FRIDAY

Breakfast:

Ok, I guess a bloody Mary is not really a balanced breakfast. I was craving nothing else so I grabbed some random stuff on my way out the door to enjoy at work when hunger strikes:

The siggi’s yogurt was not bad. It’s definitely a lot more tart than most greek yogurts, but I’m pretty hardcore in that dept so I don’t mind that. The pomegranate and passion fruit flavor was pretty mild. I still prefer oikos but I’d buy siggi’s if it was on sale (or like in this case, if I had a coupon for a free one ).

FRIDAY WORKOUT

I was really feeling Thursday’s pilates class and was hoping spinning would get the lactic acid out of my muscles. It was a great class (one of my favorite instructors is back after a long break) and I was so happy to have exercise back into my life.

BROWNIES!!

Remember this post? The brownie bake-off was this Friday!

As you know, I’ve tested a few recipes for the bake-off. For mother’s day (before I even knew of the contest), I baked rocky road bars, which came out too dry but I was impressed with the topping. Then a few weeks later (based on your suggestions) I baked some Baked brownies and declared them to be the best brownies I’ve ever had, which I find a bit funny since I’ve actually had the real Baked brownies before (yes, straight from the Baked bakery in Brooklyn). They were moist and chocolaty without being too fudgy (the kind that actually shows teeth marks when you bite into them) or cakey. Basically perfect. I didn’t know that was my ideal brownie (before that I’d say “fudgy” was my favorite) but here it was, made by yours truly. I also baked a batch of the King Arthur brownies (again based on your recommendations) for a Memorial Day pool party and everyone loved them, but my heart belongs to Baked brownies. I made a batch for the contest, topped them with marshmallows, roasted pecans and chocolate chips (just like the rocky road bars) and they became THE WINNING RECIPE at my work!! So cool. There was some very tough competition too.

Btw, I baked the plain baked brownies for 23 minutes and then after topping them with the goods, baked them for another 3 minutes. I’m telling you this because you should baked them. Asap! This day was going well so far… and then Friday night happened. Yay!

FRIDAY NIGHT OUTING

Adam and I had a party to attend later in the evening, but instead of sitting at home on our favorite night of the week, we decided to look through our groupons and such and went out for (a nearly free) dinner instead. A glass of wine + pizza at Cafe 47 was definitely a great way to start the weekend!

This was a glass of montepulciano – it was nothing special but still hit the spot. For my pizza I got an individual sized vegetarian pie with roasted red peppers, mushrooms, spinach and artichokes. I really LOVE artichokes on pizza.

I liked the chewy crust – this pizza was not bad but not the best I’ve had in Boston either. Nonetheless, slowly but surely I still ate the whole thing. Pizza is one of my favorite foods for sure!

Party time! I had 2 Magners…

… and some homemade mint julep ice cream. Classy pic, I know. The ice cream was awesome!!! I am SO making ice cream with booze for my next party. Brilliant.

SATURDAY

… was a lot classier. I started the day by meeting my sister for the aforementioned bootcamp class (had an orange and a coffee before that – unpictured). This class is great – she doesn’t do anything crazy, which is good because I don’t fear the class but it’s still very effective. Since I was already pretty sore from Thursday’s pilates (seriously?!) I was feeling every move. It was glorious. Inna loved it too!

LUNCH

A feast with local produce. Mixed greens from Silverbrook Farm (I buy my eggs from them too), fresh strawberries from Spring Brook Farm, feta from Narragansett Creamery (best feta ever!!), pecans, dried blueberries and pickled jalapenos, dressed in basil EVOO and strawberry balsamic vinegar.

Sweet, salty, spicy = amazing

+ an egg (for protein – I know random!)

Lunch was on the light side because we had a bbq to attend at 4pm at Adam’s boss’s house. The bbq was moved indoors due to the rain (we actually ended up canceling our own bbq on Sunday for the same reason ) but everything inside was still so beautiful and summery!!

During the cocktail hour I had a glass of Jordan Cabernet Savignon and munched on quite a few pita crackers with hummus and a bit of cheese.

This is my favorite Cabernet but it’s quite pricey. Basically we only drink it when we are around Adam’s boss. (i.e. Christmas and summer parties). I probably had 2.5-3 glasses throughout the evening. It’s so complex yet drinkable. Definitely one of the best.

