Taco party: a review

Remember when I posted about hosting a taco party?  Well, we did it last night, and umm, I'm not really sure how it turned out.  The good news is, we now know for sure that our house is small, too small to host 35 people.  I sort of had a moment of panic mid-event, thinking that my house resembled a frat party.

The night even ended with beer bottles and a toilet paper roll lining my kitchen window.  Except these were the result of responsible recyclers, not drunken shenanigans.  Speaking of beer, I opened a beer bottle for the first time ever and I, uh, didn't know how.  Hadley got a good laugh out of it. 

See the lemons in the background?  While we were making "lemon juice" (lemonade), Hadley would suck on lemon wedges, then chase it with a drink of milk "to make my mouth feel better."  Eww...

And that's where the photos end.  My kitchen got busy, people started showing up, and my camera was in the back of the closet, behind everybody's coats.  To give you a mental picture of things, there was food.  A lot of food.  Potlucks make me a little bit giddy; new recipes, new flavor combinations, the sights, the smells...!  Everything was delicious, and I have a few recipes to share with you.  

Shredded beef for tacos  

I followed the recipe, but based on reviews I subbed a bottle of corona for the wine, added one packet of Rotel tomatoes with chiles and cooked a fresh, not frozen, roast for about 9 hours. 

Crockpot chicken tacos

I doubled the recipe, cooked for about 6 hours on low then cranked up to high for 30 minutes after shredding as it was still a little tough.  

Black eyed pea and corn salad

I don't have the exact recipe for this one, but it seems pretty similar.  Tyler was so excited that this guest didn't take all of the leftovers.  He added it to his tacos tonight and I ate it on tortilla chips.  Yum!

Corn pudding

I didn't make this, but I ate it and it gets two thumbs up.  Blake devoured the leftovers tonight.

Sopapilla cheesecake bars

I'd say these were the hit of the night, and they are SO easy.  I rarely do the semi-homemade thing, but I don't think you'd ever know what is in these, and when short for time you can't beat the short ingredient list.  I've made them once before and served them cold, last night they were room temp (about 2 hours post baking).  I think I prefer them cold. 

There were lots of other delicious foods, but I don't have the recipes to share with you.  

So, the final verdict?  We've already decided that our original goal of making it a monthly event might have been a lofty one.  One, because it was a lot of work, and two, because I'm not sure if anybody would come back after the craziness that was my house last night.  We did, however, have a lot of fun and really enjoyed having so many of our friends over.  Maybe every other month?  

We've been talking about "finishing" our garage- painting the walls, possibly putting epoxy on the floor and upgrading the shelving units.  Maybe if things looked a little more livable, we could put tables out there.  Once it is warmer, we might organize a party at one of the neighborhood parks.  The shelters are pretty cheap to rent (about $30), there's a playground, and lots of room to run.  When talking about how we'd handle the lack of electricity, I came up with the idea of a pizza potluck.  Every family would bring a pizza of their favorite variety from their favorite pizza place.  You just might discover a new restaurant or flavor combination.  If not, at least you'd have the pizza that you brought.  Good idea?  Bad idea?  I think it could work.  Oh well, I have about 60 days to ponder our options.