Saint Patrick's Day in Roswell & Alpharetta

No. No we aren't. 

So St. Patrick's Day is coming up on Monday. Or the day everyone pretends to be annoyingly Irish, whatever you want to call it. I'm not a big fan of noise and crowds and cultural appropriation, so I'll be staying in that night. But if you thrive on crowds, here are some nearby to celebrate. These places will probably have specials going all weekend too.

• Mac McGee's in the historic district is a clean, friendly neighborhood bar with Old World trappings. The food is good and the drinks tasty. If I didn't already have my neighborhood watering hole picked out at The Roswell Tap, I'd be over here all the time. It's welcome addition to Canton street. As an Irish bar, it will definitely be doing up the big day in style.
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• Just around the corner, the aforementioned Roswell Tap is throwing their annual party. Expect live music and a special Irish themed menu on Friday. You can read my review here.
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• Over in Crabapple, the Olde Blind Dog Pub has drink specials as well. Sadly, I've never been there, so you'll have to tell me about it.
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• Harp Irish Pub over by the Publix on Old Alabama is also open for the party. I've only been once and that was years ago. I remember it being a little shabby. But there's always a line out the door for St. Patrick's day, so they must be doing something right.

Any other places I'm missing? Tell me in the comments. 

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Fall is for Tailgating

So this may come as a shock to some of you, but until this weekend, I'd never actually watched a football game. I skipped all of them in high school, because they competed against new episodes of the X-Files (I am a huge nerd, I make no apologies.). I went to GSU before they had a football team. I have ignored this sport as much as is possible, given that I A) live in Georgia and B) married a Texan. All that changed yesterday when our friends in Seneca invited us to come up and watch the Clemson game.   Despite my complete indifference to the sport, I'll take any excuse to hang out with friends on a beautiful fall day and eat delicious food.

So how does one "tailgate" exactly? I knew before going that it was some sort of picnic done out of the back of your car, preferably a truck. Well, my pickup died in June and I replaced it with a Prius. I guess that'll do. Our friends have a big SUV, so we wouldn't look completely ridiculous. We threw a couple lawn chairs in the back, packed a cooler with bratwursts, growlers from Ale Yeah! and sliced apples and baked a batch of pumpkin rye muffins for dessert.  We met our friends at their house, where we picked up the rest of our tailgating party (and their food!)

A guy with a backyard smoker made a really nice pork shoulder. Don't ask about the rub, it's his secret recipe.

Someone else brought a batch of buffalo cauliflower, "because we need a vegetable".

We also picked up some chicken strips and cinnamon apples from Fatz, a local restaurant that's a tailgating tradition in Clemson/Seneca.

So we threw all our food, the coolers, the chairs, some tables and an awning in the back of both cars and headed off to the university to set up. We parked in a field called "Lot 13" and set up. First was a big orange awning, just like everyone else's.

We also set up tables and chairs and started setting out the food. Someone brought a portable grill and started cooking the brats. We'd brought games to play, but we were packed in so tight, there was no room for them. I took a walk around and saw others had set up big TVs with satellite dishes so they could watch other games. Other people had set up sound systems with speakers that dwarfed my car and were dancing. There were big grills and smokers set up. I saw an RV park where folks had clearly been there for awhile. It was really a big party.

We ate and drank for a few hours, then went to go watch the game. Not being a football fan, I can't tell you if it was a good game or not, but Clemson won, so there's that. After the game we went back to the cars and sat around eating leftovers until the crowd thinned enough we could navigate our cars back to the road.

So would I go to a football game again? Only if tailgating was involved. Sports are kinda boring to me, but food isn't.

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Easy Spinach Alfredo Pizza

I just finished up the first week of school, (My schedule is different because I work at a private school.) and felt celebratory. What better way to celebrate than to host a small dinner party? Homemade pizza is such an easy way to entertain, especially on a Friday night when you are exhausted from explaining to autistic fourth graders that stalls in the bathroom are one per customer. (Don't even ask. Seriously.) So pizza it is!

