Full House

Here are the few pictures I snapped of our full table while we waited for our guests to arrive. John assured me that everyone would show up right at 6:30, but everyone was normal and showed up 20 minutes after that. There was also a huge plate of shrimp (about 75 suckers), but they weren't cooked when I was taking these pictures, so give me a break. Sheesh.

The night went great and everyone kept saying how much they loved the food - though I think they felt obligated because John told them how hard I worked and how many days I had been cooking. All the guests were really sweet about it though, and I was happy to have worked so hard.

Here was the sun-dried tomato dip. It tastes like a thick and yummy version of Russian dressing. I overestimated the amount of pita chips and veggies I would need by about ten times. My fridge can barely close.

Mmm...guacamole. Who doesn't love this goodness? I figured I would add the spoon in case anyone decided to get all fancy. I made a triple batch (about three times more than I needed), which required 3 jalapenos diced. No big deal, right? Wrong! I am still feeling the effects of the chopping. Certain fingers on my left hand are numb and sore and right now my lips are on fire because I happened to hold my fingers to my face. Who knew these suckers were so dangersous?

Homemade salsa. Perhaps not too appetizing in pictures.

Cucumber salad - kinda like a salad version of tzatziki sauce.

Mexican lasagna. No, I didn't write anything on the top in taco seasoning. I realize it looks like I wrote "ole" or something. Maybe next time!

Easy access to the zucchini appetizer. One woman said it reminded her of a dish she had a lot as a kid, and I told her that's when I started eating this too. More on this recipe later.

Mac and cheese. I am pretty obsessed with mac and cheese nowadays, and for better or for worse I have about half of this in my fridge. It might not make it through tomorrow.

I forgot to take a picture of the corn casserole after it was cooked, so this will have to do. Sorry, dear readers!

Obviously these are the after pictures. I was just fascinated by what people ate and what they didn't. Shrimp was quite popular even though these are very spicy. The corn was also a huge hit. Perhaps people were mistaken and thought it was actually healthy. Mwa ha ha.

Ugh these look really unappetizing. Probably shouldn't even post them, but too late. We have over half the Mexican lasagna left even though everyone was really excited about it. In other news, I think I was one of two people who ate the cucumber salad. Apparently even a creamy salad is a no-go when there is shrimp around.

Here is the dessert section after it was raided. The key lime pie is almost gone, but only two people tried the peanut butter pie. My suspicion is that John talked up the key lime pie to a lot of people. I was shocked some people didn't even have dessert. Perhaps that's just the foodie in me, though.

Here are all my pretty white ceramic platters and things about an hour into the clean up. It's safe to say the cleaning was not the highlight of the night.