Recipes I Love

Whenever I find myself stumped on what I should make for dinner, Mel's Kitchen Cafe has the perfect, fun, creative, easy idea. I've made her Garlic Tuna Pasta with Asparagus, her Lemon Cream Pasta with Chicken, her Skillet Chili Mac, her Tuscan Macaroni and Cheese Bake, her Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya, her Chicken and Rice with Coconut Milk and Pistachios, and most recently, her Hot Pizza Dip Bites. As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. I just love miniature versions of things, packed with all the same great flavor. I made mine with a bunch of different toppings: turkey sausage and olive, chicken apple sausage, and turkey pepperoni.

Definitely the cutest recipe I've seen in a while. My family enjoyed them very much, too. Looking forward to trying another of Mel's fantastic recipes soon.

Cute Party Foods :)

Tonight, my parents and I had a Coffee and Jazz party at our house to promote this new healthy coffee my mom is selling, Organo Gold. I made some crescent roll sausage snacks, caprese bites, and cheesecake bites. We also had some soft tacos, and chips and salsa with guacamole. Everyone loved the food and had a great time.

I got this idea from a cook book of mine. So easy-- just slice up some mozzarrella into cubes, marinate it in a little olive oil with a couple teaspoons of fresh chives and parsley overnight, then thread them onto toothpicks with plum tomatoes and some basil.

These were also fun to make. I just made them muffin size and cut them up into fourths, and added some blueberry preserves and strawberry jam ontop.

Looking forward to the next party and finding some new fun things to make! :)

My Birthday Party

So I had a very nice birthday party last weekend. I invited my three closest female friends and we had a tea party like last year. We giggled and talked about girly things, and had tea, cupcakes, meringues, strawberries, cucumber sandwiches and crackers. Then we looked at a selection of fabrics from which I chose for my fashion major friend Tiffany to make a skirt for me. Can't wait to see how it starts to turn out! :)

I made chai cupcakes with a honey buttercream frosting, and they were very nice. To decorate them I used some sugar crystals and candy pearls.

Everyone loved my meringues, and I was so glad I was able to actually somewhat succeed making meringues, unlike the first time I tried to make them maybe a year ago and vowed never to try again. It's a good thing I gave it another shot.

I just love strawberries. They are so summery and refreshing. I had a whole bunch of strawberries before my party too, and I used them for a strawberry coulis to go with a previously made pound cake, plus I had some with crepes.

 The whole spread... and me in the background getting something I guess, haha.

Yay, more presents :). 

The table was kind of similar to last year, but it was nice to try new treats to eat and share. My friends are the best. :)

Hope everyone's enjoying their last few days/weeks of summer! Winding up my summer has been busy but nice. I saw a bunch of family today for my grandpa's memorial service (mom's side), and tomorrow's a family reunion with my dad's side of the family. As we all used to say at the Montessori school where I worked... "we are thankful for our food, friends and family!"

A Nice Day

Well, my little get together today was very nice. Three of my friends made it over, and I was very happy with my arrangement of the snacks. The weather was also pretty close to perfect so we ate outside at my picnic table.

The whole spread: grapes, raspberries and cheese cubes; a selection of finger sandwiches, including peanut butter and jelly, nutella and banana, turkey and cheddar with pesto, and cucumber with cream cheese; brownies; and a selection of drinks, including iced tea, water, hot tea, or orange juice.

The cucumber and cream cheese seemed to be an especial favorite. I could see why: refreshing, not too sweet or salty, and a classic tea sandwich. I guess my party turned out not so much like a "tea party" but a snack party with board games.

So, we had our snacks, and played Scruples, a "what would you do if...." sort of game, which was really fun and brought lots of laughs. Two of my friends left after a while to go shopping, then my other friend and I hung out for a while longer and watched The Science of Sleep. Very interesting movie, even when this was my 3rd time seeing it. My friend had not seen it before so it was neat to show it to him. His evaluation: "kind of strange but also really good."

I will have to do this sort of thing again sometime. It was really easy to put together, and I pride myself on my accommodating hostess abilities. If I were to attend a party, I would love for it to be just like the party I gave today, or similar. 

Sweet Matzo Snack

There are so many things you can do with the Jewish unleavened bread called matzo. You can eat it by itself, you can make lasagna, you can top it with charoset.... or, you can follow my recipe and top it with peanut butter, strawberries and chocolate syrup. :)

Sweet Matzo Snack

Serves 6-12

Ingredients:

1-2 sheets matzo, broken up into about 6 pieces each
3-6 strawberries
~1 cup peanut butter
Chocolate syrup for drizzling

Directions:
1. Spread some peanut butter on the top of each piece of matzo
2. Cut up strawberries width-wise into about 4 slices each
3. Place 1-2 slices of strawberry on each piece of peanut butter matzo
4. Place all the pieces of matzo on a plate of appropriate size
5. Drizzle chocolate syrup on top (I was just having fun and made a spiral pattern, you can drizzle it however).

Simple yet delicious. This makes a great TV snack, or a cute finger food to serve at a party in a larger quantity.