puuuuurple!

This weekend, the LA friends came into town and we had a purple party. What's that? It's a party that everybody wears something purple to (my and Melissa's favorite color!) and aallllll of the food is purple. I wish I had photos to share.
Let me set the scene for you: Jessalea, Kaley and I (Sky helped toos) did just about all of the cooking. Nick (from LA) made these incredible h'ors de oeuvres with brie on a toasted baguette and caramelized onions. Seriously delicious. I made a couple of beet root gratins. One featured my new favorite cheese, Dubliner, and the other with Roquefort. Never making it with that strong blue cheese. Dubliner from now on. I also brought some garlic mashed potatoes colored with the beet juice that accumulated after roasting. They were flavored with a package of Boursin and lots of butter. They may have been the best taters I've ever made.
Jessalea made purple mac and cheese, (colored with some of my beet juice!) purple cabbage coleslaw and purple chicken. I found the recipe for the chicken online. It got the purple coloring from swimming in a ton of red wine in the oven. They also had garlic and tarragon sprinkled on top.
Finally, Kaley did an amazing job making lavendar cupcakes, ridiculously delicious purple jello shots, and purple onion dip. I don't know how she they did it, but between her and Nick, they got the food coloring to cooperate into the perfect shade of lavender.
Drinking, dancing, friends, purple. What else could you ask for on a Saturday night??

Sky and I ended up in North Palm Springs with some friends of mine from Alaska. A little jacuzzi, a lot of beer and debauchery.
Boy, did we pay for that the next day. It took everything we had to normalize ourselves for a family birthday dinner. Which was nice. I love his family. :)