If you are into basketball, love the University of Northern Iowa and are following the whole March Madness thing, you may have experienced something in your house over this past week similar to mine.

As someone who doesn’t follow college basketball, I can often tell how the games are going simply based on the sounds coming from our basement. Last Friday night, while I was in my PJ’s doing old lady Friday night things (aka drinking tea and reading), I heard shouts of amazement and joy from the basement, where the boys in my family were watching UNI play against Texas. Apparently UNI won the game against Texas with an amazing half court shot right at the buzzer. You would have thought we won the lottery, the excitement was so huge!

Fast forward a few days later, when UNI went on to play Texas A&M. Let’s just say that game earned news headlines like “How Northern Iowa suffered the greatest collapse in NCAA Tournament history.” Apparently UNI had every chance to win the game, but completely choked in the last 35 seconds. (They were up 12 and still lost because of throwing away the game in the last half a minute.) Can you imagine the yells from my basement then? They were not happy, cheerful yells…the boys were not happy with the end result of that game, understandably. (I’m sorry but even I can’t figure out how a team can lose a game in 35 seconds!)….

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I cannot help but think each year our annual Christmas party just gets better and better. Just when I think we can’t top the year before, we do.

Our 2007 annual Christmas party was a success with great food, even better friends and lots of laughs! To catch you up, I am turning to my Pamela Barsky Dinner Party Journal to give you the recap. (If you entertain a lot and don’t have one of these journals, get one!! They are great!)

The Occasion: Our annual holiday party with my original M.O.M.S group

Guests: Sara, Mark H, Kathy, Mark D, Bobby, Joanna, Tina, Dave, Nick and I

Cocktails / Wine: I didn’t even keep track this year, but I can tell you I didn’t have one bad glass of wine. They were all really good. I now wish I would have kept track!

Menu:  

• Appetizers – Stuffed mushrooms, shrimp cocktail
• Main Course – Delicious salad brought by Mark H, Rosemary Clover Leaf Rolls (remember these tasty gems?), My famous Buttered Carrots, Tina’s delicious potatoes au gratin, Crab Cakes with Lemon Garlic Aioli, Cedar Plank Salmon
• Desserts – Kathy’s amazing Red Velvet Cherry Chocolate Torte

Memorable Outfits: Everyone looked great and no one got made fun of like last year 🙂

Memorable Moments/Conversations (too many to recount all of them!):

• Well, our oven catching on fire stands out as a big one! Nick was making the second salmon and since the weather was so bad, we had to change plans and he had to make the cedar plank salmon in the oven. He prepped the boards and made the adjustments for the oven vs the grill. As we were eating, Nick all of a sudden flies out of his chair and screams “FIRE!!”. Inside our oven was a raging inferno, caused by the cedar plank catching on fire!
• Every year I pass around questions for all of us to answer. Since we all know each other so well and hang out often, these questions often take us past the basic stuff that we normally talk about. The question about accepting an indecent proposal if it meant you would have enough money to save your child’s life sparked quite the debate. We learned a lot about each other with the question of who you would go back and make amends with if you could. The boys had some great answers for if the past year was a food, what food would it be? (Mark – “chili… a bunch of crap thrown in together, but when it is done it is pretty damn good”).
• Who knew that Chuck Norris jokes could be so funny? Apparently, to the guys who had their fill of wine for the night, Chuck Norris jokes are pretty popular. I don’t think I have ever seen Mark H laugh so hard! The girls were laughing just as hard watching the guys laugh so hard!
• Our Dirty Santa Gift exchange is always fun! Poor Joanna got picked on for the guys gift she brought, which wasn’t bar equipment or alcohol related. Apparently, there is an unspoken rule among the guys about what to bring and it has to be in one of those two categories!

Embarrassing moments:

Well, the oven catching on fire was a bit embarrassing. It is a good thing I know these people so well or I might have been mortified 🙂

Next time I will: Do everything the same. It was great! Oh, and per Bobby’s request ask the question “If we were all on an island and one of us had to be voted off, who would you choose and why?”

Next time I won’t: Have cedar plank salmon in the oven. It was delicious, but it is just a whole heck of a lot easier to do on the grill!

Thank you to Kirsten of Kirsten’s Home Cooking Adventures for one of the best crab cake recipes I have ever tried. Here it is for all of you to enjoy. Happy Holidays!

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