Brad & Katrina's Graduation Party

The Grad Party came out real nice, in spite of the nay-sayers. Katrina & I started out by shopping at the Asian open-air market Saturday morning to get the fresh ingredients we needed to start cooking the Rijs-Taffel for the party. All the prep work was done in time for us to go to Katrina's birthday party Saturday night (with the exception of the coconut that I burned) then at 6:00 AM Sunday morning, the kitchen was running at full blast. Papa was kept busy with the skewers, making the hors d'oeuvres and the satay skewers too (a very big help!). Meanwhile, 8 pounds of rice was cooked, Bahmi Goreng, Ayam Goreng Curry, Gado-Gado, tamarind Soup and grilled turmeric chicken were prepared. We made a ton of food, in the anticipation of having 20 teenagers attending. Not that many showed up, but that meant we had plenty to go around.


The cake came out really neat, with their prom picture placed on the surface, and bobble-heads too. It's a vanilla/chocolate marble cake with raspberry filling.

Pat & Lynn came to the party, and you can see that Katrina was excited.

The cake, some of the hors d'oeuvres and Japanese soft drinks were placed on the table...

And it didn't take Katrina long to dig in.

Meanwhile, most of the food was placed in the kitchen, so Pat & I worked on 'kitchen duty', making sure that everything tasted right.

"And what about the boys", you might ask? Well, they were busy playing video games...

But eventually, they laid down their virtual firearms and enjoyed the relaxing coolness of the pool.

We even got this great shot of several of them doing a 'cannonball' jump into the pool.

Meanwhile, the ladies enjoyed the solitude of the jacuzzi pool.

And the gentlemen watched the baseball game on TV.

After playing in the pool, Katrina, Melissa and Lyn tried an impromptu singing session while Luann and Jennifer held their hands over their ears.

Then later, Papa wandered away from the baseball game and surveyed the damage that was made to the food he helped prepare.

When it was time to leave, these gifts were handed out, which were like little Chinese take-out containers filled with a little graduate rubber ducky, a glow-stick necklace, a keychain that says 'Congrats Grad' and a bracelet with 'Class of 2009' on it.

I was going to use this coconut for a banana-coconut-curry dessert, but I forgot it in the barbeque grill as we were headed to Katrina's birthday party, so I asked her to stop by and turn off the grill. I would say that this is more than the recommended 'toasting' of the coconut...