Because it's Friday, and going back to work after a summer at home sleeping in exhausts me, I'm taking a shortcut. While I can make a totally rocking pizza crust, I grabbed pre-made dough at Publix. We like the multigrain. It's tasty without being heavy. Most grocery stores have what I call "the pizza station", which will contain pre-made dough, crusts, jarred sauce and other things you can use to build a pizza at home. I also grabbed a bag of spinach and some shredded mozzarella and a wedge of asiago cheese.

 I pulled it as flat as I could to make the base. Can you see the sunflower seeds? That's multi-grain goodness right there.

I sweated some onions and garlic from our CSA in olive oil, then added the entire bag of baby spinach and a big pinch of salt. I turned down the heat and put the lid on to let the spinach cook down. When I make garlic spinach like this as a side dish, I usually use two bags of spinach, because spinach is delicious. The cooked spinach goes on top, with a generous layer of mozzarella cheese.

 
 The whole thing went into a 500 degree oven until the crust was crisp and the cheese was brown and bubbly. Then I added the grated asiago and popped it back in for a few minutes to let that melt. It was ready to serve after I sprinkled on some chopped parsley and savory from our CSA.

We ate it with heirloom tomatoes chopped and dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and chopped savory and lemon verbena, all from our CSA. (Yeah, the CSA thing comes in handy.) Dessert was banana "ice cream" made by freezing over ripe bananas and pureeing them in my food processor until it had the consistency of soft serve. We topped that with nutella. We had a nice bottle of wine and some nice craft beers the staff at Ale Yeah in Roswell helped us pick out.

So what was the verdict? Well, everything but one slice of pizza was eaten. So if you're looking for a fun, casual dinner party after week at work, make a pizza!

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New Year's Eve Menu

My husband and I don't like crowds. We don't like cold weather and we don't like spending tons of money on things we could just as easily make at home. What we do like is spending quiet evenings at home, with good quality food and good friends. To that end, we've been throwing a New Year's Eve party for our friends for the last several years.

Our parties are always pretty casual. We put out some finger foods, some drinks, and expect everyone to entertain themselves. Our menu this year is pretty similar to what we've put out in the past. We've got some old war horses, but I also like to try new things and mix it up a little.

This year includes:

A cheese plate (gouda, cheddar, and blue cheese)
Fruit (grapes, apples, oranges, pomegranates)
Pizza Margarita (fresh roma tomatoes, on home made pizza crust, with shredded cheese and basil)
A baked ham and rolls for sandwiches
Assorted chocolates
Veggies, with hummus for dipping
Crackers, to go either with cheese or the hummus
Assorted pickles and olives
Brie baked with apricots and rosemary

Drinks will be red and white wine. (We're experimenting with Target's wine cubes this year. I've heard from reliable sources that they are comparable to the Three Buck Chuck I usually put out for parties. ) We'll also have soda, and I'll put out sweet tea and water with limes. I'm considering mulling some of that red wine in my crockpot and having hot water out for tea.

People tend to bring more food or drinks too, so this list will expand in ways I can't predict.

Waitaminute... Why is my fridge still full?

Well, all the guests are gone and the meal is done except for the snacks. Sadly, with my camera still borked (my birthday is on Wednesday, if anyone loves me), I have no pictures. However, my kitchen is much cleaner than when I started cooking, thanks to my mom and youngest sister managing to slop turkey drippings all over my stove in their quest to have gravy.

A quick run down of all the dishes prepared:

The brie and apricot appetizer seemed to be a hit. My husband enjoyed it anyways. He's currently snacking on the leftovers. This one will reappear at New Years.

My sister made a fantastic antipasto tray, with three types of salami, cheese, olives and marinated artichoke hearts.

