Woo, hors d’oeuvres party! Delight in the recipes I have left! They were very good. We all had an excellent time. Unfortunately, I now have four opened bottles of wine. I cannot imagine drinking them all. (I’m only an occasional wine drinker.) Suppose I’ll have to have another party. Except now I’m out of food. Hee!

Ryan and I have decided the basil leaves are almost Budandeddie. (Definition: very tasty, ridiculously involved, well-presented finger food. Named after Bud and Eddie, two friends who throw amazing parties with appetizers that I cannot even dream of ever matching in excellentness.) They were very pretty. I took a picture.

The spicy bean dip is a total guilty pleasure. I love the stuff. I haven’t made it since that horrible, horrible semester in grad school. I think I took a hiatus because of bad memories. But damn, is it good. The one complaint I got was that it needed salt and spice. Which makes sense, because I forgot to salt it, and I didn’t put in nearly enough cayenne.

Also, don’t be afraid of resalting the pate if it’s not spectacular. A little more salt could really help.

Stuffed mushrooms… mm. The recipe is a combination of Alton Brown and Julia Child. (To digress a bit: I got a copy of the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking for one dollar at the White Elephant Sale earlier this year. To that I say, “One dollar? Kick ass.”) The filling is damn tasty. I went out and bought a bottle of Madeira for this recipe, and I have to say, totally worth it.

And while I’m ranting, I’d like to give a shout-out to the Good Eats Fan Page. Sometimes the recipes on Food Network’s website are a bit off, so it’s great to be able to read the episode transcripts there.

Dude. Sandra’s secret family recipe for fried chicken was SALT and FLOUR. Why does she have a cooking show?