Housewarming Pics and Recipes!

As promised here are pictures and recipes from the housewarming party I had several weeks ago. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get this together but better late than never I suppose! All of the recipes were a huge hit – especially the Mango Chevre Steak bites, I think we only had one or two left at the end of the night!

The dining room all ready to go before the food was put out...

Menu:

Mozzarella and Nectarine Skewers with Pesto
I wasn't really sure how these were going to turn out but I was so intrigued by the combination that I just had to try them. I wasn't able to find the right size skewers so I ended up using toothpicks instead and bought the mozzarella balls in 'pearl size' - they were perfect. I just put one piece of cheese and one piece of peach on each toothpick and then had a side dish of pesto for people to drizzle over their skewers. The taste was so light, summery, and refreshing!

Kahlua Pecan Brie
This is a recipe that my friend Angie has been making for years. Her best friend's mom wrote a cookbook, Confessions of a Kitchen Diva, that includes this recipe plus tons of other great food for any occasion. This recipe is always a crowd pleaser.

1 14 oz Brie round
1/4 cup Kahlua
3/4 cup chopped pecans
3 Tablespoons brown sugar

Scrape white coating off brie. Place brie in oven safe pie plate.
In a small bowl, mix kahlua, pecans and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved.
Pour kahlua mixture over Brie and bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until Brie begins to ooze.

(I like to let mine go about 12 minutes so its really soft and gooey!)

Serve with Carr's Water Crackers.

YUM!

I guess the brie was still in the oven when I took this picture but it was all set to go right behind that blue plate of crackers with grapes in the middle!

Next up.....

Chevre and Mango Steak Bites

I first saw this recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Elizabeth's Edible Experience. She is always cooking up something wonderful and I love seeing her step by step pictures and reading her extra tips and tricks. Seeing the pictures makes it all seem easier to me and really makes me want to cook!

(I'm sorry I didn't take close up pictures of everything - I guess I was too busy playing hostess! Head over to Elizabeth's blog to see step by step pictures of the process and the finished product!)

Hot Artichoke Dip

I'm not exactly sure where this recipe came from but my family has been making it for years. For some reason it always seems to appear as an appetizer on Christmas Eve but its so easy that I make it all the time.

1 can of artichoke hearts, drained
1 cup Parmesan cheese (the kind in the can)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice
¼ tsp garlic powder

Blend all ingredients in food processor or blender until smooth. Spread evenly into greased pie plate and bake at 350 for 30 to 45 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Serve with wheat thins or as a dip for vegetables.

The artichoke dip is pitctured in the square turquoise dish on the far right...the crab dip is in the other turquoise dish, a little to the left.

Crabmeat Dip

This recipe is from Southern Living but unfortunately its from one of their special holiday books and the recipe isn't available online. But luckily my friend Heather, sent me a copy via email. We made this a few years ago at Heather's house on one of our cooking club nights and all loved it. Since then I have made it a few times but usually reserve it for special occasions as it is a bit time consuming. Also, the original recipe suggests that you reserve one cup of the dip before baking and use it to stuff chicken breasts. We did this the first time we made the recipe and it was great!

Crabmeat Dip
From Southern Living
(can make a day ahead and then bake when ready to eat)
1 (8 oz) package 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 (5.2 oz) package boursin* buttery garlic & herb spreadable cheese
1/2 cup mayo (can use low fat)
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onions
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce
1 tsp hot sauce (Tabasco)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp capers
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb fresh lump crabmeat, drained

Combined all ingredients (except crab), stirring well.

Gently fold in crabmeat.

Spoon dip into a lightly greased 8" square baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Serve with crackers. Yeild: 4.5 cups

*A few tips - If you can't find the Boursin cheese, you could use Rondele or Alouette. Boursin is the highest in fat among these and the most expensive (at least at my store). Also, when I made this for the party, I used fake crab for the first time and it came out great. So if you don't have the time to sift through the real thing for pieces of shell or don't want to 'shell out' the money for genuine lump crabmeat, the fake will work just fine. There are so many other flavors in this dip that you can't even tell.*

Salmon and Cream Cheese Roll Ups

When I made these I really simplified the recipe and just used smoked salmon and 1/3 less fat cream cheese for the filling. I think I probably added a little salt and pepper also but I kept it all pretty easy so that the salmon flavor would be most prominent. These are pictured on the little stand in the picture above. As you can see, we made quite a few of these!

