm thinking he must be really popular to get the whole family to come out to him. But, I guess since he travelled all the way back to Utah for my wedding, it is the least I can do. He should realize though that my presence is his gift. (Like I could buy him a gift anyway, he didn't even register!)

Hopefully, this San Fran visit will be as good as my last, where I met James Marsters for the first time. But, it is a lot to hope for. I probably won't meet any famous people. Unless Lisa is hording some really famous relative. I guess I will have to be happy with seeing my older brother get married. Sigh. This may be a long trip as my whole family will be there. Matt and I are sharing a room with Anthon and Marie, hopefully they don't snore.

Happy Marriage Mike~!

Iron Chef Food

This is a pic of the iron chef food table. I really should have taken the pic early on in the party becaues most of the food has been eaten in this pic. A lot of the fancier food is gone. The pedistal of oranges is completely void of rolls. Alas! But, you get the idea.

Birthday Cake!

These are pictures of me with my Birthday cake. I made my own cake this year because it was my entry for the Iron Chef competition. You may also notice that the cake is sittng on a sparkly purple platter. Matt and I got that platter for our wedding and we weren't really sure what to do with it, but now it is the birthday cake platter. Hopefully, we will get many years of use out of it.

Birthday Guests

Here is a pic of the parents, Jake and Jill and Darin. The parents brought orange spare ribs, and Jake and Jill brought Asian salad. They were both delicious!
Here are some pics of random... or valued birthday guests. It was a monumental night because after years of inviting Nefi to my parties, he finally came. But, he brought a really yummy dish and it beat my dish in judging, so maybe I shouldn't invite him any more.

Rachel, Tim and Natalie are all a little weird, and that is why they are pictured here. Rachel and Tim brought Nutmeg Orange Rolls and Natalie brought Angel food cake that she made in her car. She was like the second lowest scoring dish, next to Sarah's Crush soda.

My Bros

I don't know why brothers like to make funny faces and extend their pointer fingers, but here it is. I was just glad that both Johnny and DJ were able to come to the party.

Iron Chef!

Here is a couple pictures of the Iron Chef herself!

Erin and Jeff

Erin and Jeff were a lot of fun at the party. Erin brought Orange salsa and Jeffy brought Orange cheesecake. I'm not really sure why they are looking at each other this way in this picture. There was definitely a weird vibe comin' off them at the party. When they were playing games up in the guest bedroom, Erin kept paying Jeff money in exchange for eventual favors. I wonder if those favors will ever come.

Crazy old MattRee

Some very attractive photos from my birthday.

Birthday Results!

The Iron Chef theme was widely popular and the party was awesome. A lot more people came then I thought would and it was a very full house. My little 1400 sq. ft. house could barely accommodate the 30 people who showed up to the party. There was sooo much food at the party and it all included oranges. I think that I could go quite a while without eating oranges again.

So, Matt and spent the day cleaning the house and cooking our own orange dishes. I made Mandarin Orange Cake and Matt made Spicy Orange Pork Tenderloin. People started showing up around 6pm and everyone came with an orange dish. There was so much food and I wanted to try all of it, but I was full in the first 20 minutes. But, people kept coming and they all brought food and I just kept eating. I would have to say that this was the best birthday theme ever!

There was a lot of diversity in the dishes that people brought. There were desserts and main dishes and even salads. The taste of most everything was very good, but the presentation was where the food really shined. Darin and Deanne brought orange rolls on a three tiered platter, Alan and Cynthia brought Orange Chicken Kabobs on a fancily decorated plate, my cake was on a sparkly purple pedistal, and Jeffy decked out his cheesecake with orange slices and curled orange peel. Very fancy presentation.

So, five people judged on each dish and after every dish had been judged, we tallyed the votes. The results were as thus:

1st: Fruit Pizza- Elyse Blaser 94pts

2nd: Asian Orange Chicken - Marie Mecham, Mexican Orange Chicken - Nefi and Rose Ledezma 88pts

3rd: Mandarin Orange Cake - Becky Kimball, Spicy Orange Pork - Matt Kimball, and Orange Chicken Kabob - Cynthia Nelson 86pts

Second and third place was pretty close and there were a lot of ties, but first place was overwhelmingly the fruit pizza. It was so very good and I wish that I had gotten a picture of it, but right when it arrived, it got eaten very quickly. I tried almost every dish and it really was the best there. I would try to describe the dish, but I'll let the chef do that. I'm really going to need the recipe because it was really good!

The party went really well. Everyone ate, lots of people chatted, others played Wii, and others used the upstairs guest bedroom to play "games." It was a lot of fun and it really was a low maintenance party. I loved it and I think it was one of my best parties yet.

To those of you who missed it, you really missed out. But, I will find a way to forgive you if you make it to my next party. Which will probably be Halloween. So, start planning your costume ideas now!

Thanks to all who came and participated in the game! The food really made the party.

Iron Chef!

As many of you know, the theme for my birthday this year is Iron Chef! What is Iron Chef you say? Well, it is a very funny and entertaining Japenese cooking show that involves two chefs who compete in an intense one-hour cooking competition. And, in that one hour, they must create at least five dishes that contain the secret ingredient. I love this show, I'm sad that the original is no longer on the air. Fortunately, the Americans picked it up and we now have Iron Chef America. A chef of reknowned cooking talent comes on the show and challenges one of the Iron Chefs. Well, my birthday is following this pattern... sort of.

For my birthday, everyone is competing to become the Next Iron Chef. And party attendees must bring a dish containing the secret ingredient. The secret ingredient is oranges. Then, people will judge each dish on Taste, Plating, and Originality.

It should be a good fun. I'm all excited to see what people will bring. I'll give a post birthday report of the events after they occur. I'm guessing that we might get people who just bring oranges, or orange juice or orange soda.... we'll see.