A Lovely Evening of Wining and Dining

I have had such a great time getting to know the wives of the coaching staff since DJ and I moved to Wyoming. I've been told again and again that this group is very unique in that everyone gets along really well and spends more time together than coaching staff at other universities. My experience is pretty limited since this is the first "real" job DJ has had since he graduated so we're now included with the "adults" rather than the students. (Kind of like graduating to the adult table from the kids table...) All I have to say is these women have set the bar high!

Each month we all get together at someone's house for a Wives' Night. Two women usually take the responsibility of hosting. This month it was my turn along with Addie, the head trainer's wife, and we hosted at my house. Initially I wasn't so sure about having the whole shebang at my home since we invite about 17 women and there's always about an equal number of kids. But I love entertaining and haven't had the opportunity yet plus Addie had twins a few months ago and has a 2 year old so it really made sense to have it at my house. I'm so glad I did!

I wish I would have taken pictures of everything before everyone arrived. It was such a fun set-up. We kind of had a Mexican theme going on. The menu consisted of red beef enchiladas, green chile chicken enchiladas, spanish rice (more on THE RICE later, grrr), salad and margaritas. I used my china dishes, margarita glasses and some other bright fun dishes that I had. My mother in law was nice enough to mail me her margarita glasses so I actually had enough for everyone that wanted margaritas! And she threw in some pretty napkins that I used for decoration. I loved the added color.

We also threw a little diaper party for Becky who is due with her second child in July. Since this would be one of the last wives' nights before next fall, we wanted to make sure that we were all able to celebrate with her.

So now on to my rice story... It's not as involved as my post from yesterday, but I must say that I'm yet again perplexed. I don't have pictures this time since this involves more of a taste problem than an overall disaster so you'll just have to use your imagination.

I had two things to make - red enchiladas and spanish rice.

The red enchiladas were great...delicious...thank you God! I was really worried after the day before. But I never worried about my rice. I make rice at least once or twice a week so I'm no stranger to the art of rice making. Plus I reviewed the ingredients with Lorraine a few minutes before I started so I was set.

I browned my rice, tossed in an egg, added the tomato sauce.

Threw in the Rotel tomatoes, a little chicken bouillon, some extra water and set the heat on low.

I covered the pot and set the timer.

People started to arrive a little while later. Periodically I stirred the rice to make sure it didn't stick. 

About 15 minutes after people arrived, the enchiladas finished cooking and so I checked the rice.

CUH-RUNCHY. I added more water and mentally crossed my fingers.

But luck was not with me that night. 15 minutes later the rice was still crunchy. It was like it had donned its suit of armor that night and was fending off the advances of H2O to the death.

So after that last 15 minutes, people were starting to look like starving wolves and we knew we couldn't wait any longer (I forgot to add that we also had chips and queso so we weren't completely starving our guests...). We decided to make the announcement that there would be no rice but there were plenty of enchiladas and salad.

And I ended up throwing away an entire pan of rice.

Well, almost an entire pan... I found out that some people either hadn't heard our announcement that the rice was not done or were just that hungry and ate the rice anyway. Crunchiness and all. Um, yum? They said it had "really good flavor". See I told you they are the sweetest people ever!

So I add that to my list of "reasons that I'm a horrible cook" but really, I know it's not true. My enchiladas were DEELISH. And,

I can make a mean margarita.

So the stats for the night were as follows:

11 women

8 kids (3 of which were running back and forth across the room and then through the kitchen half the night)

1 pan of green enchiladas demolished

3/4 pan of red enchiladas devoured

31 mini cupcakes inhaled

7 margaritas (plus some refills) eliminated from existence

AND everyone told me they had a great time and were so sweet about complimenting my home.

It was a fantastic time. Here are some more pics. (Sorry about the quality but I refuse to use flash and distract everyone from what they are doing so I just did the best I could with no flash.)

Becky lives a block down and Mandy lives next door so since Becky's husband had come to pick up Becky's son earlier, they used the stroller to haul all of Becky's diapers home. Such smart ladies. (By the way, Mandy is set to have her baby this weekend or at least that's my "feeling". Her due date is Sunday!)