sangria, tapas and rain...

Last night we had our sangria and tapas party.  Shortly after we got everything set up outside, the clouds moved in and it started to rain.  We moved the table under the umbrella and waited for it to pass...and it did...for a while.  All the guests showed up and it rained sporadically, so the table went back under the umbrella and we had a cozy evening until the rain finally passed for good.

The food, if I do say so myself, was delicious.  The puff pastry I made earlier in the week turned into some mini tomato tarts with fontina cheese, I made some fried garbanzo beans, seasoned with smoked paprika, garlic and salt, artichoke and rice balls, rolled in cornmeal and deep fried served with some arugula pesto, papusas with pulled pork that I cooked slowly in beer, some cucumber feta boats, olive tapenade with a fresh baguette.  Dan made a sweet potato salad with pepitas, roasted red peppers and cranberries, a spring pea, arugula salad with pecorino cheese and lemon. With the help of Kaylee (who made some mini chocolate cakes with caramel sauce and almonds) Dan also made mini tarts with fillings like blueberry preserves and havarti cheese, pepper jelly and goat cheese, and apricot preserves with gorgonzola, along with some filled with vanilla pastry cream and fresh strawberries.  We had 3 types of sangria, about 15 gallons in all.  The best part of a party...the leftovers.  This morning we had a pulled pork benedict.  Dan made biscuits and hollandaise, I poached eggs, reheated the pork then made a delicious benedict that I drizzled some cherry syrup over.  Ah, I love sunday....