The cornbread dressing needed more salt. Other than that, it was fine. Nothing special, but then I make this all the time.

The green bean casserole had too much bechemel sauce on it. It was glopy, but tasty. Less sauce next time. My sisters nearly mutinied when they saw no cans of French's or Campbell's in my pantry.

The roasted broccoli was a hit. I make it all the time, but I don't think my family has ever tried it. We ended up putting grated cheese on it and my sisters got to use the mini-food processor attachment to my stick blender to do it. I had meant to hand them Parmesan, but I think they ended up with my last couple pieces of kefitiri greek cheese. However, it has a similar flavor profile to parm, so it ended up really well.

The roasted potatoes were also a hit. I had debated all morning about what seasonings to use. I ended up using kosher salt, black pepper and a generous helping of Green Street grill rub. It was a mix of yams, white potatoes and a couple carrots. I also used a few chunks of red onion leftover from the salad.

Speaking of salad, this was also a hit. I didn't use true spinach. I used komatsuna, which is an Asian green. So it's like Asian spinach. It tastes much like spinach, just a little tougher. The spinach was topped with hard boiled eggs, red onion, bacon bits, white mushroom slices and carrot shreds. This is a classic that I make frequently.

The biscuits proved to be logistically difficult to make (read: I ran out of cookie sheets), so I made a loaf of beer bread instead. I think it'll be excellent tomorrow toasted up for an open face turkey sandwich.

As for the turkey, it came out beautifully. It was slightly drier than I like. However, the flavor was good and it made more than enough for everyone. I stuffed the cavity with chopped apples, oranges and onions. A liberal application of vegetable oil to the skin before roasting made sure that it came out crispy and with a rich, caramel color. No one else noticed the dryness. As one of my sisters pointed out, home cooked turkeys for us trend towards underdone, not over, so this was considered perfectly done by many.

For desserts, my youngest sister made a pumpkin cheesecake and a Tollhouse pie. Tollhouse pie is basically just melted chocolate chips in a pie shell and it is awesome. They took the cheesecake home with them, but left me the pie. Hooray!

I have a ton of cranberry sauce left. I hate cranberries. I don't think my husband can eat it all himself.

Almost there...

My real camera is well and truly borked. Hopefully, I can still pull off all the pictures I've taken recently. So until I get a new one, you are stuck with phone pictures like the one to your right.

As you can see, my fridge is overflowing tonight with food. In fact, it's so full, we thought that was the reason it wouldn't close yesterday. No dice. It appears our gasket (that rubbery strip around the edge of the door) has lost whatever ever mojo that makes it work. So stepping heavily near it, slamming the freezer door, looking at it cross eyed, all these things cause it to swing open slightly.

Inside, washed out by the fridge light, you can see our turkey. All 17 pounds of it. A baby, I know, by most standards. But I'm only feeding seven tomorrow. I pre-made the cornbread stuffing and the spinach salad. I've also pre-made the brie with apricots appetizer. There's two containers of cranberry-orange relish hiding behind a casserole dish somewhere. I wanted to make the biscuit dough ahead too, but I think I ran out of room in my fridge for it. Oh well. Biscuits only take me a minute to prepare.

Still left...

-Making the green bean casserole
-Chopping and roasting the mixed potatoes
- Adding the rest of the ingredients to the salad.
-Chopping and roasting the broccoli
-Roasting the turkey

When I know I have a big cooking and entertaining day ahead of me, I like to make as much as possible ahead of time. It makes less stress on me and makes my poor ADHD addled brain less likely forget to make something. I also have a master list written on notebook paper of everything I plan to do tomorow. I'll have to share my party planning list making system in a future post. But not tonight. Tonight I have to finish cleaning the bathrooms.

Gobble, Gobble

The turkey, she is taking up my fridge.

