Jessica Moe

Well, I am sure I have had a ton of long weeks in my life but for some reason this one seems the longest.  Perhaps it is the gaining an hour thing but it could also be the fact that Issa has been sick and God love him, he is a man and therefore a GIGANTIC baby…but there were of course other, more susbstantial, things from which I am still recovering.  First, there was the party on Wednesday and since I know you are all just dying to hear how it went, I will tell you…

Tuesday night, the night before the party, I went shopping for all of my last minute items…like plastic forks and serving trays as well as all of the food I would need to cook. I determined that I had far too many items on the menu to wait until the last minute to prep things, so I wanted to make sure that, come the day of the party, I didn’t have to leave the house. I will tell you, I hit so many places looking for this or that, I ended up being out all day long (beginning at about 10 in the morning) and my day only ended when I finally found a bag of caramels at a Walgreen’s in a neighboring city at 9:30 at night–apparently caramels are a hot commodity. I was exhausted but I dragged my behind home and unloaded the groceries at  their “stations” around the kitchen (organized according to where they would be cooked) and set to unwrapping 40+ candies for my caramel apples…harder than it sounds, those wrappers have a nasty little habit of sticking to the candy.

Since I still had some time and some energy left (emphasis on SOME), I decided to just go ahead and make the caramel apples and it is a good thing I did because I barely had time to do everything else I needed to do on Wednesday. Anyways, as far as the caramel apple process goes, it was relatively simple. I assume most people know how to make them, but if you don’t–the easiest way–without making your OWN caramel is to just add about two tablespoons of water and 40 caramels to a pot on the stove and melt on low…the low part is crucial, and I messed this up the first time so I was forced to unwrap another 40 caramels because I inadvertently had the heat too high and got what can only be described as lumpy crunchies…the second time was much better, although it took a whole lot longer….bottom line is that the caramel apples were a success after a false start but I think if I ever plan on making them again I am going to buy a special candy melter because cleanup was no fun…

Next, I boiled the macaroni and grated the pound of cheddar and the smoked gouda for the fried mac and cheese. Ok, note to self: DON’T USE CHEESE GRATER AGAIN!   Although that is too little too late for my little digits, they can consider it a lesson learned.

You see, when I was little, we had this awesome contraption where you could just slice a hunk of cheese and twist the handle, and it would grate the cheese for you…because we had this lovely contraption, I had never learned to grate cheese like the rest of the cheese grating world–without grating my thumbs/knuckles as well….so again lesson learned, I am ordering one of these:

Ok, so next I moved on to my dirt and worms, mixed the pudding, blended in the whipped cream, and crunched the cookies, then layered away.  That didn’t take too long but by the time I was done, it was nearly 1:00 and I was pooped….HOWEVER, I wanted to hang some pictures in the bathroom and some curtains in the livingroom and finish some finer points of cleaning–plus I had to clean up after myself in the kitchen, so I didn’t get to sleep until about 4:00. The next morning I was up at 8:00 and got straight to work with the rest of the food…I made the meatballs, finished the mac and cheese, and put my “party wings” into the crockpot to cook all day…Although I timed everything fairly well, I went right down to the wire and pulled out the last dish out of the oven just as the first guests arrived.

All in all, I think it went off pretty well. People seemed to love the hot dogs wrapped in croissants aka “bloody, bandaged severed fingers” and they were gone in an instant. They were generally hesitant about the other “fun foods” but once the party got started and people shook the work off of them (most of them came straight from the office), and dug into things like the “bug guts” (chips and guacamole), and the “bat wings” (chicken wings)….they seemed to have a good time talking and socializing and I was extremely happy to see that there were some people who worked at the firm but had never met or met briefly and were introduced for the first time at our party…which means that no matter what it generally was a success in what I inteded to accomplish and that was provide a mixer for the first years…

Anyways, so…at the end of the party the thing that was the most popular was the “bat wings” which is why I want to share my recipe for some DELICIOUS chicken with you…

