Blast of a Blast!

Our backyard blast was a success! We got 75+ guests and had a great time. Funny enough, none of my 96 cupcakes ever made it outside :)

We set up three tents in the back, and used the shade from our neighbor's tree as well. My brother, our friends Tim, Ana, and Carolyn came early and helped out A LOT. So so thankful to them!

This year, somehow all the food got eaten. When we noticed that the few grilled hot dogs were going faster than the boiled ones, and that barbecue sauce chicken was much more popular than the Italian chicken early on in the day, we started grilling the hot dogs and slathering all the chicken with Sweet Baby Ray's super yummy BBQ sauce. The pesto pasta salad with our homegrown basil pesto was a hit as was the corn salad. I now have to write down all the recipes and amounts for the 6th Annual Backyard Blast next year!

Dan got a bit sunburnt, being outside from 8:30am until 5pm, but he had a blast. My brother and I handled all the cooking and replenishing of food and drinks so that he could be free to be with the guests. He went around and talked with everyone. We had a lot of first-timers, lot of good friends who have been to all 5 backyard blasts, and neighbors popping in here and there.

All in all a great day!

Let them eat cupcake!

This weekend, we are hosting the 5th Annual Backyard Blast and preparations are well underway. If the weather holds up, we are expecting between 75 and 90 people. (Twice a year, at Christmas and in July, we throw a party for that many people. At our house. Catered completely by me. Yes, I'm crazy.)

Every year, there are a few tweaks to the menu. For example, we buy locally grown corn in a ginormous bag and clean it and cook it that morning. Unfortunately, shucking 50 ears of corn takes a long time and then the cooked corn does not hold up well in the chafing dishes. Plus, there's bound to be a bug or two in a ginormous bag of corn that we pick up from an unmanned stand in the middle of a corn field, and I hate getting all screamy about a little bug when we have guests. So this year, we are going to turn the corn into a corn salad. Still just as delicious, but we can make it in the morning, and keep it in a cold container. And I can get all screamy without freaking out any little children.

So here's the menu:
Grilled Chicken
BBQ Chicken
Hot Dogs
Baked Beans
Pesto Pasta Salad
Corn Salad
Brownies
Cupcakes

I'm making the pesto tonight from our own basil plant. I tried to find a way to use our overabundance of lettuce, but we have lots of red leaf and green leaf lettuce - very delicate and easily wilting.

I'm very excited about the addition of cupcakes to the menu this year! At an after-July 4th sale, I bought patriotic cupcake holders and little flag picks to put on them. If I had the energy (or liked licorice), I'd make these from Martha Stewart.
Or if I knew how to ice like the super genius Sprinkles bakery icers, I'd make these:But these from Martha seem more doable for me:
A few with fruit, a few with flag picks, and icing that's a little sturdies, and we have our cupcakes!

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

OK, so July 4th was 5 days ago. But our July 4th concert and fireworks celebration was actually on July 2nd, anyway. Confused? Let me explain.

We headed to Veterans Park on Thursday night with our chairs, picnic blankets, and coolers full of Italian hoagies. (One day, I will have a sophisticated, well-planned picnic in the park, but that wasn't the day.) There was a rocking concert by The Nerds, who are a super awesome cover band, from about 6 to 8pm. During that time, the park was very sparsely populated, probably due to the gray clouds above and the fact that our town paper had printed the event as being on July 5th.

After having his hoagie and waiting for the place to fill up a bit, Dan walked around to shake hands and chat with the attendees. It's always fun to watch him go from group to group, because growing up in this town and having been in its politics for 10 years now, he knows most of them. So every year, this part of the evening seems to take longer, which is perfectly fine by me. This year, my brother came along for the festivities and later we were joined by our friends Ana and Tim.
While Dan was walking around, we hung out, chatted, and ate ice cream and Italian ice. Somehow, I did not get to eat funnel cake this year! The fireworks came on around 9, and it was a good show. We walked back to our car and got home around 10pm.

On July 4th itself, there was a big parade in Ewing Township. The Prospect Heights Fire Company was celebrating its 100th anniversary, so there was a big celebration up front for them. Here's one of their floats:
I love floats! They had another one with a barbershop quartet and one with a bunch of little girls dancing to "Single Ladies" wearing little wedding gowns (so cute!!!). Even though Dan walked with the elected officials, he went through the parade for a second time on the Ewing Democratic Club trolley:
All in all a great pair of July 4th celebrations! This week is all about preparing for our upcoming backyard fundraiser. I'll be blogging with details.

What'd I do? You killed the car.

Over the course of several campaigns, we've run two cars into the ground. Literally. Campaigning in suburbia takes a major toll on your ride.

Yet, I love the time we spend in the car. On many days, when we come home to just crash, those few minutes while shuttling around can be the only meaningful conversation of the day. There are other times, when I don't go in for an event, and it's a chance for me to clear my thoughts and get some downtime.

Tonight, I had such an opportunity, which I used to eat dinner and stroll around a store. While eating, I got to listen to NPR and heard the final minutes of The World. I learn a lot while sitting in the car, waiting for Dan. I'm thinking about stashing a book in there, too.

Driving Mr. Candidate

Thanks to the crazy rains and Fathers Day, the campaign trail has been pretty quiet up until today. Tonight made up for it - we had three stops!

Up first was a fundraiser for Wendy Sturgeon, who is running for Council in Hamilton Township. A great idea - $25 bucks a pop at JoJo's Tavern, and you get a coupon for a bar pie and a drink. Them bar pies are huge! And very delicious, I might add. She ended up getting about 75 people there, which made the place even more crowded than it was (there were Mets, Yankees, AND Phillies games on). Of course, it's easy to get excited when you have Patrice at the door:

I totally heart Patrice - she is the sweetest and most energized person ever, and she's a very good artist, too!

Our other two stops were at the Hamilton Manor and the Democratic Club meeting in East Windsor. I still haven't been inside the Manor, but Dan tells me that it is very nice inside. I just realized that they have a massive outdoor pergola, which would be very cool for a summer wedding. The Dem Club in East Windsor was packed to the gills. While Dan was there, I had a lovely dinner at Taco Bell, a yummy gelati at Rita's, and a stroll through Target.

We ended up heading back to JoJo's after East Windsor and stayed for a little while longer and said hi to some more folks. Got out before karaoke started....

What the what?

So like I was saying.... The blog has a slightly different focus now. Still the same old me, except that my name and picture are out there for the world to see.

Here's what happened: I got tired of blogging. Facebook and Twitter became a lot more convenient. I'm not an entertainment critic, and I'm not Martha Stewart. But I do enjoy writing to think and to document my life.

Outside of my work, most of my life takes place on the campaign trail. I am a political spouse. It's tiring in the summer and fall, and it's nerve-racking during those first few days of November. It's also incredibly exciting to meet so many new people and experience life all around the county. Seriously, how else would we go to schlachtfest, rocket day, and the garba?

So I'll be posting photos and writing about our days now. Maybe with a little snark thrown in here and there.

I'll be back....

A quick change for the blog, but nothing crazy. I'll be back in a few.