The office party went fine! Which is I think just about the best that can be said for an office party! I successfully handed over the hostess gift, I met people, I shook hands, I made small-talk, I sipped the wine, I praised the food, I said a gracious and grateful farewell. It was a four-hour open house, and we stayed one-and-a-half hours. Bonus: the one thing I was most worried about, which is that every single advanced professional would in turn ask me “So, what do you do?” DID NOT HAPPEN EVEN ONE TIME.

There was a sign-up sheet for what to bring, and it would be fun to say it was Paul’s fault I didn’t know about it before consulting you, but the fact of the matter is that he showed it to me earlier and we were both completely overwhelmed by it (18/30 slots filled for appetizer, 23/30 slots filled for dessert, etc.) and also overwhelmed by everything in general, so we decided that with so many slots still available in every category, and so many total slots to fill, we would just choose what we wanted to bring without regard for available slots.

But then there were so many good ideas in the comments section of that post, and it was hard to pick. So THEN we went back to the sign-up sheet, and we noticed that, for example, there were already many, many people signed up for cheese-and-crackers, fruits-and-vegetables, and dips (the top three contenders), so we scanned everything else and noticed that only one person had signed up for finger sandwiches. I brought a tray of egg-salad finger sandwiches, which were barely touched (I think they looked Too Big, and also maybe Someone Else’s Egg Salad is a risky proposition), and I also brought a tray of my mom’s friend’s spiral sandwich bites, which were gone almost immediately, and those are what I will bring from now on, because in addition to being yummy they were pretty. I will try to remember to take a picture the next time I make them, and add it to this post. [Edited to add: I remembered to do this! I only made them with spinach wraps this time, because I thought those looked better. I’m not sure the picture does them justice, but at least you get the idea:]

I will tell you basically how to make them. If you have made cinnamon rolls, you are going to recognize the gist of the technique. My mom’s friend uses burrito-size tortillas; I used sandwich wraps in spinach (green) and tomato (coral) because I wanted the color. Take a sandwich wrap and spread it with a spready cheese. Then put down a layer of thinly-sliced deli meat (I did three slices of meat per wrap). Then a layer of a yummy sauce. Then a scattering of something interesting. Then a layer of lettuce. Then salt/pepper if you want. The fillings should stop about one-half inch from the border of the tortilla/wrap, but it’s not a huge deal; this is mostly to keep them from pushing out as you roll, and if some DO push out, you can trim them off; it matters most on the far end of the tortilla (the place where you’ll finish rolling) because you’ll cut the sides off anyway. Roll the whole thing up as tightly as you can, and wrap it in plastic-wrap nice and tightly (I made a hot mess of this but everything was fine anyway), and put it in the fridge for a couple hours (I don’t know if length of time is important; the idea is to get everything all firmed up and accustomed to its new rolly form, especially the spready cheese which you might have softened to make it more spready.) About 15 minutes-per-two-rolls before you leave for the party (and this might be quicker once you’ve gotten the hang of it, but it was a learning curve for me), unwrap a roll, put it on a cutting board, trim off the messy end, and then cut off slices—about half an inch each? I think? I am not good at estimating measurements. I speared each slice with a frilly-ended toothpick before actually slicing it off, then sliced the slice (using a bread knife to reduce roll-squashing), then pushed the toothpick further in so it stuck out the other side of the slice, then put the slice on a plate with all the frilly ends facing toward the outside of the plate. Two rolls was enough to lightly fill a large paper plate; it would have looked better with one-half to one more roll’s worth on there.

I did two different fillings, but you can do whatever you are familiar with and like the flavors of. For one, I did a layer of jalapeño cream cheese; then a layer of deli baked ham; then a layer of a sauce Paul makes out of mayo, yellow mustard, and creamy horseradish; then I skipped the Something Interesting because I forgot (I’d planned to do minced-up banana peppers, or minced-up black olives); then a layer of lettuce; then salt. The lettuce made it hard to roll (I used iceberg) but was so good in the finished item, I wouldn’t skip it; I might experiment with a bendier lettuce, maybe baby spinach.

For the other, I did a layer of regular cream cheese (microwaved to make it more spreadable); then a layer of honey-cured deli turkey; then a layer of most of an extra packet of Wendy’s honey mustard sauce (the kind you can get when you order nuggets) I had in the fridge; then some cut-up dried cranberries; then lettuce; then salt.

My outfit was Just Right, I’d say—or maybe it would be better to say I felt exactly comfortable in the range of what other people were wearing, which varied from “gold skirt with tight black velvet top and black velvet heels” to “khakis and a sweater.” One hitch was that my matte-gold-sequined tank top was much too big. Those of you who have lost weight at some point (some of us many, many, many times) will recognize that bad-good feeling of putting on a reliable favorite and finding it too big. The tank top used to have a more bodacious effect, but now it is more flapper/tunic. Well, it was fine. Here’s the whole outfit:

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I have no idea how to handle this new WordPress format, which from my point of view just uploaded all the photos into a block of six. It works for me, I guess, but isn’t what I was expecting, and we’ll see what it looks like after publishing. Anyway there should be a view of the whole outfit (unfortunately with my phone blocking neckline/necklace—but note fancy wrists/hem on cardigan); a close-up of the black sequined shoes (last-minute substitution for the cranberry velvet, which worked better when this outfit included dark-wash bootcut jeans); a close-up of the velvet flocking on the pants; an attempt to capture the combination of tank-top plus cardigan plus necklace plus earring (this view more accurately represents the color of the cardigan); the shimmery fingernails done at the last hour when I realized I hadn’t done my nails; and the earrings/necklace/ring.

I’m adding a section here because I always want to know where people got their clothes. I got the black sequin shoes on Amazon, and I highly recommend them despite the crummy product photos. They are cheap and cute, and I have them in black and in silver; they’d be a fun gift idea. I got the black flocked-velvet pants from Roaman’s, on a good sale (Roaman’s is the kind of place where everything’s pretty much always on sale). I got the cardigan from Marshalls a few years ago; the brand is Belldini (I just looked on the Belldini site to see if I could find something similar, and now feel driven to tell you I paid $24.99 at Marshalls.) I got the matte-gold-sequined tank top from Old Navy a few years ago. The flower necklace…I forget. Target, probably. The earrings are from Claire’s several years ago; it was a six-pack of the same earrings in different colors. The ring was my grandmother’s. Nail polish is OPI in Super Star Status, and it dries super-fast; I probably got it from Marshalls last year.