My camera is on the fritz, so no pictures of the beast occupying most of my fridge space this week. And it's only 17 pounds. That's practically a baby as Thanksgiving turkeys go. I know I have never cooked one so big before. I've also managed to finish all of my shopping. The only flaw so far? The bagger at Publix put my bag of cranberries in the same bag as two cans of chicken stock. Yeah, slightly crushed. Still usable, but they made a sticky mess on my counter.

My sisters finally settled on their desserts. They'll be bringing me (I mean us...) a Tollhouse Chocolate Pecan Pie and a pumpkin cheesecake. Pumpkin cheese cake seems like the hot trendy thing this year. Someone brought a beautiful one to the staff potluck at work last week, and I've been inundated with recipes from some of my forums and blogs. I'm not quite brave enough yet to make my own cheesecake, so I'll leave it to them.

Thanksgiving Local Logistics

Thanksgiving is next week. I'll be hosting my first one in my own home for my parents, siblings and, oh yeah, the husband this year. Since I am a food hippie, I have to do things the hard way.

Our turkey has been pre-ordered via Moore's Farm & Friends. I usually cannot justify to myself paying that kind of price for meat, even if I try. However, it's a special occasion. Our turkey is coming from Westwind Farms, about 90 miles outside of Knoxville, TN. It'll be freshly processed (meaning, just killed) and certified organic. We'll be picking it up at the Peachtree Road Farmer's market this Saturday.

Speaking of Peachtree Road, I've made an effort to select recipes that reflect what's seasonal in Georgia this time of year. Luckily, we've got a long growing season down here, so gives us a wide variety. I'm hoping to find most of the fresh ingredients I'll need at the farmer's market this week, and keep Thanksgiving local. We haven't been to a farmer's market since the ones up here closed and I think we're a little over excited by it.

There's been a flurry of emails back and forth from my mother and I this week. As is our wont, my sisters are contributing a few things to the meal. Allison does desserts particularly well. I'm not sure if she's settled on exactly what she's bringing yet, but it'll be some sort of pie. Kim does appetizers and drinks. Mom and I both nixed "Pumpkintinis". Instead, I suggested either Cape Cods or Pomegranate Martinis. While not really local (Where do cranberries come from anyways? Since I hate them, I'm going to say "Straight from hell"), both flavors are seasonal. Mom is handling wine. It's impossible to find a single wine to go with Thanksgiving, so I suggested a pinot noir. I've recently become a fan of pinots. They've got a subtle sophistication to them, but also a nice, robust flavor that can stand up to any meal. Kim is also planning a traditional antipasto tray, which is something I will probably blog about later.

Wednesday is going to be my big baking day since I have the day off from school. I'm off pie duty this year, thanks to my sister, so I'm going to prep the corn bread stuffing, and get the biscuits ready. My husband has requested that I make a batch of White Lily biscuits (Just follow the recipe on the back of the bag. It never fails). I'll make that dough ahead of time too. Any other prep work I can do a day ahead I'll do then too, like fry bacon and hard boil eggs to top the spinach salad with. I can also make the cranberry-orange relish the night before as well. Thanksgiving is a big meal, and I've no doubt that SOMEONE will get under my feet before the end of the day.

I'll try to remember to take pictures this time.

Picture Dump

I'm behind on posts, so I'm going to do my classic "Post a bunch of pictures that I planned to do posts about, but didn't" thing. You know you love it.

From blog

Ham sandwich. I pack my husband's lunch for him every morning. He likes the most boring sandwiches ever. White bread, mayo, turkey and processed cheese. I have slowly managed to coax him into more interesting sandwiches. This one is ham and swiss on wheat bread (from a bakery) with arugula. He still likes plain mayo, but I feel a little better about it.

As an aside, he used to complain about my "gourmet" taste in lunch meat. I like to get the fresh Boar's Head from the deli counter, where he would buy Oscar Meyer if left to his own devices. But then I pointed out that the cost of a half pound each of meat and cheese (a week's worth) is still not quite equal to the cost of him going out for one meal.

