Adobo Night

Current confirmed guests for adobo night is 10... Hmmmm...

How do I cook for 10 people? More importantly, how do I clean up after 10 people have dinner at my place? I'm talking plates, glassware (damn, this is what I get for having too much glassware!), flatware, and the worst - pots and pans! Grrrr.

Okay, I don't even know why I'm complaining. I was the one who had this idea to invite people over and serve adobo. And why not? Adobo happens to be one of my favorite dishes, and one of the most popular Filipino dishes in the world.

This whole thing actually started when I met this couple from Hawaii at a friend's party. They were telling us how they ate adobo and other Filipino dishes back home because there were so many Filipinos in Hawaii. They told us that the McDonald's there even served spam with fried rice and eggs! Ha ha ha. That got me thinking, maybe I should invite people over and make adobo. Well, not just adobo, but that's a start. So the menu will be simple and for now it's looking something like this:

Cocktails
I've got pretty much every booze imaginable at home so this is not a problem. Have told everyone to bring wine as well. For cocktails, I'm serving chips and salsa, nuts, carrots and celery sticks with blue cheese dip, which of course, I'll make.

Dinner
We'll start off with my signature salad composed of:

Mixed greens (the one with arugula - my favorite)
Grapes
Pine nuts
Feta cheese
Croutons (my own homemade ones)
Carrot slices
Vinaigrettes - will probably make two kinds. And yes, if you hadn't noticed yet by now, I make my own everything!

I'm also thinking of making roasted cherry tomatoes with garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil which I'll top off with some basil. This is so yummy!!!

Main dishes will be adobo and Bicol express with steamed white rice.

Dessert: Leche flan (which I probably need to make tonight so there's one dish out of the way)

These I hope my friends will enjoy, especially since they're not all Filipinos. Nationality lineup looks something like this:

Filipinos - 3 plus me so 4
Australians - 3 (assuming Clair's friend is also Aussie)
Singaporean - 1
Indian - 1
Americans (well, I can't say Hawaiians, right?) - 2
TOTAL HEADCOUNT: 11

Next step: Need to create playlists on my iPod.

It's going to be a long night...