Patio Parties

Dessert

The boys showing their best moves
Brayden

Our lovely little-set up under the deck!

Britt and I

Ready to play--Britt got her bean-bag in the hole at least 10 times!

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Mom and I did the summer set-up for the patio underneath our deck a few weeks ago, with Target lights strung diagonally across the beams and cute, green flower slip covers over our white chairs. The long table used for co-op classes in the winter has now become our must-use tool for hosting dinner parties. Despite this month's humidity, we've been blessed with a few picture-perfect evenings in which it dropped down to a mild 60 degrees. Last weekend, our family hosted the Maresco's for dinner, which was a blast. We had spicy chicken with sweet coconut sauce, rice, hawaiian baked beans w/ pineapple, fruit salad, and regular house salad. For dessert, Mom made manderin orange panacotta (similar to creme brulee, but without eggs in it), topped off with a simple mango-lime sauce I pureed in the blender earlier that afternoon. Britt, my friend from Tucson who lives in MD during the summers, joined us as well. She dominated at CORN. (a yard game in which you try to toss bean-bags onton a slanted, wooden platform with holes in it that designates your points). She definitely had beginner's luck. =)

Then, the next evening, I decided to leave the set-up and host my own dinner for a few friends last-minute. Kate McMahon and I whipped up fruit salad, chicken pasta salad with sun-dried tomatoes and pesto, grilled balsamic and herb chicken and iced tea, with ice-cream cones or gingerbread/whipped cream for dessert. Yumm! Then, we all played my favorite game ever--- Scrabble---till midnight. Fun stories, great friends, yummy food, good competition...what better way is there to end a Saturday evening?