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.