Category: Menus

What is a Boobieque? The Boobieque was S.’s fantastic idea for a fundraiser, to help raise money for the Susan G Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure we’ll be doing later this year. Almost all of the food and drink was donated for this event. Guests were asked to bring a $5 donation per person, with all proceeds going to our SGK Team.

Thanks: There are several people that I’m going to take the opportunity to thank here. First, to my fabulous teammates, S & K. This is the first year walking for all of us – I couldn’t do it without you ladies!

Secondly, thanks to all of our sponsors. We appreciate the gift certificates and goods that you donated in support of this event. A special shout out to my mom and S’s mom, both of whom donated handmade blankets and quilts to raffle off.

Third, thanks to everyone who attended this event, donated, or have supported our team in any other way.

The Menu: A combination of donated items and goods made by us, this menu served about 40 people. (Ladies, please correct me if I missed anything!)

Drinks:

Beer

Wine

Friday’s Mixed Drinks

Soda, Lemonade & Water

Dinner:

BBQ Pulled Chicken

BBQ Pulled Pork

Small Dinner Rolls

Roasted Potato Salad

Orzo Pasta Salad with Zucchini and Red Peppers (made by K)

Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Wrap (so good, S!)

Corn on the Cob

Veggies and Onion Dip

Desserts:

Chips, Pretzels, Chocolate

S’mores Cupcakes

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes (still can’t believe how well these came out, K!)

Quantities: And since “how much to make” is such a common question…. for our party of 40 people, we had 10 lb. of meat, ~40 dinner rolls, 1.5-2x batch of both the potato salad and orzo salad, ~6 tomatoes worth for the tomato, mozzarella & basil wrap,12-18 corn ears, halved, 1/2 batch onion dip with assorted veggies, and a batch of each of the cupcakes.

For the past two years, my husband and I have hosted a Wine and Cheese Tasting Party. I love it – its easy to throw together and it’s not something that requires a lot of time in the kitchen. No matter how much we have going on in life, if we have a free evening, we can host a Wine and Cheese Tasting Party.

Now, there are several ways to do this type of party. Most people will probably tell you to pick a complimentary assortment of wine and cheeses yourself. For us, the problem with that is that we end up sticking to cheeses or wines that we know better, so there’s less experimentation. The other problem is that we have an open door policy at our house, so while I can get an estimate of how many people are coming, it’s never really accurate. For instance, I had 13 affirmative RSVPs prior to this party, 3 bailed at the last-minute, but we ended up with close to 25 people actually show up. You can see how this would cause problems for preparing if we were to provide everything….

So instead of putting everything together ourselves, we provide an assortment of crackers, breads,  and other complimentary snacks and ask everyone to bring a bottle of their favorite wine and/or cheese to share with the group. I find this works out great. We get a huge assortment of both cheeses and wines – both old favorites and new experiments. I make sure I have a couple of extra bottles of wine and blocks of cheese in case we run short, but for the past two years, we’ve ended up with the perfect amount of both.

Wine & Cheese Tasting Party

Drinks & Cheese provided by our wonderful friends

To Drink (not conclusive since I took out recycling before writing them all down – doh!)

Some great reds, perfect for me, as I’m still acquiring a taste for red wines.

• Running with Scissors Petite Sirah
• Ramal Road Pinot Noir
• Gnarled Vine Cabernet Sauvignon
• Marietta Cellars Old Vine Red
• Boordy Syrah

Light and fruity whites

• Anakena Sauvignon Blanc
• La Delizia Pinot Grigio
• Patrizi Moscato D’Asti
• Kris Pinot Grigio
• Black Swan Pinot Grigio

And a couple sweet dessert wines, that although there, were never opened:

• Cooper Vineyards Noche Noche
• Chocovine (we were so curious about this one and then forgot about it. Has anyone tried it?)

Cheeses:

Marinated Cappiello (Mozzarella)

Jarlsberg

Swiss Gruyère

Dubliner

Havarti with Dill

Gouda

Cheddar with Guinness

Swiss

Complements:

Assorted Crackers: Club Crackers, Triscuits, Whole Wheat Crackers

Store-Bought Crostini

Toast Points

Barefoot Contessa’s Cheese Straws

Genoa Salame

Red Grapes

Walnuts

And for Something Sweet:

Cheesecake Truffles

Assorted Lindt Chocolates

This year was a small, quiet Easter gathering – just me, the hubby, and the parents. A little something special for the main course (potato pave!) and some easy items and leftovers for appetizers and dessert.

Happy Easter!

2010 Easter Menu

Appetizers Throughout the Afternoon

Cheese & Crackers

Deviled Eggs

Entree:

Garlic Encrusted Beef Tenderloin with Horseradish Sauce

Potato Pave

Roasted Asparagus

Dessert:

Raspberry Chambord Sorbet

Ice Cream

We normally don’t do much for Valentine’s Day, as long as we spend it together, we don’t need special plans. However, since I had the whole weekend to plan for this year and I’ve been itching to try some new things, I decided to go all out.

All of the below recipes have been adjusted to serve two, but they can easily be doubled or tripled according to your needs.

Appetizer:

Caramelized Onion and Feta Tartlets

Dinner:

Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Cranberry-Port Sauce

Parmesan-Sage Rice Pilaf

Roasted Green Beans

Dessert:

Chocolate Lava Cakes with Cherries

Drink:

Shiraz