Wine on the Roof - Rain and Success!

So it rained... but all 30 people on the roof fit under the awning and seemingly had a fantastic time.

We had just enough food... which everyone praised (and made my night in doing so), the 30 some-odd bottles of wine flowed freely and the birthday girl left smiling and tipsy. My much anticipated guest ... the ex ... the one who I recently and briefly believed could still be THE love attended and spent most of the evening talking to a girl he somehow knew because DC is a very small town. And finally after 3 years of being broken up - it didn't bother me.

This party mixed the old with the new ... and the old and the new. The ex has finally become a friend and will stay that... a friend has possibly become the new but I'm in no hurry to get there for once. The old tried and true friends mingled with the new friends from work and then their friends after that... we are finally maturing and stepping out of our safe friend zones to meet the new and realizing that no, it doesn't make us total douchebags to be social (just sorta yuppies).

The wine guy came about an hour and a half late because clearly he has never traveled to DC before in his 5+ years of running tastings in the DC Metro area ... but the bright side of that was that we all got drunk before he arrived. The wines we tasted were nothing special - but that could also be because we had all killed our pallets before his arrival. People purchased wine.. people made fun of wine guy ... people were reprimanded by wine guy... all sorts of amusements.

The food was a hit (yay for my ability to adapt/improve recipes from foodandwine.come and epicurious.com). The highlights were the Scallop Ceviche and the two pizzas (Recipes below the photos). While the menu was not exactly complimentary (ceviche before an array of italian dishes?) somehow it worked very nicely with the wines. Annah and I, the two fabulously dressed hostesses, delivered easy to hold and eat delights as the wine guy described (sometimes in painful detail) each wine.

The party was an overall success... people left tipsy and smiling and complimenting us on a job well done. My party style is more relaxed and prepared ... less drunk and more focused on guests ... less anxious to get somewhere and happier to pause, look around and enjoy. Swirl that wine baby.