Chocolate party, year 2!

Remember last year's chocolate party?  It had to happen again.  I invited lots of lovely ladies, looked through my Pinterest and cookbooks, bought brown paper goods, and had a blast!  Somehow I didn't even have anxiety about it.  I knew whatever fell into place would be enough, and the important part was to have a place for everyone to enjoy themselves.

S'mores fudge - a make-again recipe

I've been planning for several years to tackle chocolate satin pie.  It wasn't the cheapest pie, but it was delicious and cheaper than buying it from Marie Callender's.  It wasn't hard to me, but I realized how grateful I am for all of the cooking knowledge I've gained over the years.  I knew what it meant to whip cream until stiff and to fold said cream into the chocolate mixture.  This will definitely make it to future Thanksgiving dinners.

I also made chocolate peanut-butter cake balls and chocolate dipped Nutter Butters, and bought ice cream.  (Huh.  I just realized I tackled three new recipes in one day - even though cake balls aren't hard, grocery shopped, shopped for and went to a bridal shower, and still wasn't stressed.  I didn't even wake up early. That rocks.)  The rest was provided by other people, including a gourmet hot chocolate bar.  

 I shoved around furniture and then watched the place transform into this!  

People helped clean up.  I managed not to overindulge and therefore didn't feel sick, and had a (mostly free thanks to credit union rebate) burger to balance out the sugar.  Success!