Hostess with the Mostess

Thursday night my friend Laura and I went to Boston (in the freezing cold) to see Jen and Jen from Hostess with the Mostess website. 

There were some great cocktails from Chamboard, I had the French Martini... 1.5 oz of Vodka, .25 oz of Chambord and 2 oz of Pineapple juice! It was yummy. Laura had the Kir Royal, .25 oz of Chambord finished off with champagne. The hotel, Nine Zero, passed some delicious appetizers... scallops in bacon, mini cheeseburgers, lobster salad on brioche... all in a beautifully decorated room. After some drinks and some food the fun was to begin. 

Jen got up in front of the crowd and gave some great pointers on how to decorate chic and modern on a budget. Some examples she gave were to use paper from a scrapbooking store as placemats... they come in a variety of colors and designs and coordinate with each other. She then used the same paper to wrap a plain glass vase with, cut out the designs and made napkin rings and put rub on transfers on plates to finish off the look. It was all so easy, yet I would have never thought of it! She also suggested splurging on one big floral arrangement and then using floral pieces in large tall cylinders filled with water and rocks. 

Then Chambord did a cocktail presentation showing us how to make the drinks that were available. When they asked for a volunteer to come up as to try the "Boston Creme Pie" drink, my hand shot up! I went up and I think I made the presenter nervous when I mentioned that I was a pastry chef. He rimmed the glass with graham cracker crumbs then mixed up 1 oz of chambord, 1 oz vodka, 1 oz cream and .5 oz sweet and sour and shook well. It was good, though it was more of a raspberry cheesecake, then a raspberry boston creme pie. (Personally, I would switch out the vodka for vanilla vodka!) 

We had a lot of fun and I look forward to using their ideas in some upcoming parties!