Father's Day Dinner

We had both of our families up for dinner on Saturday to celebrate Father's Day.

I did a terrible job of taking pictures of actual PEOPLE, so instead I'll show you the menu and pictures of the FOOD.

Appetizers

Fresh Bruschetta

Bacon-wrapped Jalapenos

Beverages

Fresh Lemonade

Sweet Tea

Main

Barbecue Chicken

Baked Beans

Twice Baked Potatoes

Summer Pasta Salad

Buttered Rosemary Rolls

Dessert

Nutella Cheesecake

I don't really use a recipe for the bruschetta, it's just a mixture of diced tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh basil and salt and pepper.

Some of the jalapenos were really really mild, and some packed a punch. The only problem? You can't tell which 'til you bite in.

Twice baked potatoes are a lot of work but oh so worth it.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the pasta salad but it's nice and colorful. Here's the recipe: 16 oz. box rotini pasta, 4 hard boiled eggs, 1 cucumber, 2 diced tomatoes, 1 chopped green onion, 1 chopped onion, 2 shredded carrots. Mix together with dressing made from 1 3/4 cups mayo, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp salt.

These rolls were gorgeous, and pretty tasty too.

This was my first attempt at cheesecake, and it was pretty amazing if I do say so myself. Nutella makes EVERYTHING better.

The food was delish and I think everyone had a great time. Sugar sure was sad to see everyone go!

Dinner Party Recipes

Lee’s Homemade Salsa (restaurant style)

28 oz. can diced tomatoes
14 oz. can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles
Handful of fresh cilantro
5-6 jalapeno slices, more or less to taste (we use the Mt. Olive jarred jalapeno slices)
Salt, garlic powder and lime juice to taste

Pulse all ingredients together in food processor until smooth.

Guacamole (adapted from Kelly’s Korner)

5 avocados
4 roma tomatoes, diced
Half of a white onion, chopped
Handful of fresh cilantro
Juice of two limes
Salt

Put all ingredients together in a bowl and mash/stir/mix until you reach the desired consistency.

Southwestern Caesar Salad (adapted from Allison’s recipe)

Romaine lettuce (I also added in a bag of spring mix for a bit of darker green)
Two avocados, cubed
3 roma tomatoes, diced
Black bean and corn salsa
Tortilla strips

Toss all ingredients together and serve with creamy Caesar dressing.

Chicken Empanadas (via Carmen)

2-3 chicken breasts, diced
28 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles
½ onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
Jalapenos to taste
Wonton or egg roll wrappers (can be found in produce/tofu section of grocery store)

Saute onion in olive oil, add garlic and jalapenos. Add chicken. Add tomatoes after chicken is halfway done. Finish cooking until chicken is done. Add small spoonful of chicken mixture to egg roll/wonton wrapper and close with a little egg/water mix. (Can be made ahead of time and stored in fridge overnight.) Fry in oil right before serving.

Alfajores (via Carmen)

Follow this recipe for the shortbread cookies. (I omitted the ground almonds.) Instead of making the filling, I bought this stuff instead. You can find it in Spanish grocery stores, but make sure you get the dulce de leche flavor. (I found it helpful to print out a pic of the can and ask someone to help me find it, otherwise I would have been looking all day.) Or, you could just make the filling according to the recipe. Then, just make sandwiches using the cookies and filling and sprinkle with powdered sugar. They are ahhh-mazing!

If you decide to try out any of the recipes, let me know how they turn out!

Spring Dinner Party

We hosted a dinner party at our house Saturday night to celebrate the engagement of our friends Stephanie and Tyler, and because it had been way too long since we’d all seen each other.

We decided on a Mexican/Latin theme for the food and I went with a fresh green and white Spring tablescape. I loved how it turned out:

Inspired by Layla’s spring mantle, Lee and I hit up the flea market several weeks ago in search of some pitchers to spray paint white. We found two at good prices and snagged them. The spray painting didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped (there were a few runs because of the shape of the pitchers) and one of the pitchers actually has a small hole in it, but all in all they look pretty good as part of a centerpiece.

I added in two beverage bottles from Ikea, as well as two small $0.79 Ikea vases and filled them all with bells of Ireland, snapdragons, fuji mums and mini carnations that I picked up at Fresh Market. At each place setting I added a green napkin from Ikea and a few carnation heads.