My dinner plate…

+ some more corn salad which was phenomenal (I need to get the recipe) and a slice of bread with hummus. I left half of the cheese off. I was getting full and leaving room for dessert was a priority.

Pies! Let’s see if I get them straight – blueberry…

Peach:

Raspberry/blackberry:

I had a little slice of the apricot and the raspberry pie with vanilla ice cream of course. Pie has to be accompanied by ice cream at all times. Right? Right. I left with a bit of a stomachache (the second slice of pie was probably a mistake but I have a problem with delicious desserts, what can I say). I’d say it was worth it.

How was your weekend? I’ll recap Sunday’s eats tomorrow. It was another good day!

I kept the menu simple but of course made sure to cook some of my FIL’s favorites – pasta bolognese, fresh homemade rolls… + a special surprise dessert.

Since pasta was going to be the main star ingredient, I wanted to make sure we got the best fresh pasta we could find. Good thing we had a Groupon from Dave’s Fresh Pasta in Sommerville. It was a bit of a drive (not far but with a billion traffic lights in took forever) but the place was so cool! Dave’s offers pasta and ravioli (with the most unique fillings!) made fresh daily. They also have monthly specials for ravioli and sauces.  For the pasta, you can indicate the kind you want (I chose whole wheat) and the cut (see picture for options below).

Pappardelli is my favorite pasta cut and I thought it would go perfectly with the pork bolognese dish I had in mind.

Freshhhhh!

I made a full-fat dessert but decided to keep dinner “lighter” by following this recipe from Cooking Light for spaghetti with pork bolognese. It sounded quite rich already. I believe the “trick” is to use a mixture of ground pork tenderloin (very lean) and regular ground pork (fattier). The guy at the Whole Foods meat counter laughed at Adam when he asked for ground pork tenderloin, but I knew we could just grind it ourselves. We got a pound of pork tenderloin, and after 10 pulses in the food processor, it was perfect! [PS - if you do this, don't pulse for more than 10 pulses, otherwise it will become a pork paste - not exactly the consistency desired here]. I also omitted the onions and celery (we don’t care for either) and used organic bacon instead of pancetta since we already had it in the house. The sauce took a while (not hard, just time consuming) but at the end we had a giant bowl of papardelle with pork bolognese for our (um, my) efforts.

This pasta was rich with A LOT of pork.

I also made some no-knead overnight parmesan and thyme rolls (recipe from Cooking Light can be found here). The picture in the magazine just looked too good and the no-knead promise eluded me into thinking that this was going to be easy. Well, there were certainly a few problems with these guys for me. My yeast seemed dead (I tried it twice and didn’t see any bubbles but went ahead anyway), it didn’t roll very pretty so I cut the rolls in half (I think that was a good decision anyway); I didn’t let it rise for a full hour (since I wasn’t sure that the yeast was fully active, I didn’t bother waiting the entire time)… but they came out all right!

My plate:

I didn’t realize that the traditional bolognese is made with red meat (I knew it, it just didn’t click that this was not what I was making) but it was still pretty good. Not to-die-for amazing but quite good. Adding a pinch of nutmeg and simmering with the cinnamon stick did add nice warmth to this dish. As to the rolls – I really enjoyed the thyme, and they were a little nutty from the olive oil. A little butter went a long way on these.

The pasta was quite rich so I ate only a little over half of it, but I did have this whole glass of Honey Moon Vognier.

Oh, and a slice of Boston cream pie!

It’s my FIL’s favorite, and we all enjoyed it. And yes, you’re going to have to wait for more details on it until the next post.

What’s your favorite kind of cake?

I’m up bright and early on this chilly Sunday morning. I started an 8-week photography class this past Wednesday and our first assignment is to buy a disposable camera and take 36 pictures with it… on film. Who does that anymore, right? lol The point is to force us to think about composition, balance, etc. without worrying about the technology part; and also to provide some distance between when the picture is snapped and when you get to look at it. A fresh set of eyes is good in many aspects of our lives

So I will be braving the elements today because that’s the only time I’ll be able to catch daylight before this Wednesday. I may combine this experiment with some exercise while I’m at it. We’ll see

In other exciting news – I roasted my first whole chicken last night!!! This past week was eat-out heavy and last night marked the first night of dinners in. I’m hoping we can make it for at least a week The best part was that we were spending some time in with a few old college friends. We haven’t seen them since our wedding and it was such a treat having them in town. So yeah, I am trying to come up with a go-to recipe repertoire for entertaining. For now I have two – goat cheese, pecan and date stuffed pork tenderloin (delicious but I’ve done it a million times already) and sweet-spicy glazed salmon (Pete and Erin hate fish so no go on this one). I heard that roasting a chicken is super easy so I thought it would be fun to give it a go. How does this look?