From blog

Some Pumpkin Curry Soup I made. I'm almost out of my pumpkin puree now. This makes me very sad.

From blog

I'm doing a Day of the Dead party/ project with my International Studies elective class. The kids have done a ton of research about this holiday and Mexican culture in general. They are particularly taken with the cheerful and colorful skull imagery that predominates. Gotta love middle school. Anyways, these are "Skullipops". Pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate and decorated with black gel frosting. A very simple and easy project to do with kids. They are currently hiding in a corner of my office, otherwise I'm afraid my co workers will steal them.

I'll conclude with some shots from the Cumming Greek Festival a few weeks ago. This was way better than the Atlanta Greek Festival.

From blog

Lamb cooking on the spit.

From blog

Crowd shot. See how not crowded everything is?

From blog

Greek salad, roast lamb and potatoes with lemon and herbs. Delicious.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Due to the vagaries of the economy, we're skipping this year's annual trek to Texas for Thanksgiving with my in laws. I'm still ambivalent about skipping it, my family lives here in Georgia, so we see them pretty frequently. My husband's family can't travel to us, because they own a restaurant and can never take time off. Our Thanksgiving visit is really the only time we see them. But we're decided now and my mother in law, surprisingly, is cool with it.

My own mother (who will do anything to weasel out of cooking Thanksgiving) told me last weekend that they won't be spending Thanksgiving in Florida on the beach. My sister just got a new job and doesn't have the time off to travel, my other sister and my brother both have finals that week. So rather than attempt to get everyone down to Florida, they planned to stay home. And since I'm home, I offered to make dinner this year.

So now I get the challenge of making Thanksgiving for my picky siblings and my diabetic father. After some emailing back and forth with Mom, I seem to have worked out a menu.

Dinner...
Roast turkey with Cranberry Orange relish
Corn bread dressing
Roasted mixed potatoes (mix of different kinds, including sweet potatoes)
Green bean casserole
Spinach salad (baby spinach topped with red onion, bacon bits, chopped hard
boiled egg and silvered almonds)
Roasted broccoli


Snacks before dinner...
Raw veggies and dip
Baked brie with warm fruit compote

Dessert...
Applesauce cake (made with Splenda for Dad, since this is his favorite cake.)
Pumpkin pie

The heavy baking doesn't bother me. I've got the Wednesday off from school and I'll probably be home early on Tuesday. I may leave off the pumpkin pie if my sister decides to bring a pumpkin cheese cake. She's still deciding if she wants to do that or a pecan pie.

So even though it's a little early, I've got my plan. I'll be looking for sales on the ingredients I need, or searching out local/ organic sources for the next few weeks.

Happy 4th!

I've haven't been writing here much this week. There hasn't been much I've thought was blogworthy, other than some pictures that I can't get off the camera right now due to dead batteries.

But I thought I'd share our Fourth of July menu very quickly, before heading off to set fires and make explosions.

We're doing a potluck, so most of the sides are being contributed by others. However, the main dish is a smoked pork shoulder. We always seem to have a pork shoulder in the back of the freezer. It's a cheap cut of meat, and fairly versitile in what can be made with it. We started off by rubbing it down yesterday with Green Street Grill Rub from the Alpharetta Spice Company. The Alpharetta Spice Company is a local boutique spice company that has a stall at the Alpharetta Farmer's Market each weekend. They describe the Green Street rub as:

Versatile blend to be used on all things grilled. What makes this one special is the smoked sweet paprika. The peppers are dried in an oak wood oven for an incredible taste. New Mexico chili peppers, garlic and a hint of cayenne round out this bold rub.

Then we let it sit over night. This morning, we put the shoulder on the grill and smoked it using mesquite chips we picked up at Publix last weekend. The smoking took less time than we thought. We just pulled the meat off the grill a good hour and a half before show time. The tiny bits we've allowed ourselves to try and tender and flavorful. It's currently sitting on the counter, covered in foil and "resting".

