I think it’s pretty safe to say we’re obsessed with our home state of Kentucky. Our apartment is filled with Kentucky prints and photos (largely thanks to the spectacular branding from Kentucky for Kentucky). And as the only Kentuckians in our group of friends in Oregon, we felt it was our personal responsibility to throw a Kentucky Derby party. We hosted a party last year, but I forgot to take any photos (whoops). I managed to grab a few this year before the guests arrived.
Photo credit to Megan Bloem, who was kind enough to take photos of people when I completely forgot.
We wanted to have a southern spread, so I made a biscuit bar with buttermilk biscuits, sweet potato gorgonzola biscuits, Kentucky Legend Ham (which I’m pumped to be able to purchase in Eugene), cheese, a selection of jams, and honey.
The biscuit bar.
We also served some strawberry mango salsa and beer cheese.
And no Derby party is complete without mint juleps and Derby pie.
Mint Juleps.
Sugar cookies in the shape of Kentucky and horses.
Derby pie.
It’s not a Ringer extravaganza without games and prizes. I had hoped to find some Kentucky-ish goodies to give to the winners, but it’s pretty difficult to find anything related to Kentucky here in Oregon. Hopefully Ale-8 will make it’s way out here someday (I’ve already begged my mom to bring some when my parents come to visit this summer). For our first Derby game, we played “Pin the tab on Louisville”, hanging a map of Kentucky on the wall and blindfolding people before they tried (mostly in vain) to find Derby city. This is particularly enjoyable when folks have no idea where Louisville is with their eyes open.
Our second game was a fill-in-the-blank challenge with the lyrics to “My Old Kentucky Home.” Since no one aside from the two of us knew the song at all, it was pretty entertaining. We had two prizes for this game: one for the most correct answers, and one for the funniest.
Eric and Jordan reading the comedic answers to our fill-in-the-blank “My Old Kentucky Home” game. Photo by Megan.
Here’s to Kentucky and many Derby parties to come!
-Ally