And now on to dessert!

I wanted everything to be easy to just grab and eat so these desserts were perfect.

For the chocolate lovers...
Oreo Truffles

And for the vanilla lovers...
Cake Balls

I believe Bakerella is really where this cake ball/cake pop craze came from. The recipe link above is for some red velvet ones with chocolate coating but you can sub in any flavor of cake mix, frosting and coating to make your own combo. For the party I used yellow cake with vanilla frosting and white coating. They were fantastic!

It was so much fun having everyone over and having a reason to make all this 'party food'!

General Observations

So I saw an ad over the weekend for the new Sonic Chillers and while it does sound tasty to mix vanilla soft serve with a cherry limeade - isn't this just the same thing as the cream slush or blended floats they've always had? (btw: orange cream slush = yum) I guess I just don't understand what all the fuss is about for this 'new' product when its really not that new...

Also, I feel like the Black Eyed Peas could be very successful with a children's album if this whole hip-hop/dance thing doesn't work out. Usually I have a thing against songs that spell but they do it in a way that I can handle with "Glamorous" (now you're singing it, G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S........) Now they've got the days of the week going with "I Gotta Feeling": Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Saturday to Sunday. Minus that little hiccup there with the two Saturdays in a row, it could help the little ones out!

I know I always get their songs stuck in my head and they seem to really put on a show that you can't take your eyes off of when they perform live - kids would love it! They would need to clean up their act a bit and watch the language but just think if they were actually singing about something you needed to pay attention to and could learn from instead of "My Humps"?

Song of the Moment

I think I'm a little behind the times on this one but as I am currently without internet access at home, I went to my parents house for a little bit this weekend and was finally able to update my iPod with some new tunes. My current obsession is "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon. I've heard the whole cd is really good but for now, this is on repeat...

Where have I been??? MIAMI!

We were all so excited to see that we were actually staying on A1A - Beachfront Avenue!

So its been awhile since I posted and I know that I still need to post pictures of my bathroom redo and pictures and recipes from my little housewarming get together but I thought, for now, we'd go with Miami and save those things for another day!


This trip was amazingly planned in all of about 30 minutes via email. I still can't believe we were all able to get it together so quickly. We stayed at my friend Julie's parents place near South Beach and had the BEST time! Having never been to Miami, a lot of us, myself included, weren't really sure what to expect but now I think we're all hooked! We celebrated Julie's 27th birthday while we were there also - I think we're going to make this an annual trip!

We spent the days on the beach reading and talking. The beach was gorgeous and we even had a quasi-celebrity sighting!

Can you guess who is in the white hat in this picture???

And then we spent the nights out! Things in Miami don't get started until about midnight and then go until about 5 am, luckily we didn't have any problems adjusting to this routine!

Our first round of drinks in Miami - Strawberry Champagne Mojitos! YUM!

Before dinner for Julie's birthday

Out at Mynt celebrating the big 2-7!

Cool chair in the lobby of the Delano...I could totally live there...

We were so excited to finally find a place that played songs with words!

It was a blast girls - can't wait for the next trip!

Free Shipping at Anthropologie! Could it be?

I was very surprised to find the following email in my inbox yesterday:

Since when have they EVER done anything like this??? “Simply link your anthro number to a new or existing online account to enjoy the summer off”! Crazy! Their shipping is always outrageous! (as is J Crew’s but that’s neither here nor there) I am so glad they are jumping on this free shipping bandwagon, even if only for a short while. They are actually offering a pretty good deal here since the promotion runs through September 7th!

Luckily I’ve already got one of those anthro cards but I never really thought it had much of a purpose – until now!

Now if only I had money to pay for the things in my imaginary shopping cart! If I were placing an order today, I would get:Yes, I know that would be one full cart but remember this is just an imaginary exercise!

