Foodbuzz 24x24: A Baja Ceviche Party

The real bummer about vacation is that "IT'S VACATION" and by definition it has to end. But it's even more of a bummer when you come home from 7 days on a lovely, warm, sunny beach returning to gray, wet, soaked, cold weather like we have during the spring in the Pacific Northwest.

In our attempt to keep that vacation sunny warm feeling alive in our heart from Mexico we decided to host a dinner party highlighting some dishes from a meal out in Todos Santos. And how delighted we are that our party proposal was picked to be part of this month's Foodbuzz 24x24 where 24 bloggers from all over the globe during a 24 hour period prepare and document dinners to be showcased all in one place hosted by Foodbuzz.

Our dinner party was inspired by both Rick Bayless and the Todos Santos Restaurant, Art & Beer as documented on our  April 14th " A Trip to Todos Santos and Art & Beer" post.

Rick's episode inspired our visit to those palapas off the highway and their wonderful ceviche tostadas inspired our dinner party last night.

So we invited some fellow ceviche loving pals over to help us bring those memories back to life.

We placed a few photos of our recent vacation about the house with the Eagle's singing Hotel California in the background to help bring the sense of place forward for our friends too.I set the table for 14 we were tight but cozy.

Our menu for the evening included almost 100% of our recipes coming from Rick's latest cookbook Fiesta at Rick's:

Cocktails:
Mango Margaritas

Jalapeno Margaritas

G making jalapeno margaritas to order

Mexican Sangria

A variety of Mexican beers

Bacon and Tomato Guacamole & Chips

Ceviche Tostadas
Frontera Grill's Classic Ceviche- Halibut
Tropical Beach Ceviche - Scallop
Shrimp Ceviche Coctkail

Our Ceviche Tostada Bar

Fresh Shrimp Kabobs (not quite as artfully put together as the ones at Art & Beer but I tried)

Grilled Oysters with Three Sauces:
Negro Sauce, Orange-Habanero Minoneta, Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Additionally our friend Becky brought

caramelized onion and asparagus taquitos

Dessert:
Fresh Fruit Drizzled with Kahlua
(Confession: this dessert was on the menu, fruit prepped and ready to go but too many sangrias and lively conversation prevented us from ever getting to the dessert course last night.)

We had a great meal we started with cocktails on the patio.

We were so thankful for the rain having chosen to hold off which allowed us to spread out to the patio.

We came in and had our main course of ceviche tostadas in the dining room.

Once we were finished with our tostadas we went back out to the patio again so G could grill the oysters.

We had a great evening and although our surroundings weren't quite the same as we had experienced in Mexico it was great to share some our experience with some of our favorite people.