Latkapocalypse!

I have a confession to make: Until this week, I'd never thrown a party.

OK, that's a little bit of a lie. I had a couple shindigs in college, the kind where your mom goes out of town &, unbeknownst to you, your home friends & school friends get together to conspire to bring a male stripper to your house for your 19th birthday. You know, that kind of thing. Um, hypothetically.

In college, I lived in the dorms. And then in a sorority house. And then with my mom. In other words? All notably not party central. My super-senior year, I lived in a great apartment with four others; they hosted both a Superbowl party & a New Year's Eve party, both of which I missed.

And, as you may recall, my current roommates & I recently hosted an impromptu Halloween soiree last fall, though it was largely unplanned & primarily consisted of my throwing CVS sale candy into a bowl & sending a mass text out that read something terribly inviting like "Come pregame at our place!"

So imagine my excitement at throwing my very first party - ever! It happened just last week (Tuesday, to be precise) & was belatedly titled all sorts of things, officially via Evite "A Post-Chanukah Latke Party" but informally Latkapocalypse, Latkepalooza, etc. My culinarily apt roommates spent all day whipping up batch after batch of delicious fried food, & I assembled a lovely topping bar complete with:

• Applesauce (duh)
• Sour cream (duh)
• Ketchup
  
• Mango chutney
• Helluva Good French Onion Dip
• Dill sour cream
• Peppercorn ranch dressing
• Creamy basil pesto
• Roasted red pepper veggie dip
  
• Spicy(ish) hummus
• Black bean & chipotle salsa

I know. So proud. And I didn't eat any of them except the applesauce because, well, I hate condiments. But my cute, handwritten signs went over well, & the latkes were crisp & delicious. More importantly, people showed up & the company was lovely.

The bad news? I took approx seven pictures. Go figure. Who needs photographic evidence of my very first party, anyway? Luckily, my pal Emily at Wild & Crazy Pearl took a couple, too; combined, we've got a pretty decent showing.