When getting LOST it's best to bring (themed) snacks

I had some friends over to watch LOST last night because I am incapable of watching that show alone since I basically never know what's going on and I have to say, "Wait, who's that?" and "Wait, what's going on?," as well as your basic catch all, "Wait, WHAT?" a lot. Incidentally, my Lost friends are also my General Hospital friends, and they very nicely don't call me on my total double standard because I will not let them ask questions during GH. It's hard catching people up on 40 years of backstory, when I'm TRYING to ogle the hitmen. Gah.

And so I made them snacks, the better to distract them. And as any good sorority girl knows, while snacks are totally awesome -- especially snacks posing as dinner -- THEMED snacks are even better. (What's that you say? You didn't know I liked to cook? You thought I only watch TV? Well I also cook to lure people to come over and watch TV with me. This is also how I caught my husband. I'm like Cordelia, with my onion layers.)

I decided to go with a tropical theme, all island like. First up was some mango salsa. I simply chopped up some garlic (2 cloves), red onion (half), tomato (two), jalepeno (half, but, you know, according to taste) and cilantro (a bunch), then added some salt and pepper and cumin and sugar, and finally a whole mess of fresh mango. It was very pleasingly colorful, which was nice because I recently met a nutritionist and she told me one of the best rules of eating well was making sure your plate had a lot of colors on it. So, score for mango salsa! At first the red onion was so strong I was weeping into my cuisinart, but by the next day (salsa is always one of those dishes that tastes far better after stewing in its own juices for awhile) we were totally set!

Mmm colors. Also check out special guest: husband's hand!

Then I headed on over to Tasty Kitchen and made some bacon-wrapped pineapple bites. I used real pineapple instead of canned because, well, I could. I really liked that recipe's tip for cooking the pieces on a cooling rack placed on the cookie sheet because then they weren't all greasy. I mean they were perhaps less delicious for not having stewed in their own juices, yes, but I thought that they still came out very tasty and I'm sure our arteries appreciated the solid.

Cooling rack saves calories! We were already eating something bacon-wrapped, after all.

To this I added some Trader Joe's cococnut shrimp -- another tip from me to you, when hosting on a weeknight when you work full time, it's okay to go with some already prepared foods. Your guests will thank me when you get to eat at a reasonable hour. Plus, they were pretty good! Consider pairing them with some mango chutney instead of traditional cocktail sauce, it complements the coconut flavor nicely.

As an added touch I threw in some drink umbrellas that I bought in Chinatown a YEAR ago and never used, but it's okay because they only cost $1.00 from this store that is one of my favorite spots. Seriously, you should go there directly, but probably don't stop in one of those sketchy back rooms to buy a fake purse, Bloomberg is all about busting those rings up these days. ALSO please don't get in a van, for the love of Sawyer, no matter how good the fake.

Festive!

An added bonus, I suggest you invite over some hilarious friends who will bring you macaroons that look like this:

And a lovely evening was had by all, even if I still totally don't understand what the H is going on -- they had to introduce another set of Other Others?!?! At least I finally used those drink umbrellas.

My Wolverine Action Figure is standing at attention right now, giving the stink eye to one of my coworkers. I think he wants to be starting something.