My other contribution to this meal is deviled eggs. I adore deviled eggs. I gobble them up at Easter and other celebrations. These are ordinary, run of the mill deviled eggs. I use mayo, yellow mustard and salt and pepper to mix with the yolks. The only different thing I did today was garnish with a light sprinkling of Old Bay, instead of paprika. On one of my forums, someone suggested doing this for "Maryland style" deviled eggs. It sounded interesting, and so I'm trying it. I'm sure I'll still eat them.

Girls Day Out

Every once in awhile, I need some girl time and my husband decides that he needs guy time. Lucky for us, these urges tend to coincide with our friends' urges for similar time. So every few months, we seem to have a Girl/Guy Day. Saturday was one such occasion.

We started off getting our nails done at the excellent Milady Day Spa on Crossville Road. I got my usual American manicure and pedicure (a more subtle version of the ubiquitous French style nails.) and then we set off for lunch. We had planned to do Sahara across the street, but realized too late they were closed for lunch. The nearby Thai Emerald was also closed. So in desperation, I suggested one of my favorite places: Ceviche.

Ceviche is a family owned taqueria in Historic Roswell. While they do serve their namesake dish, they specialize in margaritas and mojitos. It's a noisy, casual restaurant, with an aesthetic similar to Mexican beach shack. It's sort of an odd fit with the more genteel and traditional decor of the nearby Pastis, or Fickle Pickle. But the food is absolutely fabulous and it's packed every night.

We ordered a pitcher of the pomegranate margaritas for the table (which I think is one of my favorite drinks now), and plain queso to go with our chips and salsa. Their queso is excellent with or without jalapeños. I broke my diet for the afternoon, and ordered the chicken chimichanga. This was a corn tortilla stuffed with spicy shredded chicken, beans, then deep fried and smothered with queso. It comes with so so spanish rice and delicious refried beans.

On other visits, when I've tried harder to behave myself, I've had the ceviche salad, which is their shrimp ceviche mixed with a spicy tomato sauce and poured over a bed of greens and chopped avocados. Their soups are also excellent, as are their tacos.

I do recommend going for lunch, not dinner though. At night, the crowds descend eager to sample the tequila menu and enjoy the sports blaring on the TV sets (a soccer game was playing on one of my visits). Service is average. They aren't neglectful, just busy.

This is definitely one of my favorite lunch spots.

Wine and Cheese

So five years ago today, I got married to a wonderful man who I don't deserve. So far he hasn't caught on, and I ain't telling him.

Anyways, we're celebrating tonight by having a few friends over after dinner for a wine and cheese cocktail thingy. I don't what you're supposed to call these things. The important part, is that i get to show off my wine and cheese knowledge.

Actually, I don't really have much knowledge of wines. My husband and I both freely admit we choose wine based on the pretty labels or if it "sounds cool". And you know? That's absolutely fine. Even wine experts drink what they like. They just call it oenology. (Dave Barry once wrote that oenology sounded like an unnatural sex act. That's awesome.) But I can name different varietals and describe some of the differences and I'm starting to learn how to pair things (Hint: Carmenere goes GREAT with leftover italian sausage pizza).

Cheese is another thing entirely. Wine is intimidating. You hate to ask for advice, for fear of being made to feel dumb. Cheese is not. No matter how fancy it sounds, or what "region" or "milk" they use. It's just cheese. You can make a goddamned sandwich with it. However, with that in mind, a cheese plate seems to be one of those infinitely classy things you can set out for guests.



I picked three varieties of cheddar for this plate. Usually I throw in a brie and a blue cheese, but since this is an "after dinner" sort of party, I'm trying to keep it light. Besides, me and my friend Jeff are the only ones that adore stinky cheese. I've got a crumbly Vermont cheddar, a wax covered sharp Wisconsin cheddar and a "celtic cheddar" that's lower in fat than what's typical. All cheeses we've had before and enjoyed.