For my first roasted chicken ever, I consulted the Food Network – more specifically Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for the perfect roast chicken. Perfect chicken? That sounds pretty good to me!

I stuffed the chicken with lemon halves, garlic halves (as per Ina’s recipe) + thyme and rosemary sprigs. For the veggies I cut up a pound of parsnips and almost a whole bag of baby carrots (all we had, I forgot to buy extra carrots by mistake) which I tossed with 1T of EVOO and S&P. Under the chicken they went. Oh I brushed the outside of the chicken with 1T of EVOO too Ok, now they went into the oven…. and 30 minutes later, a pound of small red potatoes cut in half and tossed with 1T of EVOO, S&P also joined the party. All together, an hour and a half later – we had dinner!! [Don't forget to let it rest for 20 minutes!]

My carving skills left a lot to be desired, but we still had plenty of food.

Proud roasted chicken mama

Let’s EAT! … and drink. I had 2 small glasses from this bottle. Not bad.

… and of course some chicken and LOTS of veggies! The chicken was nice and moist but the veggies stole the show for me. The parsnips and the carrots, especially. They caramelized and soaked up all the chicken juices. They tasted like melt-in-your mouth candy – SO amazing. We all loved them.

Mmm, veggies. My only regret is not doubling the amount of parsnips. I bought 2 lbs but then chickened out (hehe, no pun intended) that it would be an overload.

Yum, yum, yum. A little dessert after dinner was the perfect way to end the meal (more details on the dessert to come in the next post).

Happy Sunday! I’m off to get ready for my in-laws’ arrival. More entertaining. Love it!

Have you ever roasted a chicken before? Any tricks of the trade you’d like to share here? I liked this recipe a lot but I think next time I’m going to try rubbing the chicken with herbs under the skin.

Giada’s pea pesto crostini

Grapes + smoked gouda and sharp cheddar

Pita chips (for the spinach artichoke dip – unpictured)

Peanut butter filled pretzels

Roasted almonds

Most of the spread (sans the dip)

I sat right next to the almond cherry chocolate clusters and ate my weight in them

The pea crostini was the cutest looking thing, the spinach artichoke (as always) was the star, and the clusters scared my guests but that just means there are more left more me. I had a few glasses of wine and ended the night on the couch with the hubs, watching 3 episodes of the Office in a row. Not a bad night at all.

See you later with a more insightful post about my progress with IE (spoiler alert: there is no real progress yet). Have a great weekend, everybody!!

In middle school, my family moved to Israel and the idea of take-out was introduced into my life. This was further solidified when we moved to the US, and most gatherings with friends were now at the local Dunkin Donuts or at someone’s house with a giant plastic container full of Chinese food. College was pretty similar, except alcohol was introduced into the mix – in large quantities at that.

Over the past few months, Adam and I hosted and attended a few dinner parties. There was no greasy, cheap food, no binge drinking – just a home-cooked meal with nice wine and a great conversation. Last night, on the way back home from such a dinner party, it hit me – this is what you do in your late 20′s (and probably well into your 30′s or until kids start ruining all your fancy plans)! I have to say – I’m really liking this new stage of my life, and I can’t wait to host more dinner parties at our own house soon!!

Before I get into the dinner party details, let’s quickly review the rest of the day’s eats – they were really good!

BREAKFAST

2 Vermont spelt toasts with low fat cottage cheese, Zoe’s granola and almond slices + 1 orange

Toast close-up – great combo!

