Day of the Dead Party

My daughter Lindsay and her friend Brook, throw an incredible party every year before Hallowe'en.

This year's theme was Day of the Dead.

They send out invitations to their cooking group and then to some of their friends and family.

Lindsay's friend Kim did my makeup and let me use her beautiful skirt!!!

I don't even recognize myself :)

This is her home, and she created all the decorations herself.

Kim is a very talented artist!

These are some of Lindsay's friends who helped her with the set up.

Lindsay created all these huge paper flowers to decorate the wall, for a backdrop for photos!

Kari and Sean, the newlyweds, helped serve and wash dishes.

Lindsay made this huge piñata, it was about 40" tall.

One of the many appetizers were chicken tacos.

Isn't the presentation beautiful?

Lindsay and Kim :)

Kim is the artist who did my makeup!

Here is a shot of my dinner plate.

Then menu is on the right, if you can read it :)

The dessert plate was incredible!

Lindsay made the sugar cage which tops the flan.

It was an unbelievably fun night, with so many gastronomical foods!

Can't wait to find out what the theme is next year!!!

This is a look at Lindsay and Brook's party 2 years ago.

This is their party last year.

Into the Woods, cooking with Brook

I recently drove 10 hours by myself, from California to Utah,

to attend this incredible dinner party and to enjoy Hallowe'en with my daughters and some of my grandchildren.

Be forewarned, there are many photos here, but you will want to see them, they are amazing!!!

My daughter Lindsay hosted the 3rd annual dinner/costume party.

This year's theme was "Into the Woods".

The food and the costumes went with the theme.

Below is a cupboard full of mushrooms, and guess what?

They are all handmade and edible.

Some are meringue, others are cake pops and also truffles.

The master mind of the food was Brook, and she and Lindsay did most of the cooking, a few others helped.

Brook has a blog called Cooking with Brook.

The recipes from this party will be on the blog, hopefully sometime soon!

Lindsay and a few friends moved most of her furniture from the main floor, into the garage to accommodate the dining tables and decorations.

I shouldn't be showing you this photo, but I'm going to anyway :)

The main floor was transformed into a "woodsy" atmosphere.

Here are the tables set, the candles lit and waiting for the creatures, fairies and nymphs to arrive.

This was one of the appetizer tables pre-food :)

This was the table that the main course was served from, buffet style.

The place settings and decorations were absolutely awesome!!!

Fresh pressed directly from Clara's uncle's apple orchard.

I only managed to get a photo of one of the appetizer tables.  

On the extreme left and right is the locally foraged cheese and honeycomb.

In the center is the roasted beet and goat cheese terrine.

Before I get to the rest of the food, let me introduce some of the characters...

This is Brook the black swan and Lindsay, the deer.

This is me, I'm a fairy with wings and lots of glitter :)

Kim is a fox, Mindy is a mushroom and Cathy is Little Red Riding Hood.

I think that Jami is a fairy, her costume is beautiful!

A raccoon and another fairy.

Snow White and a raccoon :)

Clara is a Snow Queen although she has a little secret....

This is her wedding dress and she wasn't able to zip it up!

A deer :)

Stacey is a fairy and her costume was incredible!

It's her prom dress from about 20 years earlier, and she added moss, roses and lots of gold curly cues from her Christmas tree decorations :)

I think the back is amazing with the moss and silk roses.

One problem though, she forgot to leave an opening and had a difficult time putting on the dress, lol!!!

We began with freshly made butternut squash soup, in little pumpkins and acorn squashes.

Pumpkin salad with polenta and candied pumpkin seeds, drizzled with a pomegranate vinaigrette.

Porcini and rosemary crusted beef tenderloin with port wine sauce, and freshly dug roasted carrots.

Mini herbed pommes anna (potatoes)

Buche de Noel with meringue and assorted chocolate mushrooms.

Black forest cake with kirsch cherries.

This was my delicious dessert potion, I mean portion!!!

Lindsay's husband Jeremy constructed this photo wall last year and they redesigned it to go with the "into the woods" theme.

Lindsay and I at the end of the night.

Everyone took turns having their photos taken.

All 32 of the woodland creatures, minus the photographer :)

An incredible time was had by all!

I'm definitely looking forward to next year :)