Product Review: Suave Volumizing Shampoo

I bought this shampoo and conditioner on a whim while stocking up on some things at Ulta a few weeks ago. I was looking for the purple Sunsilk (I think its ThermaShine?) and looked everywhere in that store but they do not seem to carry Sunsilk anymore. I swear I've bought it there before but thats neither here nor there. When I couldn't find the Sunsilk, and armed with a 20% off my entire purchase coupon, I decided to try John Frieda's Root Awakening Shampoo and Conditioner. Over the years, I've tried to save money on my shampoo and conditioner and shy away from the $6 smaller bottles that I feel like John Frieda uses. Once again though, I'd heard something good about this, had my coupon, and decided to give it a whirl.

I really liked this product for the first 4 or 5 uses. The minty aromatherapy bonus was nice too but I felt like it made my hair really flat after the first day. Based on the name, I was expecting a lot of volumizing action but that was not the case. Nor do I think it is actually the point of the product, the name is a little misleading if you ask me. I do not wash my hair every single day unless I work out or am doing something special, etc. My hair is thick, not oily at all, and I don't sweat that much so I'm typically a wash every other day girl. By day 2 with this shampoo though, I was not impressed. (also, do any of you ever read those articles that say that people like Heidi Klum and Giselle prefer their hair when it hasn't been washed for 4 or 5 days? GROSS! I guess maybe they are on to something there because my hair will never look like theirs but if thats their secret you can count me out!)

Because I'd just spent more than I would like on the John Frieda duo I was out for a bargain with my replacements and decided to try the Suave Professionals Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner. And boy am I glad! I think these were $1.99 each and I LOVE it! Great bang for your buck. The website says that the shampoo/conditioner combo is formulated to work as a duo and provide results similar to those achieved with Matrix Amplify Shampoo and Conditioner. I have never tried the Matrix version but this Suave one is great! I feel like the shampoo gets my hair really clean and does not leave any build up and the conditioner isn't too heavy at all. Winner!
I'm all about trying to save where I can these days and while on the Suave website I saw that they also have a clinical strength deodorant. I may have to try this out also because that Secret Clinical Strength is $$$! I'll let you know how it goes...

Book Review: Change of Heart

It took me longer than normal to get into this Jodi Picoult book - I did read My Sister's Keeper in three days DURING the work week. That was a book I could not put down, I took it everywhere I went and even stopped into Starbucks a time or two when I had 20 to 30 minutes to kill just to read more and see what would happen next. Talk about a pageturner! Sidenote: I don't know about you but while reading My Sister's Keeper I never in a million billion years would have pictured Cameron Diaz as the mom. Interesting casting choice. I guess she's got to break out of those silly, somewhat annoying, 20-something roles sometime. After all, the girl is going to be 37 this year - how is that even possible?? No wonder she needed to go ahead and get a more serious act, I think her days of being able to pull off a "What Happens In Vegas" or "The Sweetest Thing" are definitely over! (and in looking up her age I just realized she has the same bday as my mom...interesting...)

So back to the task at hand, Change of Heart. As I said before, it was a little harder to get into than your normal Jodi Picoult but it was so interesting and so worth it in the end. (And by the end I was rushing home at lunch and after work to keep reading...how does she do that EVERY time??) There isnt' a ton of action but in true Picoult fashion, she never diappoints with the twists and turns. This book also had a lot of issues involving law and religion. You could tell she really had to do her homework when writing this one. It left lots of room for discussion and really made you think about how you would react to certain situations.

Last night was our book club meeting to discuss this book. Of course there was not much actual 'book discussion' going on but we did manage to get a little more in than normal. We also surprised one of our book club members with a surprise baby book shower! Two girls in our club came up with the idea and we all thought it was so cute. We couldn't wait to go out and buy fun childrens' books. The hostess, Heather, even got all these fun teddy bear cookies with blue sprinkles and petit fours and pecan cookies with blue icing. She had all of it out on a table where everyone was putting their gifts when they waked in and luckily when the guest of honor, Ali, walked in, she didn't even notice! She was really surprised when we walked her back into the living room for her shower and she realized she'd missed the pile of gifts and blue desserts!

Everyone brought such cute books - it was so fun to see what each person brought and hear about what they remember reading when they were little. This will be a very well read baby boy!

Some of our favorites were:

The book club selection for next month is "Drowning Ruth" by Christina Schwarz. I've got to start that soon...

(I'm taking a break from the house post today - I promise to do the master bath and the recipes from the housewarming party soon!)