Juicy orange…

MID-MORNING SNACK

1T peanut butter + 1/2 apple

LUNCH DATE

The fun lunch date I mentioned last night was with the lovely Shannon of Tri 2 Cook. She joined me for a sweaty spin class and then we went to b.good. My salad from Friday finally convinced her to give b.good a go! I stopped myself from ordering the same thing and got the sesame ginger chicken salad this time – mesclun, carrots, jicama, edamame, sesame seeds, sesame sticks, orange-soy dressing

The lighting there is horrible but hopefully you can see all the goodies in there… chicken + sesame sticks

jicama, carrots, edamame…

I really liked this salad as well. Shannon liked her b.good burger.

For dessert I stopped by Paradise Bakery and got myself a choc chip cookie. I <3 them!

The salad + cookie combo held me over for 7 hours!! And now we get to the part where I tell you all about the dinner party Adam and I attended last night.

DINNER

So as you all know, we currently don’t have a kitchen to cook in. Somehow we were talking about that and Turkish food, and my co-worker Egemen offered to cook dinner for Adam and me one day. Hey, you don’t have to ask me twice! I’ve never had homemade Turkish food so this was quite a treat.

Egemen did a really great job setting up for dinner. There were lots of candles and some simple apps to munch on while he was finishing up dinner. Very cozy. His friends Margaret and Amanda joined us for the meal as well. We all loved the juicy strawberries and the cheese sampler.

I had a few glasses of wine with dinner. Here is my first pour.

And now for the real treat – slow braised lamb + hunkar begendi (eggplant cream)

Egemen really went all out! The lamb took 2 days to marinate + 3 hours to cook. It was really melting in your mouth – so tender! The hunkar begendi was the most unique eggplant dish I’ve had. It is a combo of roasted eggplant meat, flour, butter and mozzarella. SO good. You could really taste the smokiness of the eggplant. Now I miss my mom’s.

Dessert was another traditional Turkish dish – walnut and cinnamon stuffed figs (sorry, I don’t know the exact name) with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge

This was very sweet and very cinnamony – a small portion was perfect to end the meal on a sweet note. Delicious! Thanks Egemen for hosting us – we’ll need to return the favor by cooking for you and the girls next time.

Do you like dinner parties?

As mentioned, their housewarming party started at 4pm, so the menu was centered around different crostini and a few other fun finger foods. Every single thing was incredible and all recipes came from Cooking Light so we were filling up on nutritious food. That’s definitely my kind of party food!

Pumpernickel toasts with sour cream, lox and chives

Believe it or not, I was actually dreaming about this exact combo a few nights ago. I had a few of these guys.

Fig and goat cheese crostini

The super sweet figs were nicely complemented by the tangy goat cheese. Delicious!

The hostess multi-tasking…

Beef tenderloin, herbed cheese, spinach and gorgonzola crostini

The beef was so tender – perfectly cooked! I really enjoyed the creaminess of the spread under the spinach but unfortunately it had chives which proved to be too oniony for me. I think this was the guys’ favorite appetizer though – a definite hit at the party.

And finally we get to my favorite crostini of the night: roasted red pepper and olive crostini

Katie went through the trouble of roasting her own peppers instead of buying the jarred variety. You could really taste the difference!!

I could eat this whole bowl of the topping in one seating.

Spinach and artichoke dip with tortilla chips

Lots of cheese + crackers

The food never stopped coming… those little crostini plates were refilled throughout the night. The hosts had a few helpers so they were able to mingle with friends as well. Great idea!

How about a pose for the blog?

And then there was drinking! I had a few cups of white wine…

Some red…

And….. a raspberry jello shot! Yep, you read that right. Awesome!

These were strong! I stuck to just one… and a million bites of dessert!!!

Random party pics…

We met some really cool people and of course had fun drinking and chatting with existing friends. And I definitely ate my weight in apps + dessert! They say you should sit away from the table with the food if you want to limit mindless snacking, but I’m pretty sure I have an internal magnet in my system so I just couldn’t stay away. It was all SO good! Best party food I’ve ever had in my life. Seriously!! It was as if it was all tailored to my taste buds.

We left the party stuffed and happy and headed to our friends Kyle and Tiffany’s place where I learned that I’m useless at Trivial Pursuit (actually that wasn’t a surprise at all)… they need more food related questions, lol.

How is your weekend going? Did you cast a vote in my poll yet?

Katie is as health conscious as I am (maybe even more – she’s getting married in 6 months!) so our whole menu for the night was from Cooking Light. Awesome!! I started with a glass of this Louis Latour Pinor Noir. I’m not the biggest fan of Pinot Noir but this was a crisp bottle – a nice way to start the meal.

