Riot and Frolic

Bratt… Party of 30

For reals this time, I was going to be feeding 30 of my in-laws two meals.  

I was a little concerned: I have that whole spicy-food-love that doesn't go over well in all cultures (por ejemplo, Midwesterners), about 92 of them were children under 10 (notoriously picky eaters) and IT WAS MY IN-LAWS.

I was also excited.  Look at this kitchen!

utensils!

meat slicer, saran wrap, 9 different ice cream scoops...

spices!

Can I make my kitchen at home covered in stainless steel, too?

Taking advice from the Barefoot Contessa (check out any of her great books), I decided to do something simple, with fresh ingredients, that I've made a million times.  

Dinner for 30: feat. Chicken & Veggie Pasta and 7-ish Layer Bars

Entreé Ingredients 

- 4 bags of primo pasta (each contained 8 servings)

- 24 roma tomatoes, diced (yes, I did this by hand... = love)

- 6 summer squash, or ZUCCHINI (as any sane person would call it), sliced

- 4 lbs of chicken breasts, grilled to perfection (The G sweated it out over the grill for this one), cubed

- 1 bottle of balsamic vinagrette dressing

Combine in a HUGE bowl.  Toss well.  Do not take any picture of the massive amount of food you just produced, but pick bites out from the fridge periodically throughout the day to "make sure it tastes right".

Dessert Ingredients

- 2 sticks of butter

- a box of graham crackers (3 sleeves), crushed

- a bag of chocolate chips

- a bag of butterscotch chips

- 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk

- 2 cups of shredded sweetened coconut

Set oven to 350* (and hey, remember to turn it off when you're done, so the next day, when you're foraging for leftover pasta, you don't wonder why it's so frigging hot in the kitchen, and then later that day, when you're making cupcakes, you go to turn the oven on, and BEHOLD! it IS on, because you never turned it off, you imbecile).  Get a huge jelly roll pan , put the butter in it, and throw it in the oven until the butter melts.  Remove the pan with melted butter from the oven and layer the rest of the ingredients as written.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until coconut is toasted and edges are bubbly.

Next week I'll tell you about the rockin' lunch we made.  Preview?  "Nacho bar".  Boom!

#2 in the MM series

One year ago: a timely Man Picture.  

List of Last Week's Labors of Love

- this is my Monday post... because it's Monday... right?  

- just agree with me.  

- cooked dinner and lunch for 30 people with no major mishaps and quite a few compliments.  

- have 243 pictures to download and sort from the Bratt family festivities of last week.

- slept in a dorm room for the first time in ten (ahem) years.

- got approximately 5 hours of sleep each night for 8 days.  Because we were having TOO MUCH FUN.

- completely exhausted my social tank.  I'll be hibernating until September and will only communicate by grunts and gestures.  [Soooo, nothing will change?  HahahaHA.]

- discovered Cleveland, OH is on Lake Erie.  Who knew?  (Answer:  everyone.)

- practiced The Ballrooms in the HOTTEST GYM KNOWN TO MAN with the music filtering in from the distant weight room.  Made me appreciate air circulation and a boombox.

- danced in the Northcoast Ballroom Championships. Placed well.  Still so much to work on.

- drove 28 hours total with 3 small children and a husband.  Everyone survived.   

- found beach glass.  Neeeeeeeeeat.

i don't know ANYONE excited for his next movie

One year ago: And the third day felt like a week again... G was gone at the family reunion and I was super-preggo.

Hemming Jeans = Craft

I don't "craft" much in the summer months.  I have no motivation to pick up a crochet hook or try my knitting needles or really pull out the sewing machine (we're having a fight anyways).  So I've been at a bit of a loss when it comes to Thursdays and my self-imposed "Craftacular" theme for the day.  I haven't reeeeally crafted anything for months, unless you count hemming my jeans.

Guess what today's post is about?  

HEMMING JEANS!

A couple months ago, The G bought me these SUPER BOMB JEANS from Level 99 at Karma Boutique.  They're so buttery soft and comfortable, they make me want to vomit.  In a good way.  And the ultra-fashionable girl at the studio has them, so I feel EXTRA COOL now. 

i look pouty and have great hair when i wear mine, too

The thing is?  They are like 5" too long.  No joke.  5".  

I'm not the tallest reed in the meadow, but it seemed a little excessive.  At least I got my money's worth of denim. 

I checked out this slightly confusing tutorial on how to keep the original hem while shortening your pants from Make It and Love It.  

Result?  Decent-looking properly-lengthed pants.

oh my Lord, ignore the wrinkles

I did get in a fight with my sewing machine doing the second leg, but considering they have a slight flare (had to stretch out the top part to meet the bottom part), I think they turned out well.  The G and a few others were wondering how I shortened them while still having the fancy genuine-orange-thread-hem hanging out.  Score!  

neat. o.

Do you get crafty in the warm months?  What kind of projects do you do?  Does grilling count as a craft?  IT'S GOING TO!

jace wayland, or a volturi?

One year ago: there was no post.  For shame.

 

Beach Pail List

The term "bucket list" bugs me, so we will henceforth refer to it as The Beach Pail List.  

can you dig it

 

Resources:

• photo and font manipulation by the Phonto app
• Minnesota's bike share program- Nice Ride
• Aesop's Table and Connie's Cones on Dale Street
• St. Clair Broiler in St. Paul
• the new Como Park pool
• great ice cream at Sebastian Joe's
• Minneapolis's Chain of Lakes (the City Lakes)
• St. Paul's #1 ice cream destination- Grand Old Creamery
• pretty river town Stillwater
• Nicollet Commons Park (the fountains by Med Cruz)

One year ago: Bratt... Party of 50? - seems timely

It Takes a Village

It takes a village to house the HUGE family get-together that is happening next week in Ohio.  

For the second annual, immediate-family-only, Bratt family reunion, there will be 30 people descending on a boarding school for tennis tournaments, winery tours, beach-going, bantering, arguing, and eating.  

Each adult-ish like person (or couple) is in charge of a meal or two, so I've spent the last week trying to imagine what to feed 30 people for one lunch and  one dinner.  One lunch.  One dinner.  30 PEOPLE, people.  That's a crowd.  

I've come up with a few ideas that I'm pretty sure will be

    A) delicious 

    B) pleasing to 99% of the gang [because one person will only be 70% pleased, or two people will like 85% of it or something] 

    C) relatively inexpensive [sorry, in-laws, no surf and turf]

    D) satisfying [this is a very active bunch; no need having a load of choleric people getting hungry an hour after lunch].

I'm pretty sure they planned this gathering just so I would amazing content on mah blog for an entire week, because guess who's going to document the whole thing?  

this lady

Get ready for a whole lot of pictures of a whole lot of food (what is everyone else making?), folks (meet the parents, and cousins, and brothers and sisters...), and fun (did I mention The G and I are competing at the end of the week?).  

Until then, get your Summer List O' Fun ready.  Tomorrow, I'll show you mine if you show me yours!

he shows his all the time