My first time!

What's worse than a huge group of women in a restaurant? A huge group of women bloggers in a restaurant! Imagine if you would the smartest, sassiest, snarkiest women you know - all with a gift for the written word, all who delight in whipping out their camera to capture the moment. We are every waiter's nightmare.

Yesterday morning I attended a "blog party" hosted by the one and only WeezerMonkey (often imitated, never duplicated). The party was attended by many of her faithful readers, most of whom had blogs of their own.

(Back row, from R-L) trish, r, lan, ricci, winnie, ME!, SandSsquared, claire, leslie, ballinaxehammer,
(Middle row) monkey, alyssa, ashley.
(front row) aline, wan, nanette, lilcee


Having missed WeeMo's first 2 blog parties I felt it was imperative that I make the trek up to LA for this one. As luck would have it, we were in West LA, which is the only LA I really know. I showed up at John O'Groats and there was already a gaggle of women there - so many in fact that we required 2 seatings (which turned into one long L shaped table). The consumate hostess, the Monkey made sure to spend a little time with every side of the table.

I was lucky enough to snag a seat next to the elusive and infamous "Wan" (not her real name - just so there's no confusion.......). Having met Wan for the first time under less than ideal circumstance (read - after multiple glasses of wine) I was anxious to make a better second impression. I was definitely on the right side of the table though, because there was lots of laughing and talking, and surprisinly enough, it wasn't at anyone's expense.

On the advice of Amber (who had to leave early to oogle men in tight pants on tv), I had the pumpkin pancakes which were fantastic. (as promised). I also got to sample some of Aline's tasty Huevos O'Groats. Yum!

Alyssa brought her polaroid which led to many many good times captured on film, and Nannette brought these yummy little goody bags filled with cookie burgers and mexican wedding cookies. I literally had to fight Jon for the wedding cookies when he stumbled into the kitchen and discovered where I'd hidden them under a napkin (note to self - must find better hiding places.)

And of course, because I can't ever come unattended, I made cupcakes. Actually, after I stumbled across some adorable mini cupcake liners in Sur La Table I decided to miniaturize them!

Mini Mocha cupcakes with buttercream frosting

2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup dutch cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup cold espresso
3 1/2 tsp vanilla
36 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 box confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream

1) Heat oven to 350. Line mini muffin pans with mini cupcake liners. In medium bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
2) In small bowl, combine milk, espresso and 2 tsp vanilla.
3) In bowl with electric mixer, beat 20 Tbsp butter and white and brown sugars together until light and fluffy.
4) Alternating, add the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, ending with the dry.
5) Evenly divide batter among cups. Bake 15 minutes or until baked through. Let cool completely in pans on wire rack.
6) In bowl with electric mixer beat together remaining butter, confectioners' sugar, heavy cream and remaining 1 1/2 tsp vanilla until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes.
Serves 60.
Each serving has:

Calories		115.1
Total Fat		7.6 g
Cholesterol		20.1 mg
Sodium		106.4 mg
Potassium		34.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		11.7 g
Protein		0.9 g