My Unorganized Entertaining, Blue Lagoon Margaritas, and Favorite Friday Blog Links

I love to entertain, but my unorganized entertaining is certainly good for a laugh.  I read lovely blog posts all of the time, and even though there are mishaps, most of you have beautiful tables, food, cocktails, and seem to organized.  I am giving links to these three blogs, because everything always so beautiful.  The first is Meet the Parents at Simply Vintagous by Suzan, next is Backyard BBQ from Celebrations at Home Blog, and last but not least Thrifty Breakfast and Update from Kathe With an E.  These bloggers seem so organized, they get pictures, and are ready when company gets there.  That would not be me!!!

Last Saturday we were having friends over for dinner.  I of course am still working on my couch, and was desperately trying to get it done before our friends get to our house.  I finally gave up on that idea about noon.  I was out running errands before that in the morning, because I needed a new table for my deck, because ones had broken.  It was older then my oldest son who is 26.  A leg finally rusted and the whole thing fell apart.  Now, I knew it was broken for several weeks, but of course waited until the last minute to replace it ( like the day we are having people over ).  Not like I didn't know that they were coming,  but remember I am trying to get my couch reupholstered before I have people over.  Not happening!!!  This is what it looked like when our friends got here.

I have my lists, because I was up until midnight of Friday making them.  I have a list of what needs to be done, and in what order, I have a list of what groceries I need to get, and last but not least I have my menu.  In the meantime, I keep trying to work on the couch for ten minutes here and there.  (Keep in mind I have not answered any questions on my blog or linked to any blog parties in 3 days, am I stressing you out yet, cause I was stressed!)  I head out on my mission to find a new patio table I head to Target.  No tables, but lots of cool pretty things for entertaining, on sale.  Yes, that would be me, I can't pass up a sale Not a Problem, I spend an hour in Target, buying these great wonderful thing that are on sale.  One hour gone from my day, but they were so pretty and such a great deal.  Take a look.

Aren't they great?  I thought they were.  I loved them, and so did our friends that night, but I still don't have a table.  Next, I go to Walmart.  Walmart has lots of tables.  So, do I get a small round plastic one or the long glass one?  I can put the small plastic one together myself, the long glass one, I need someone else to do because I do not have time to do that too.  I buy the one that needs to be put together, and they load it in my car, because it is heavy and big for me.  Thank God that I have my son at home who can help me get it out of the car, because I have no room in the car for food now.  I get home and my son helps me unload the table.  We put it in the back on top of the hot tub.  He can't put it together, because he is going golfing.  Okay, I will deal with that issue later.  It is now 12:00 PM, and I still have no food for tonight, and I have 6 people coming over at 6:30 PM.

I now leave for Whole Foods.  I was doing a Taco Bar for tonight's dinner.  I figured that I could buy a lot of it pre made at Whole Foods.  That would make my life much easier.  I am making regular ground beef tacos, an old standby, garlic cilantro lime shrimp, and I bought Whole Foods chicken carne adovado (at least I didn't have to make a seasoning for the chicken, just cook it).  I bought a whole lot of tropical salsa, mango salsa, pico de gallo, tomatillo salsa, and guacamole.  Oh and by the way, I also bought two bags of  Whole Foods homemade flour tortilla chips.  (The leftovers chips are still calling my name.)  I was also making a cilantro lime rice, and refried beans.  I bought all of the food I need at Whole Foods, not something I normally do, because they are expensive, but I didn't have time to head to another grocery store, since I still had to go to the liquor store.  Oh, by the way, I am also making a Frozen Creme de Menthe Pie.  The recipe was provided from my friend Kerry Lego, it was her mother Bernadette Lego's recipe.  I will give you that recipe tomorrow on my Retro Recipe Saturdays Post.  The great thing was that our friends were supplying the appetizers and a dessert.  Several things off my list.

  

So I get home, it is now 1:30 PM, and start cooking.  I had to make the pie, since it had to go in the freezer.  Then I got all of the salsa on serving platters, made the meats except the shrimp, got salsa on platters, and made the drinks.  Kinda of set the tables outside, and now it is 5:50 PM.  In the meantime, I called my wonderful husband David, and asked if he would be home in time from work to put a table together, because I don't have time, or does he want me to return it and get the little one, that will only take 5 minutes to put the legs on.  He asked how long it would take, I of course guessed and said maybe 30 minutes.  I had not idea, it was in a box.  He kindly said he would put it together.  He got home, and put it together in less then 30 minutes, I was so grateful that I guess right.  Especially since he didn't get home until 5:15PM.

I still had to wash my hair, get dressed, and put on makeup, oh yeah, and maybe some clothes.  That would be a nice thing to do for our friends.  I literally got downstairs with at 6:25 PM and was trying to finish the final touches, like getting out glasses for the drinks, getting ice for the drinks, and I never got the fruit cut up to put in The Pineapple Sangria from Moments with Montanos or the glasses rimmed with sugar for The Blue Lagoon Margaritas from Taste of Home.  Though I did get them in my really cool new stack-able drink dispensers from Target.  Don't they look pretty.  Of course,  I always forget to take pictures, so we had already been drinking these so the dispensers are a little empty.

Our friends arrived, we got the appetizers out, got the drinks served, everything was great. Which was good, I even got to sit and relax.  I had all of that craziness before hand, but the rest of the evening went well.  The shrimp which I cooked at the last minute, so that it wouldn't be overcooked was delicious, and the two desserts were amazing.  Betty brought delicious shrimp seviche for an appetizer and flan for dessert, Kerry brought Queso and taquitos, also delicious, and the Creme de Menthe Pie was to die for.  Everyone ended up staying until about 10:15, which for us old people is the sign of a good evening. 

I don't have pictures of the table with all of the food on it, because again I forgot to take pictures, but I do have pictures of the rice and the shrimp.  You can see what the chicken looked like in Thursday's post Low Carb Mexican Chicken Crepes.  I also don't have a picture of the tables outside, because, again, I forgot.  I can't take one now, because my son is getting ready to paint the deck so all of the furniture is moved.  I'll post one in a couple of weeks.

The drinks were amazing.  I wanted to give you the recipes for them.  Today, I am going to post the recipe for The Blue Lagoon Margaritas from Taste of Home. They were so good and refreshing.  So here it is.  Then I will give you my Friday Favorite Blog Links for the week.

Blue Lagoon Margaritas

Ingredients:

4 lime slices

3 tablespoons course sugar on a flat plate to dip glasses in

1/2 cup lemon lime soda

1/2 cup tequila

2/3 cup limeade

1/2 cup blue curacao

Directions

Rub lime around rim of glasses and put glass rims in sugar.  It does look really pretty, but I did not do this.  I didn't have time.

Mix lemon lime soda, tequila, limeade, and blur curacao in a serving container.

Serve over ice.

The recipe calls for frozen concentrate limeade, but I just used regular fresh limeade and increased the amount, and it was fine.  The recipe also calls for this to be blended with ice, but I prefer my margaritas on the rocks.  I also quadrupled the recipe, since I just wanted to make 1 large batch.

Now for Favorite Friday Blog Links of the week.  Take a look at these great bloggers.  I hope you enjoy them.

Erin from House of Turquoise

Aimee from It's Overflowing

Rachel from Lovely Crafty Home

 Carne Asada Fries from Dishing With Leslie this recipe looks amazing

I hope that you have enjoyed today's post.  I couldn't resist showing how crazy it gets in my house.  It is just easier sometimes to go out to dinner with people.  Send me your comments, I always love hearing from you.

Enjoy!!!

Debi

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