Mike made sure to refill my glass when it was getting low, so I have no idea how much I really drank (maybe 4 glasses?). Between the 4 of us, 2 bottles of beer and 4+ bottles of wine were consumed. The guys did most of the heavy lifting Like I said, it was a good time!

After getting the tour of their place, which is gorgeous (!!!!), we sat down for dinner. Our first course was a roasted cauliflower soup, finished with truffle oil (recipe can be found here, onions were omitted and hazelnut oil was replaced by truffle oil).

It was so thick and rich, I hesitated about finishing my portion but everyone else polished theirs off so I slowly followed suit. I was shocked to find out that this was only 87 calories/serving. Seriously, Katie didn’t tell me she used Cooking Light recipes until the end so I thought she chose to serve us full fat meals for dinner. The truffle oil gave it a real depth. Very delicious!

Next up, Mike got to carve the roasted chicken (recipe to come).

On the side we enjoyed some hericot verts…

… and whole wheat couscous with dried fruit

My portion (I had a little bit more of the chicken).

The chicken was the star for sure. I’ve actually never roasted a chicken before and was impressed with Katie’s skills – it was so moist and flavorful! She rubbed it with spices under the skin, so when the skin was removed, there was a lot of flavor. She convinced me to give it a go once we have our kitchen back.

And now, my favorite part of dinner (shocker, I know!) – dessert.  Katie cutting the cake…

She made this carrot cake with toasted coconut cream cheese frosting. OMG – so incredible!! The cake was super moist and rich and full of plump raisins and then the cream cheese frosting put it over the top. Perfectly sweet with a fun twist of toasted shredded coconut.

We all loved it (including Adam who supposedly hates carrot cake and coconut – yes, even he wanted seconds). Speaking of seconds, I couldn’t help myself. My sweet tooth nearly always wins, what can I say And that, my bloggie friends, is how you consume nearly 700 calories in just dessert!

I took pictures of the rest of my eats from earlier in the day, but I’m going to leave them off so this meal gets its full blog glory.  The dinner was absolutely fabulous! Thank you, Mike and Katie for hosting us!! We can’t wait to have you over for dinner again when our kitchen is done!

When you have people over for dinner, do you try new recipes or serve tried and true classics? Healthify them or make it a full splurge and stick with the full fat versions? I’m all about doing it Cooking Light-style!

Despite a late-ish get together, I couldn’t help myself with a few appetizers and desserts

An antipasti plate with grapes, aged gouda, smoked gouda, four pepper goat cheese, salami and mixed olives

Tzatziki which I made by following this recipe from Cooking Light. I substituted 2% greek yogurt for nonfat plain and used dried dill and no mint. The result was so fresh and delicious. I think this was the best thing I made for the party!

Fresh cauliflower, baby carrots and cucumber slices for dipping…

My mom helped out with some cooking as well, and made these little cheese puffs. They have cheddar baked right into the dough, and are stuffed with russian cottage cheese, A LOT of garlic and fresh dill. This is a recipe my mom got from a German magazine when we were kids so although it’s not Russian, it really reminds me of my childhood. Everyone loved these guys of course!

Bacon potato chips I got from Foodzie for Adam’s Christmas stocking. The reviews on these were mixed. They are definitely on the weird side – lots of smoky flavor for sure!

Crab dip based on this recipe from Cooking Light. I halved it (because crab is expensive!), used claw meat (see previous reason), used 4% cottage cheese (I wasn’t sure how the fat-free would melt) and omitted the scallions. I tasted the batter before baking it and thought it was amazing. Post baking it was a little fishy, although one of our friends was converted into a crab lover during the party (the first bite was just okay to him, but he kept going back!) which I guess is the best review that could be given to this dip. It was also gone by the end of the night – another good sign.

I tried it with some cauliflower…

Trader Joe’s ham & cheese puff pastry bites

No prep required, just pop in the oven and bake. Perfect for a random get together or when you want to keep the cooking to the minimum! This was actually my strategy for the party – I made a few dips, but then relied on some store bought extras (cheeses, meats, chips, veggies, etc.). It worked out great – I was hardly in the kitchen to pull this off!

