The menu, as promised, but without recipes (yet)

I'm just thinking about putting on a giant pot of caramel sauce, a follow-up to an enormous pot of hot fudge sauce I boiled up today. Every year I give my stepfather an ice cream sundae kit for Christmas. Being the large, hedonistic ice cream fan he is, he never tires of this gift, just as I never tire of his gift to me, a big fat day spa certificate. In his kit, I include a quart Mason jar each of hot fudge and caramel sauces, a batch of his favorite nut-free brownies, some peanut brittle, toffee, purchased raspberry sauce, and maybe some chopped up broken pralines to sprinkle if I made a batch that had some break. I include all this detail just in case any of you are at a loss as to what to give an ice cream sundae lover on your list. If you use it, I hope you get day spa gift certificates out of it!

But the measuring out of ingredients made me realize that I had not yet lived up to my promise on Friday to post my cocktail party menu from last weekend. I don't feel up to actually posting recipes just now, but let me know if you'd like to see some. So here it is, for your perusing pleasure.

Little snacky type things:

• Marinated olives
• Tamari roasted almonds
• Chili spiced pecans
• Puff pastry parmesan cheesestraws
• Platter of assorted cheeses, quince paste (to go with the Manchego), and crackers
  

For the vegetarians:

• Wild mushroom pate with little toasts and almond crackers
• Platter of roasted beets and asparagus, and endive leaves with aioli
• Caramelized shallot and blue cheese dip with roasted potato wedges (a.k.a., oven fries)
• Hot pepper and smoked mozzarella empanadas with avocado relish
• Marinated sheep's milk feta, orange, and mint skewers

For the meat-on-toothpicks crowd:

• Beef and mint skewers with Thai dipping sauce
• Tandoori shrimp skewers
• Chicken with peanut sauce and scallions in phyllo cups

And then some assorted little homemade candies and a fruitcake kind of hiding in a corner of the living room, because truthfully I didn't devote all that much time to desserts for some reason. Oh, and did I mention my sour mix? I make rockin' sour mix.

That's it! Gotta run because Husband's trying to get me to watch a movie with him. This weekend's been incredibly busy for both of us and finally we're getting a little time together here if I could just...tear...myself away...from this keyboard...