Avocado Margaritas, Decoy Cakes, and SLIDERS TO GO

I hope all my hungry readers had an excellent and food-filled Labor day weekend! I was in Santa Fe at a pretty fantastic wedding, so mine was jam packed with interesting and decadent foods and drinks. And some incredibly cool touches, like sliders! In a doggy bag! After the wedding at like 11 PM. I was physically and gastronomically incapable of leaving that wedding hungry.

Read on for more.

Although I was in constant possession of my camera, you'll have to forgive me if I was primarily focused on people. I did, however, get a few good pictures of some of the dishes served. Perhaps the most exotic of these (and one for which I have yet to find a recipe) was this Avocado Margarita:

"That's right, woah," I respond to your inevitable exclamation. "Woah indeed."

Come to think of it, this might be as simple as blending the makings for a margarita with half an avocado. 

Hmm. 

Anyways, the margarita was semi-sweet and salty and very creamy, with a consistency reminiscent of a smoothly blended milkshake. In fact, the drink was so similar in texture to a milkshake that every sip was a bit of a surprise when it wasn't icy cold, or super sweet. And it's healthy! I'm sure this is an excellent source of healthy (monounsaturated) fats. And a healthy source of tequila.

Dinner in general was extremely good, putting the lie to folks who say wedding food is only ok. That's not been my experience, but hey. Slices of steak in a wonderful BBQ sauce, grilled shrimps atop corn meal cakes wrapped in corn husk, and little puff pastries stuffed with veggies. No pictures, mea culpa.

Other things! There was a decoy cake.

The bride and groom (Melissa and Dave) cut into a cake that looked like a regular, tiered wedding cake. So, naturally, I assumed that at some point they would be serving slices of said cake. However, dessert (which was SUPERB -- little chocolate truffle bombs with raspberries, homemade ice cream sandwiches, and fruit compotes) never presented me with slices of cake, per se. I waited, more confused than expectant, and eventually asked one of the coordinator people. She told me that what I saw was a decoy.

Is this a thing? Do many weddings have decoys? I later found it (at least the top tier): 

I know it's edible, because Melissa and Dave fed some to one another, so I was tempted to cut a slice. Then I realized that wouldn't really be appropriate. Normal Sam checked and balanced Hungry Sam.

This all raised a few questions, though, namely: Where are the bottom tiers? Were they even real cakes or props for the decoy? And if there's a decoy, shouldn't it be better hidden? Was I the only one totally fooled by the decoy? If so, is there something wrong with me?

Dessert really was fantastic, though. Here are a few pictures:

Said chocolate truffle bomb thingies.

They were a little melted at this point, but SO GOOD. Chocolate ice cream stuffed inside peanut butter cookies.

Fruit compotes -- much better than mine.

And now, what you've all been waiting for:

Sliders to go.

It was about 11:45 PM when we finally, exhausted and stuffed full of awesome food, made our way out of the wedding to the shuttle. Then, before we boarded, came a most welcome surprise: the serving staff was giving out SLIDERS. Little perfectly grilled hamburgers still toasty from the oven.

I know! I mean, think about it -- you're tired and a little chilly (Santa Fe has some decent elevation, over 7000 feet), you've just had a great evening celebrating with super cool people. What could make the evening better?

I'll tell you.

SLIDERS.

Just sayin'.

Minor food-related additions to this post. Look at this awesome thing:

 

It's a hanging string of chilies. It has a name, which I asked for three times and forgot three times. Don't worry, it definitely begins with the letter 'R'.

Here's the last awesome picture I took -- not food related. We were walking Canyon Road in downtown Santa Fe and I stumbled across this little beauty on a random wall. Based on a conversation with a coffee shop dude (who was so far politically left that I couldn't even see him out of my peripheral vision), this might have been done by a famous Apache-Akimel graffiti artist named Douglas Miles. Either way, it's awesome.