Annual Oscar Party

What better excuse to gather some girlfriends than the Oscar's. I believe this was my 8th or so annual Oscar party. I actually started them post-college and when I was living in Madison Park - pre-marriage and kids. With all that our group of friends has to juggle these days - babies/kids, moves, etc. - not many of us had time to see the featured movies. We enjoyed the show, though, and lots of good food.

I tried out a few recipes from a new cookbook that Andrew's mom gave me recently - Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics." Here are the ones I took a go at (if I do say so myself, they were pretty yummy).
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/creamy-cucumber-salad-recipe/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/savory-palmiers-recipe/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mango-daquiris-recipe/index.html

I unfortunately didn't get around to snapping pictures so grabbed this one from my friend Jodi's blog. These are the daquiri's - a tad bit strong, but good.