Cheese and fruit are natural pairings. Some are considered "classic" like pairs and brie. I'm not too fussed over that though. Fruit helps take out that "the inside of my mouth is coated in cheese feeling". We foodie types call it a "palate cleanser". We chose dried mango, dried currants and fresh grapes. Trader Joes also does a chili spiced dried mango that I adore, but again, I'm the only one that will eat it, so it didn't stay in the cart today.



Nuts are also a good part of a cheese plate. We picked out lightly salted cashews for ours.



This is when I get to feel all artsy fartsy. Just arrange things on the tray, plate, platter, whatever in a way that looks pretty. I tried to alternate dark and light colors. Pay attention to how you cut the cheese. I always try to keep it bite sized for parties.



These are the wines for tonight. Why yes, we are big fans of Trader Joes. Why do you ask?

From left to right. A rose' that was on sale at Trader Joes today. I have no idea if it's any good, but it was three dollars and they've never let me down before, so I bought two bottles. A Three Buck Chuck "Valdeguie" varietal. I know nothing about it, except that it's a red I actually like. A Pinot Noir ("Cool! It has knights on it!"). And a Three Buck Chuck Shiraz.

So when our guests come over tonight, we'll throw out some crackers, cut up a pie, and snack our way to long term marital bliss.

Wine and cheese: Super swank and easy to prepare. Try it some time.

I say "taco", you say "taco"...

My youngest sister graduated yesterday. It was a nice, if overly long ceremony. She graduated with Honors and will be attending Oxford College at Emory University this fall. Yes, my baby sister is probably the smartest of all of us.

Anyways, a few relatives are in town for the festivities and the holiday weekend. My grandparents are here from Idaho and are staying with my aunt and uncle in Dahlonega. We did a graduation party at my parents last night and I'll be hosting a second one for her at my house tomorrow. None of the extended family has seen our house yet, so we've been frantically cleaning and completing all the minor repairs we've ignored for the last couple weeks.

Since I'm cooking for a small army tomorrow, I decided to go with my old stand by: Pulled Pork Tacos. We'll be doing some steak fajitas too, as we are totally in love with our outdoor grill. The menu for tomorrow is as follows:

Pulled Pork Tacos served on whole wheat tortillas with shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream and tomatoes.
Steak fajitas with grilled onions and bell peppers
Yellow rice (from a mix)
Black beans
Garden Salad (Lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers)
Fresh cut fruit

My mom and sisters will be making fresh salsa and gauc and bringing the chips.

Drinks will be sweet tea and margaritas on the rocks.

The tacos are one of my favorite things to cook for a large crowd. It's a very simple recipe with tons of great flavor.

One pork shoulder
One can of Ro-Tel (This is tomatoes and chiles together. They sell it next to the canned tomatoes)
One bottle of Corona (any light bodied beer will do in a pinch though)
Onions
Garlic
Lime juice
Cilantro

First, sear the shoulder on the stove. Don't worry about cooking it all the way through. You can't possibly. Just get it brown and crispy on all sides. Salt and pepper the meat as it's cooking. While that's going on, quarter your onions and peel your garlic. Throw it in your crockpot. Put the seared meat on top, then pour in the Ro-Tel and about half the beer. Lid it and let it cook on high for at least six hours. You want it to be fork tender.

Take the meat from pot (I save the stock for soups) and put it on a cookie sheet. It should be just falling apart right now. Shred it with a fork or by hand, then put it under the broiler for a few minutes. You want it to crisp up a bit. Then add chopped, fresh cilantro, lime juice and sea salt to taste. Mix it together and serve.

Like I said, it feeds a small army and it's very, very tasty. Also, it's very easy. The labor intensive part is shredding the meat, and that only takes a few minutes. I usually let it cool a few minutes and then just tear into it with my hands.