The other day, I was at Marshalls and there was an extra special sale on the cookware and kitchen accessories, so I picked up a couple of cookbooks that seemed interesting…and when I decided I wanted to make party wings, I flipped through the books and found that there was a recipe for “Asian Spiced Chicken Wings” in the crockpot book which I frankly can’t say enough about. They were so good, people just kept coming back for more!  Since they were such a hit, I feel I have to share…So here’s the recipe:

3lbs of chicken wings

1 cup of soy sauce

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup of dry sherry

1/2 cup hoisin sauce (this is a plum sauce that can be found in the Asian food section of your grocery store)

1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons of sesame seed, toasted

1/4 cup of green onions, thinly sliced (I didn’t include these, didn’t think it was necessary)

1. Preheat broiler, place chicken on broiler pan, broil 4-5 inches from heat for about 10 minutes per side, or until wings are brown. Transfer to slow cooker.

2. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, ginger, garlic and sherry; stir thoroughly to coat wings. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3 hours or until the wings are no longer pink. Stir once, halfway through the cooking time in order to baste wings with sauce.

3. Remove wings from crock-pot slow cooker. Reserve 1/4 cup of cooking liquid, combine with hoisin sauce and lime juice. Drizzle mixture over wins. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions before serving.

Ok, so the drawback here is that there is some expense to the ingredients but it is perfect for a party and maybe a “once in a while” thing or if you are attending a potluck.  Now that I have things like the jar of minced garlic and ginger and the dry sherry I can use it for other things, but buying it initially was a little costly…but it is otherwise easy to make something that will make you appear like a culinary genius. 

Alright, well you might be disappointed by the next thing though. I know I said I would take pictures and although I charged Issa with that duty, he forgot so there is nothing to remember the party by but you can imagine the superness in your head and I am sure it will come close.

So, the party lasted all of about 2 hours and people had to leave–most of them had work to finish that evening–and so just as quickly as it began, it was over.

I barely had time to recover from the party and then had to turn around to get ready to leave for the weekend. Issa had a retreat at a resort in Palm Desert for first year associate training…to which spouses were invited. I needed a swimsuit and a pedicure so I spent the day packing, cleaning and shopping for those last minute essentials. 

So, a quick summary of the retreat: it was fun. I don’t know what else to say, we didn’t do anything crazy it was generally just relaxing and a change of pace….on Friday when we arrived, I received an 80 minute hot stone massage that was so intense I was shaking like a leaf and I swear I saw dead relatives…and so I spent Saturday sleeping the massage off while Issa was in meetings….well, sleeping and reading. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the coworkers and their families during the more social events.

What I found the most interesting about this weekend was that people generally followed the same path and had been to generally all the same places. Many people had been to UVA for undergrad or graduate school, many people–most, if not all had been to New York…many had been to D.C. and so we all had something to talk about…places we had visited and whatnot.  It was funny because I met a girl who was from Iowa and had gone to USD (University of San Diego) for undergrad and she then went to Virginia for law school and now she is working with Issa in Newport Beach which means she has lived everywhere we have lived (with the exception of Philadelphia)…so that is quite a coincidence, I think.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention the most exciting part of the weekend. Last night, at dinner, I was fortunate enough to be sat at the same table with the wife of one of the partners in the LA office of Irell…her name is Lisa See (here she is)

She is a highly acclaimed, New York Times Bestselling author! I couldn’t believe when she mentioned the name of her most recent book, I nearly fell out of my chair with excitement. I had just recently been browsing the books in Barnes & Noble when I picked up “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” and considered it strongly but decided I would work my way through the alphabet….and purchase hers later.  She was fascinating to talk to and even more fascinating to read about. I encourage you to take a look at her bio and maybe even pick up a copy of her book?

Anyways, after a weekend of meeting and talking and doing the whole work-function thing I am glad to be home but I haven’t had a chance to do the meal planning for the week and that always takes a while, so I better get to it….

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!