Posts Tagged ‘party’

If you missed the first two posts please click here and here for the decoration portion of this post.

So the party was a huge hit!  Everyone really seemed to have a good time and the last guest left around 3 am!  Crazy fun and totally worth all of the effort.  The food was tasty, the drinks were cold, and the guests were amazing!  This type of party is why I love to plan and cook and decorate the whole thing.  It just feels so good when it all comes together so well.  I will cut to the chase with this post because we just have too much to cover.

Green Chile Polenta with Mushrooms

I have made the polenta a million times and you can find the recipe here as well as the green chile sauce which you can find here.  I took the green chile sauce and the toasted almonds from the chicken and poured a small dollop on top of the polenta.   Natalie placed the almonds on top perfectly so these little guys looked super impressive.  This recipe is great because the green chile sauce and almonds can be made 2 days before and the polenta can be made the night before.  I would wait to make the mushrooms until the day of.

“Grown up Nachos”  or Tilapia Nachos

I added these the night before because I felt like I wasn’t going to have enough food and I’m really glad I did.  They were the favorite of the night.  Sugar and I ate them the whole next week.  These suckers are good!

4 Tilapia fillets

juice of 2 limes

40 – 50 large tortilla chips

2 cans black beans

3 tsp crushed garlic

3 tbs cilantro

1 tsp salt

3 shallots

olive oil for frying

flour for coating the shallots

Queso Fresco

raspberry poblano sauce (or any spicy sweet sauce you can find, Central Market has a ton of them)

I bought frozen Tilapia fillets and just followed the package direction for baking them.  Squeeze the lime juice over the thawed fillets before you bake them.  When they are finished allow them to cool to the touch and then shred them.  Set them aside.

Slice your shallots very finely and coat them in the flour.  Heat your olive oil to medium high heat.  Fry the shallots to crispy brown and set them aside.

Cook your can beans on the stove until they are hot and then transfer them to your blender.  Add in the garlic cilantro and salt and puree until nice and smooth.  Taste your beans to make sure they have enough salt.  Feel free to add more if they taste a bit bland, keeping in mind hat you are putting them on salty chips!

Preheat your oven to 350 and lay out as many chips as you can on a cookie sheet.  Smear a nice dollop of beans on the chips.  Do each chip individually so it is easy for your guests to pick each one up.  If you just make a giant pile of nachos it will look terrible and will be crazy messy.  Next place about a tablespoon of talapia on each chip topping them with all with the shredded queso fresco.  Bake them in the oven for about 8 minutes or until they are toasted.  While they are still hot top each one with the fried shallots and then sweep a little of the sauce on top.  These are soooo goood!

Endive and Spicy Potatoes

5-6 small red potatoes

2 tsp olive oil

2 shallots

1 tsp garlic

2 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

6 large endives

1 cup grated cotija cheese

Wash and dry the potatoes and chop them into small quarter inch pieces.  Heat a large pan with the olive oil.  When the oil is hot add the shallots.  Cook them until they are caramelized and then add the potatoes, chili flakes, cumin and some salt.  Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.  Make sure not to over cook them.  They should not be mushy!  While the potatoes are cooking wash the endive really well and separate the pieces.  Be sure to cut off the end or stem portion of the endive.  Fill the pieces with the potato mixture and grate the cojita cheese on top.  Serve at room temperature.  This recipe should make about 50 pieces.

White Bean Crostini

2 cans white beans (garbanzo beans) – drained

1 tbs garlic

3tbs cilantro

2 tsp chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

2 baguettes sliced about 1/2 thick

olive oil

1 bunch of arugula

1 cup grated cotija cheese

In a medium sauce pan combine the beans, garlic, cilantro and chili powder.  Cook the beans and then add the mixture to your mixer or blender.  Puree the mixture into a smooth paste.

Slice the baguette into 1/2″ thick pieces and lay them out on a pan.  Brush each piece with a little bit of olive oil.  Lightly toast them in the oven at 350 for about 8 minutes.  Pull out the toasted baguettes and spread the bean puree over each one.  Slice the arugula into thin strips and top each baguette.  Cover with the cotija and serve.

Chorizo Meatballs with Avocado Crema

3 lbs of good chorizo meat (Ask the butcher at your favorite grocery store what brand he recommends)

Roll the chorizo into bite sized balls and bake them in the oven at 350 for about 12-15 minutes.  Chorizo already had so many spices in it that you really don’t have to do anything else.  The avocado crema is a really great cool flavor with the spicy meat.

Click here for the Avocado Crema recipe.

I also made a giant 3 tier chocolate cake and every part of it was a disaster.  The recipe had me bake the cake portion for too long and it was over-cooked.  The icing never solidified and I ended up pouring it over the cake.  The icing was so runny that the top tier keep sliding off and landing on my counter top.  I had to take popsicle sticks and stick them through the cake tiers to make them stay.  I had icing on the ceiling ya’ll!  Sugar walked in the kitchen and all he could do was laugh because I was covered in chocolate icing.  The cake tasted pretty good but it was horribly unsuccessful!  I will not be posting the recipe.  I will admit that at 3 am when everyone was gone I took a giant fork to this cake straight from the cake stand.  It didn’t taste that bad but I’m still mad at it….

