My first BRIC Party!!

I'm back again! I want to tell you about a party I had last weekend. The idea for this party I got from someone else and I thought I had to try it! So the idea of the BRIC party is that each person that comes brings food and we all share a meal together...but the twist is you have to try a recipe you have never made before and bring it even if it flops. (You can't do a trial run a few days before to make sure its good, you have to make it right before you come!!) This could be something you have tried but don't use the same recipe (for example, you ate apple pie before but never tried making it yourself...and you can't use a recipe that you already knows works great because its your mom's apple pie recipe or whatever) Even better if it is something you have never even tried before! My friend and I made up the name BRIC...here is what it means:

B = Bold/Brave

R = Risky

I = Innovative

C = Cooking

So, I started small and had three friends over, they made shrimp scampi, cream cheese noodles with chicken and broccoli, and dirt pudding, all of which turned out delish! I made orange chicken, which I have eaten before at restaurants but never tried making before. Amazingly it turned out great!! Its really not that hard! Basically you fry up chicken strips/nuggets and then whip up the orange sauce and pour it over the top of the nuggets. To make the sauce thick you add cornstarch, which to be honest I had never used before and it worked amazingly at thickening the sauce up!! The sauce had a really nice orange flavor, but didn't turn out "orange" so I called the dish Brown Chicken (which sounds really gross). I guess they must add something to make Orange Chicken "orange" at the restaurants. :)

Ian  made Bananas Foster which we have never tried before. You cut the bananas and put them in a skillet with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and then after the bananas are soft you add rum (but we used brandy because we couldn't find rum for a reasonable price) and then you light it on fire...only bummer was that it didn't light!! :(  He served it over vanilla ice cream and it tasted delicious, if only we weren't already so full from eating all the other food!

I know its a little scary to try new things and serve them for the first time to your guests!! I usually try new things for the first time and just eat it with Ian to make sure its worthy of serving to guests. :) So this is truly risky! But I think its great to break yourself out of waiting till dishes are perfect till you would attempt to serve them to your guests. :)

Next time I think I will invite more people, tell each one a specific category to choose from such as appetizer, main dish, side dish, or dessert. That way we don't end up with too much of one kind of food. Also it would be great if everyone brought a copy of the recipe they used, and I would print out recipe cards for people to copy the recipes they loved on to.  

You can totally use this idea and add other ideas to make it more crazy if you want! Tell me if you think of any creative ideas!