TiS tHe SeAsoN

Last night Bones and GiuGiu (pronounced JuJu) hosted a holiday dinner party at their very lovely home with some of our co-workers. Mrs. Brownie and I were in charge of apps. I brought my no fail chorizo stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but I got it from Cleveland Foodie. It is easy and always a crowd pleaser. This time I also made a veggie version for Bones, no bacon and stuffed with goat cheese. I also brought Roasted Pears with Blue Cheese and Walnuts. These were tasty, but mostly they were very pretty and festive:

Roasted Pears with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

4 pears, halved, but not peeled – Scoop out the seeds, it makes a nice pocket for the blue cheese
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 bunch fresh thyme (I substituted rosemary cuz that's what I had)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup crumbled good-quality blue cheese
1/4 cup walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Arrange the pears, cut sides up, on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Strip the leaves from the thyme branches and sprinkle over the pears. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and spoon a generous teaspoon of crumbled cheese in the center of each pear half, return the pears to the oven and roast until they are tender and the cheese is soft, about 10 more minutes. Meanwhile, put the walnuts on another baking sheet and toast in the oven until golden brown and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Chop. When the pears are cooked, transfer them to a serving plate and sprinkle the toasted walnuts over the top. Serve hot.

After dinner and our ornament exchange (Bones tripled the number of ornaments I own and I now need to buy a tree, stop being a grinch, and give in and decorate my apt to showcase these ornaments), things got serious when we moved the party to the basement for a beer pong tournament complete with 7 teams and brackets. Sadly, Elf and I were the first team eliminated. Bones and CC were very serious, but came in third place:

And the winning team is.... GiuGiu and Mrs. Brownie! Congratulations! The final game was played with Christmas Ale, ack!

It was such a fun night! Thanks again Bones and GuiGui! I love holiday parties!