I made Trece Leches and it turned out really well.  I have made this recipe a million times so luckily it came out just as it was supposed to. )f course I didn’t get any photos of this either.  Whoops!  Click here for the recipe.

We also put together these great little take away gifts for everyone.  I ordered the tags from www.myownlabels.com and bought mini Hershey’s, Popsicle sticks, marshmallows and graham crackers.  S’mores are such a great summer time treat that I thought it would be cute to use them as take aways.  I stuck the marshmallows on the sticks to make sure the treats were ready to use.  My little tags say “here is to many S’MORE birthday’s to come”  get it, get it, hehe!

Nat and I have been itching to throw a party lately and felt the upcoming Sex and the City movie was the perfect reason to celebrate!  When you first decide to throw a party (especially with someone else) the first thing you want to do is sit down and talk about the theme so everyone is on the same page.  The last thing you want are tacky plastic tablecloths showing up at your glamorous event.  Luckily, Natalie and I have been down this road more than once so we tend be on the same page on just about everything.   

We have watched Sex and the City since the beginning, and all of our friends have enjoyed and been influenced by the dramatic characters of the series and first movie.  We thought it would be fun to celebrate the latest movie installment with a Sex and the City style party.  In honor of the movie’s Abu Dhabi setting, we went with an Arabian theme and served lavish Middle Eastern cuisine.  The food was simple yet mature, and enlightened our guests to a truly powerful cuisine that has probably not been experienced enough among our peers. 

We staged the party at Natalie’s Uptown high rise apartment, where we filled the ceiling with white paper lanterns and placed turquoise and gold candle-holders on anything that would sit still long enough.

Crystal strands hung from the centerpieces with the blatant juxtaposition of modest sand and brilliant diamonds gracing the tabletop. 

We also covered the living room floor in pillows to help our guests relax while we played episodes of our favorite four ladies causing trouble in the HBO series and first movie.

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For my second arrangement I turned to my kitchen.  I went through my serving dishes to find a piece that would be nice and low.  I think it’s very important to be able to see that special someone across the table on Valentine’s Day, so I selected a round simple glass bowl.  After I determined the size and shape of my bowl I headed to the grocery store to find something other than flowers to submerge in it.  I tried desperately to find some white cranberries, but apparently there are none in the entire city of Dallas.  Sigh.  Instead I grabbed some key limes which are nice and small AND you can get an entire bag for $2.00 which was totally in my budget.  I bought 3 silk white hydrangeas for $3.00 a piece and headed home.  I filled my bowl with the key limes and then added enough water to completely cover them.  Next, I took my white Hydrangeas and smushed them into the center of my bowl.  This was so easy and the fruit is a different touch that really goes a long way.This arrangement would also be beautiful with little clementine oranges and pink hydrangeas.  Again feel free to mix and match depending on your personal decor.  This cute little arrangement is super easy and very economical.  Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!!

I came up with this idea for a super bowl party when I was trying to come up with a great way to feed the masses without ordering a pizza.  Then I thought DUH!  PIZZA! (say this in a girly duh voice)  We are totally making personal pizza’s!  The setup is pretty much like Luby’s (which was my all time fave restaurant as a kid).  I made homemade crust and rolled out individual rounds for everyone to load up.  I wanted to make interesting, more “grown up” pizzas, so I made sure I not only had a plethora of toppings but different sauces as well –   Pesto, red sauce, peanut sauce and Bar B Que.  I printed up little “idea cards” with different types of pizzas and listed all the ingredients to make them.

I cooked all the hot topping ahead of time and put them in individual bowls.  I pre-chopped all the veggies and put several different types of cheeses in individual bowls too.  I lined everything up in simple rows so my friends could design their own pizza. Then I popped 4 at a time in the oven and 15 min later – 4 perfect little personal pizzas were ready!

This is a great idea for any Super Bowl party.  Nice and easy and everyone is happy!  Look at all those yummy pizzas!!

If you want the recipe for the home made pizza dough click the read the rest of this entry button.

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I have created two very budget conscious Valentine’s Day table arrangements that I’m super excited to share.  For the first one I headed outside to my backyard.  This weekend was beautiful in Texas.  We had amazing 70 degree weather, so my task to create my Silver Branch Arrangement was much less painful than I thought it was going to be.  I headed outside with my doggies to find the perfect branch for this $7.00 arrangement.  I found a fallen branch that had really great character and broke it down to fit my table.  I snapped off a few of the little branches to clean up the overall look and then sprayed the branch silver.  I ran down to my local craft store and bought a fake branch of little pink flowers.  I cut each flower off the fake branch and hot glued the them randomly on my branch.  I placed the branch in the center of my table and placed little votives all around.  This arrangement looks AMAZING on my table.  It is completely unexpected and feels very romantic.   I think the arrangement would be really fun just about any color.  I chose silver because it works the best with my exisitng decor.  I would LOVE to see this branch a metallic bright pink with white flowers!  Just because it’s Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean you have to stick to pink and red.  This idea is so simple and cost effective you could really play around with the color.