party hosting – Barnwood and Baked Goods

This time of year is one of my favorites! I thoroughly enjoy the changing weather, the beautiful fall colors in Michigan, and it’s the time of year when I throw one of my biggest celebrations of the season our annual Halloween Party!

This past weekend months of preparation and planning came together in a fun night full of dancing and laughter with some of my very best friends, and neighbors! Each year we choose a party theme, and decorate our pole barn accordingly. This years theme was Masquerade! I really thought this theme was going to be easier to plan for than what it was. I found it challenging to decorate for… I ended up with a gold black and purple color scheme, lots and lots of balloons… I’m still winded…, and a few decorative mask centerpieces. Oh and I found a fabulous 9ft wide mask on Amazon that was a perfect match to our colors and theme!

I cooked a big crock pot of chili, made apple crisp and some cobb salad dip with crackers, many of our friends brought along passing dishes, and we had plenty to share!

We held a costume/ mask contest this year for the first time… I have no idea how it is I hold an annual Halloween party and never had a costume contest but we remedied that situation this year! Our big winner was Kasey with her Adams Family inspired look! It really was impressive!

We danced the night away, and paid for it the next day witha bit of a headache…perhaps not so much from dancing as from jello shots but well worth this great time! Hope you’re enjoying the Fall season and spreading a little Halloween Cheer, Happy Halloween!

I can’t believe it’s national Margarita day and no one has made me a single cocktail in celebration! It’s tragic around here folks!

So sans cocktail I guess we’ll just talk about it because someday I’m sure it will come in handy. I’m full of random information, so what’s one more thing right!

The Margarita is a cocktail consisting of Lime juice, triple Sec, and tequila. Shaken or blended in a 2-1-2 ratio. So 2oz simple syrup (like sweetened lime juice), 1oz triple Sec, and 2 oz tequila. It can be served straight up, shaken no ice in a salt rimmed glass. Iced, shaken poured over ice (I know seems straight forward) in a salt rimmed glass, or frozen, blended with ice and the poured in a salt rimmed glass. There are thousands of variations on the Margarita recipe, some include different flavors of simple syrup, some utilize Grand Marnier instead of triple Sec, others use different types of tequila from Blanco to gold and anejo. All these factors make this a much more flexible recipe to treat everyone’s taste.

So where did the recipe come from? No one really knows. Stories range from 1943-1945 some state it was named after a women, others state that the person responsible for it’s creation left Mexico to become a milkman, and some others state that it was created as a variation of the American cocktail “the Daisy” which used Brandy instead of tequila. A reporter from the US however has the earliest know account of the drink having enjoyed it in Tijuana in 1936. So you decide only one thing seems true it,’s here now and we love it!

So if your looking for a unique twist on your next dinner party, try a margarita bar, or a margarita tasting with a taco bar! Use different simple syrups, maybe 2 types of tequila, and some fun garnishes! It’ll surely be a great hit! Happy drinking on National Margarita Day! I’ll be over here with my coffee 😒.