Mardi Gras

It's not Fat Tuesday yet, but it was a beautiful Saturday evening in wine country and Eddie and I were invited to a really cool Mardi Gras party, so we went out and celebrated tonight.  A little background information regarding the person who invited us:  Eddie's company Christmas party a few months ago was at a little event space near his winery.  They hired Chef Paul Bachand to create all of the food for the evening.  I had met him a few months prior to that when he handled the food at a Soléna event.  Anyhoo... During the dinner, Eddie and I noticed Paul was drinking some Blind Pig IPA from Russian River, one of our favorite Californian breweries out of Santa Rosa.  After the party when most of the guests had left, Eddie and I hung around to talk to Paul.  We got to chatting about good beers and we were psyched when Paul brought up El Toro's IPA since they're a small brewery in Morgan Hill, CA.

Fast forward a few months, Eddie and I are friends with Paul on Facebook, and then we're invited to this awesome Mardi Gras shindig.  Obviously there was going to be great food, we figured there'd be good wine since that's what guests were asked to bring, and since we had no other plans, it was decided we should attend.  I arrived a little after Eddie since I had to work later.  But I wasn't surprised to find Eddie attached to the oyster bar.  I don't like oysters, but how many people can say they went to a party with a full oyster bar complete with a shucker standing by?  I thought that was pretty cool.  Eddie already had some beer going (they had a keg of Deschutes) but I started with some wine because I had to drop my wine contribution off at the wine table anyway.

So the party was at The Kelty Estate B&B in Lafayette.  They had a huge tent set up with a dozen tables and party favors in the side yard.  And it was a perfect evening to have an outdoor event like this.  It was a little cool, but the air was dry so no complaints from me.  There was a huge barbecue pit (or smoker) in the yard with a big hunk of meat cooking.  And there were hand-stuffed andouille sausages hanging out to dry above the tent.  Pretty darn cool.  There wasn't much food for me to eat, but I didn't mind because Eddie and I were having a great time mingling.  I did get to eat some awesome cornbread though.  :-)  After dinner, they strung up a piñata to the tent ceiling.  This was for adults only - you had to take a shot of either tequila or gin to earn your swings.  Eddie and I did not participate.  It worked out fine for us because the piñata was busted open by the third person and candy, mini liquor bottles, lotto tickets, and some adult items spattered around the floor.  Eddie ran out and grabbed some candy and a lotto ticket.  I thought that was a great idea to vamp up what would normally be a children's party game.

Eddie and I had to leave early since it takes about an hour to drive home from there.  I was really bummed to miss out on Paul's king cake because it looked great.  But we made it home safely and had a really great Saturday night.  I even finished reading my current library book, Janet Evanovich's Sizzling Sixteen.  This series is just fun and light and that's why I keep reading them.  I also keep hoping something more definite will happen between Stephanie and either Ranger or Morelli.  We shall see...  I also enjoyed this book because Uncle Vinnie plays such a minor role in the other books and it was fun to see more of his personality quirks this time around.  Though I'm not excited about the actors chosen to play these characters, I am looking forward to the first movie coming out later this year (One for the Money).