| Entertaining Life Daily

Halloween has come and gone, but the photos from the Tim Burton inspired party will always remind me two things:

we had a great time
hubs and I truly have some amazing friends

As you may recall, I came up with this inspiration a few month's ago and the planning began. Hubby and I spent a little time each day decorating and getting ready for the festivities as every room had a different Tim Burton movie theme. It was a great event, loaded with food, drink, games, and Tim Burton galore! A brief recap:

Food & Drink

Mad Hatter Tea Party - sausage & apple meat pies (think Sweeny Todd), Parmesan wraps, stuffed mushrooms (for the caterpillar of course), chocolate & caramel apples, hummus, and five different delicious cheeses. Though tea was available, we focused more on a variety of wines for drinks.
Corpse Bride - Holy Cow Cupcakes did an amazing job with the red velvet "wedding cake" (delicious!) and there was also a Dracula's Kiss signature drink (black cherry vodka with a Coke product and cherries)
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - a candy buffet, complete with Willy Wonka candy (and wrappers, thank you RN!) Even the wall was likable as pinwheels had a Sweet Tart center.
Edward Scissorhands - backyard bbq style, we had beer a plenty including a basic domestic (for easy beer game play) and hubby's home brewed pumpkin ale. He did a fantastic job, it was some great beer that everyone enjoyed (great job hubs!) Small snack items that you would find at a BBQ as well, including chips, pretzels - the easy grab food.

Costumes
Our guests did a great job dressing in Tim Burton gear. We had Mike TV and Veruca Salt from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Lydia (two of them to be more accurate!) and Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Peg Bogg (Avon calling!), Helena Bonham Carter and Sweeny Todd and Alice & the Mad Hatter. We also had some other great costumes, including Mario & Luigi, Spiderman, Tink & Peter Pan, a Cheerio and adorable old lady, and a 'parasite host' & broken condom. Creativity and glorious costumes were all around - great job to everyone!

For those who were unable to join us, we did miss you! Here is a photo recap to give you an idea of how the night went (thank you RN & MC for allowing the use of some your photos mixed in with mine!):

I hope all of you had a fun filled Halloween - here's to next year!

As you may remember, when I travel, I love to try places that I've seen on the Food Network. The FN is the default channel in my house - even when I'm not watching tv, it is on for background noise. And when nothing really is on (which is difficult when you have a full DVR like hubs and I,) I turn to FN for something I'm sure to be entertained with (or the Travel Network, the other default.)

When hubs and I were in Seattle, after spending some time on Friday Harbor and at La Conner Brewery, I quickly pulled up the "Guy Ate Here" app and searched for the closest Triple D restaurant - Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant popped up. I looked at hubs - he nodded - we were on our way!

It was definitely a "hole in the wall, off the main street" type of place, but what do you expect when it has been featured on Triple D? We made our way inside and were greeted by the nicest woman I have ever been in contact with. We were warmly greeted and ushered to our table. There were only two other groups there (one was a large family and the other were three individuals who looked like they belonged in the mafia - no joke) so it was quiet, which is exactly what we were looking for. Our server (aka - the nicest woman ever) took our order quickly and we enjoyed a great conversation while our tummy's growled in anticipation.

We both ordered a two item combo. Hubs got his with the Hawaiian bar-b-que pork and Kalbi ribs...

...while I ordered the Kalbi ribs and Mochi chicken. 'Nicest woman ever' said that these are the two top sellers, so I went for it.

The ribs were meaty and delicious. Hubs got a better slab then I did, but I couldn't even pick around the bones since it just fell off on its own. They were really good with a subtle, mild barbecue flavor to them. But it didn't need a sauce since they were so tender and well seasoned. And the chicken? At first, I thought it was the best fried chicken of my life. But I couldn't eat it all because it quickly got too sweet for me. The batter that was used to fry the chicken had to have had a lot of sugar to give them the flavor, and it was too much for me to handle after a few bites. Hubs pulled pork was utterly fantastic. It was a hefty serving of tender pork that was well seasoned in its own juices. Think comfort food, because it was not only smoked slowly, but entirely too tender for its own good. Delicious. In addition to the generous portions, we were also served a creamy macaroni salad (that lacked in flavor, it was so heavy with mayo) and two scoops of plain rice which was great with the ribs.

Totally reasonable in pricing, we left our "dive" with happy stomachs and a still-full wallet. It is always great to try places that we would have never found, and if we did, probably never try on our own without some encouragement from the FN.

When you travel, do you research restaurants in advance, drop in on wherever, or do a little bit of both?

Entertaining Life Daily

Entertaining all aspects of life, one day at a time.

Tim Burton Inspired Halloween

Diners, Drive-ins & Dives - Bobby's Hawaiian Style