Alcohol Alchemy on a Road Trip!

This past weekend my husband Dan and I went on a road trip to Kennett Square, PA to co-host an evening of decadent indulgences for a special project we're working on with a friend and former regular of mine who moved out to that area.  He did the food, I did the cocktails, and we had a fantastic time in the process!  We loved the area and the people we met,  and we can't wait to get out there again (particularly to hit up some of the excellent cocktail bars in downtown Philadelphia).  I wish we would have taken photos to share, but sadly we did not.  I can, however, show off the menus for the fantastic food and cocktails we served up Saturday evening.  Some of the drinks already have posted recipes in here, and some are yet to come.  I also served up a non-alcoholic mocktail not on the menu for the kids that was .75oz Pumpkin Spice syrup (similar to the pumpkin spice recipe for the Autumn Blaze, but I did 2 cups brown sugar and 4 cups water),  1oz Apple Cider, shake with ice, and top with 2oz of Ginger Ale.  It seemed to go over quite well :-)  I'll make sure I get an entry up for that one, too.

So...first, the drinks.  I did a mix of classics and originals, and the crowd favorites seemed to be Aphrodite's Kiss and Spellbound.  If you were at the party we'd love to hear what you thought:

Now, the food.  My husband really does some incredible things with food, and I think the oyster mushroom sliders, parsnip chips, and churros were my absolute favorites on this menu (onion jam and fresh figs make me insane amounts of happy).  Kennett Square is often referred to as the mushroom capital of the United States, and the mushrooms are really unbelievable.  One of the attendees hosted a small gathering at her home the night before the party, and we were lucky enough that she pulled out some absolutely incredible crimini mushrooms.  From being not much of a mushroom fan before this trip, I'm now obsessed with fresh mushrooms (keyword "fresh"...like...picked in the last couple of days fresh):