Steph, Tyler, Chrissy and Mike arrived around 2:00 and we started in on the spiked lemonade and lethal rum punch. By 3:30 this was happening:

There was lots of girl talk in the hammock:

And these two pups had pretty much the best day of their lives together:

Then it was time for food! (And Sara arrived after putting in a long day’s work.)

We snacked on chips with homemade guac, queso and homemade salsa.

Then dinner consisted of chicken empanadas and southwestern Caesar salad.

We were a fat, happy bunch:

Dessert was a cake that Chrissy made (that I forgot to get a picture of) and these out-of-this-world little Peruvian cookies called alfajores:

The girls retired upstairs for more girl talk and a fabulous spontaneous Glee dance party. I don’t have pictures of this portion of the night, and you should thank me for that.

We all fell asleep in the living room at 11:00. That’s how we do it folks. We like to keep it CrAzY up in here.

Seriously though, it was an awesome afternoon and evening and it was so great to catch up with my girls. Must do it again, and sooner rather than later.

(A few people have asked for recipes, so I’ll try to get those up in a separate post.)

Baby Shower

This weekend I helped throw a baby shower for my cousin Brittany.

I was in charge of decorations. Britt is having a little girl, and has decorated her nursery in lavender, pink and green, so that was the color scheme we used.

I especially love the way the beverage and dessert table turned out:

I made lots of tissue paper flowers using these instructions from Martha and decorated the window with a clothesline of onesies. Pink lemonade with lime slices added to the color palette. And the cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe in Raleigh spelling out the baby's name -- Brevyn Joy Harrison -- were both beautiful and delicious.

The food table was decorated with a few more pom-poms and a centerpiece of wheatgrass and gerber daisies in galvanized pails. If you know me, you know wheatgrass is my go-to party trick. It couldn't be easier to grow or prettier.

I also made a banner for the mantle:

Britt got lots of sweet gifts and we played some fun games involving toilet paper, baby food and dirty diapers.

Mama doesn't look so sure about that one...

Finally, here's a pic of the hostesses and the mommy-to-be:

And I'll leave you with this fabulous shot. Isn't she radiant??

We love you Britt and can't wait to meet little Brevyn!

Shower Time

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've been super busy preparing for and hosting the big PAR-TAY. We hosted a His & Hers shower at our house on Saturday night for our dear friends, Chrissy and Mike. Getting  ready for the shower was a lot of work - mostly because I make things more complicated than they need to be and am super picky over everything - but I am a planner at heart and enjoyed pulling everything together.

I think the shower turned out so well - the weather couldn't have been better, we had a great turnout, Chrissy & Mike got some great gifts, and I think everyone had a good time.

First things first, the invitations:

Here's a shot of my dining room beforehand. This isn't nearly all of the supplies but I love how colorful this pic is:

I picked a color scheme of yellow, blue and lime green. We used lemons and limes as decor and I grew trays of wheatgrass from seed using these instructions from Design Mom (one of my new favorite blogs). I LOVE how the wheatgrass turned out. It grew this thick and tall from seed in just 10 days. What a cheap and easy centerpiece. I was also happy to put the glass cylinders and square votive holders from our wedding to good use again. 

We served beef and chicken kabobs. Although they were somewhat labor-intensive (marinating the meat, cutting up the veggies, and assembling the kabobs) they were beautifully colorful and yummy.

I'm sad I didn't get any shots of the drink table, food table or dessert table (my first attempt at Grandmama Harrison's pound cake was a success!), but at least I got the pics that I did in the midst of the madness. Here's a shot of people mingling:

Now, present time. Lee is jealous of Mike's drill:

Of course, Sugar wanted to help:

Overall, a great night!

A lot of the work we've been doing on our house (installing the patio, yardwork, porch, etc.) we were trying to get done in time for the shower. It was great motivation and we're so happy and relieved that those projects are done now and ready just in time for us to enjoy all summer long.

Lee and I spend a lot of time talking about what we don't have, what furniture we're missing, what we want, what we still have left to do on our house - but sharing our home this weekend really put things into perspective for me and made me thankful for what we have and what we've accomplished so far. Of course it will always be a bit of a work-in-progress and there will always be new projects to complete, but this weekend I couldn't have been more proud of our home, our yard and even our dog (and my husband too!)

This weekend was great and now we can't wait for the wedding! Love you Chrissy and Mike!