Clothes Swap 2008 in Video!

For some people January brings a major flare up of Seasonal Affective Disorder, but for my friends and me it brings excitement, joy and most importantly a brand spanking new wardrobe. Ya see every January we host our annual clothes swap AKA Naked Lady Party. I have blogged about the 2006 & 2007 so you might remember me talking about it. In case you are new to the blog here is how it all works…

My friend Cory started the clothes swap tradition about 5 years ago and held it for 2 years at her house. Eventually she had to move into an apartment and 3 years ago the torch was passed to me as host. The same girls plus or minus a few have been coming for years and we always try to keep it under 20 so things don’t get too out of hand. Everyone brings tons of food, drinkies, their old clothing and I make a booty-liscious dance mix that we cap off the evening with. I sent Chris off to Corpus Christi to see his dad so the house was dude free and the party was started. Don’t believe me, turn up the volume and watch the video of us having "the time of our lives".



If you are not a visual learner here are the instructions to hosting your own clothes swap….

1) Make a small, medium, large and random pile (shoes, purses, jewelry, makeup). Everyone should sort their trash bags full of goodies into the correct piles.

2) Draw numbers

3) In groups of 3 at a time dig through the piles in a furry for 3 minutes and walk away with 5 items of clothing.

4) If your 5 pieces fit awesome they are yours, if they don’t return them to the pile.

5) Go through this cycle 2-3 times and then there is a free for all where everyone just kind of digs. We have been doing this so long we all find things and say “Tina this looks like you” or “hey Karly didn’t you get this at the swap last year, why are you brining it back”

6) After everyone is loaded up with their new spring wardrobe we bag the left overs up (there were probably 15 giant trash bags full) and take everything to a donation center. This year Jessica wanted to take everything to the State School where she is working since they are always in need of women’s clothing for the patients.

7) Once all the clothes are out of the way – start dance party.

For some reason we also have the tradition of selecting the most ridonkulous outfit we can out of the reject pile. Everyone then changes into said outfit for the dance party portion of the evening. Also the girls do love to raid my sunglasses collection.

The thing that is special about this year is A) we had a cat walk style walk off for some strange (there were too many drinks involved) reason. B) The best part of that is the fact that my new Flip video camera arrived in the mail on Friday so I could document the whole thing. I spent the day messing around with editing software. I’m no Scorsese, but I had fun making the videos. Thank God I was holding the camera and not in front of it.



Another added bonus of the clothes swap is all the yummy food. I was going to attempt to make curried devil eggs but I over cooked my eggs and could not get the shells off. My other plan was to make goat cheese stuffed figs, but figs were out of season so I had to pull this recipe out of nowhere….

Goat Cheese, Pecan, and Bacon Brushetta
½ Cup Golden Raisins
6 oz goat cheese
½ Cup chopped pecans
2 small whole wheat hoagie rolls
Veggie Bacon
Toothpicks

I took the hoagie rolls that I had for sandwiches and cut them into thin slices that looked more like brushetta, so you could use any small sized piece of bread. In a bowl mix the raisins, cheese and pecans. Spread the mixture onto the bread slices. Wrap the entire thing with a piece of bacon or veggie bacon. Hold in place with a toothpick. Cook at 450 for about 15 minutes or until bacon is done and serve warm. Yummy!

Chris and I had a ton of left over cubed butternut squash in the freezer that I thought I might be able to whip up into something tasty and with a quick Google search that landed me on Rachel Ray’s page I was right. I used my cubed squash instead of fry shaped and just served with toothpicks for people to use. This was so dang yummy I want to make it like every day.

Butternut Squash Fries with Chili Salt and Maple Cream
1 butternut squash (about 2 pounds) - halved
lengthwise, seeded and peeled
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup crème fraiche or sour cream
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 limes, cut into wedges

Preheat the oven to 425º. Cut the squash into 1/2-inch-wide sticks, about 3 inches long. In a large bowl, toss the squash with the olive oil. Spread in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast until golden and tender when pierced with a knife, about 35 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the crème fraiche and maple syrup until combined. In another bowl, combine the salt, cumin and chili powder. Sprinkle some of the seasoned salt on the squash fries and serve with the maple cream, remaining seasoned salt and lime wedges.

I of course had to make some tasty bevvies so I busted out my margarator from the Cinco de Mayo party and with two cans of frozen fuzzy navel mix, a lot of ice and a bottle of Champagne I made Bellinis. I added raspberry puree as well.

This past SXSW the Fader party was sponsored by Southern Comfort and they had free punch which I enjoyed daily. I decided to whip up a batch for my guests...

Southern Comfort Punch
1 Bottle of Southern Comfort (750 ml)
6oz lemon juice
6oz can frozen lemonaide
6 oz can frozen OJ
3 litters Lemon Lime Soda (I split it between gingerale and 7up)

Mix well and served chilled. I wish I had planned enough in advance to make a festive frozen ice punch ring, but alas.

So there you have it. This weekend I have danced, cooked, scored new clothing, made videos, gone out for burgers, watched a movie and more. Hope you too had an adventuresome weekend.