DESSERTS!

Desserts I made a few days before the party, to make sure I don’t run out of time. That would be criminal

I started with Ellie Krieger’s no bake lemon cheesecake bars…

They set a little better over the next 24 hours (after the last post), but I still served them in little muffin liners with spoons. This was definitely less messy! Overall I really liked the taste of them, but the texture just complicated things too much. I wouldn’t make them again unless I figured out how I can get them to perfectly set next time.

Next, my mom surprised me with a cake for the party. This one is called “holiday” in Russian, which was quite appropriate. The base is an almond meal crust (I think), topped with custard and chocolate ganache.

I was in heaven after the first bite. Here it is cut into party size bites. Mmm… thanks mom!!!!! My mom’s goods were my favorite from the whole spread!

Lastly, the peppermint bark cookies made an appearance as well. Of course!

Some alcohol was also involved We had some wine and glasses set up…

And a make your-own mixed drink set up. It worked out really well. People were making all sorts of fun concoctions!

+ a lot of beer! We have so much left now because everyone brought way more than they could drink. Not the worst thing in the world

I had a few glasses of red...

Then Pran showed up with sangria and I couldn’t resist… drank a few glasses of that. I love sangria!

A little posing action

Somebody wasn’t too amused. Hehe (actually he smiled right after the camera clicked – tough guy!)

So much fun! How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve?

I spent the majority of my first day of 2010 on the couch, watching reruns of the Next Iron Chef. Good times. I’m off to the gym now. I’ll be back this weekend with my New Years Resolutions for 2010 (want to digest them for a few days). Did you make resolutions yet? Have a fabulous weekend and a happy 2010!!!!!!!

Our house smells like Christmas!!

Fresh flowers in the vase…

And the dining room table set…

Everybody – have some wine! [This was a fantastic Chianti my dad brought.]

FIRST COURSE

We started with a nice salad: mixed greens, arugula, roasted apples, pomegranate seeds and hazelnuts

I thought all the salad ingredients complemented each other really well – the sweet and savory balance was spot on (she pats herself on the back…).

I followed this recipe for the dressing (cut the oil by 1/2).

I also decided to make little appetizers with the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry (I received a free coupon for it from Foodbuzz).

These guys were inspired by a pasta I used to love at an old local restaurant in New York.  They’re topped with vodka sauce, roasted asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and a graded parmesan. Delicious!!

My plate:

SECOND COURSE

The star of the show: sweet-spicy glazed salmon. This is one of my favorite salmon recipes – I follow this recipe from Cooking Light, substituting 1/2 honey mustard and 1/2 country dijon mustard for Chinese-style hot mustard.

Haricot verts, steamed then sauteed in a tiny bit of EVOO with garlic.

Couscous pilaf (recipe based on p. 12 of The Best of Cooking Light, Great Plates) – ww couscous, dried cherries, almond slivers, lemon zest and S&P.

My plate (I ate 1/2 of it… getting stuffed!)

The salmon was a hit! This glaze is fabulous!!

The cherries in the couscous were my favorite. I <3 cherries

Let’s not forget the veggies. Simple preparation doesn’t mean simple taste.

DESSERT

The almond, cherry chocolate clusters made their appearance on the dinner table. This recipe is already becoming a staple in my entertaining repertoire because it takes just minutes to make and everybody loves these clusters!

All 12 were gobbled up!

My aunt also brought a dessert – a local specialty called “chuck chuck.” Her mother-in-law made this particular batch with nearly every ingredient home-grown. This is little homemade pastry noodles, fried then covered in a honey glaze. The eggs are from the chickens they have and the honey is from their own honey-combs. Pretty awesome. We picked on this sticky mess all night. Mmm…..

Teas galore

My first portion (I had a whole lot more of the chuck chuck)

Family pic for evidence Happy bellies…

I’m really in the holiday spirit now!! Thank you, parents, for my early Chanukkah cash. I’m off to shop! Oh, I have to go to work first? Ok, ok…

See you guys later!

APPETIZERS

Mashed potato and mushroom filled cups with dollops of sour cream (I was going for a Russian inspired appetizer)

Fresh mozzarella/grape tomato skewers (Adam assembled these babies. Pretty, no?)

Endive boats stuffed with oranges, goat cheese and candied walnuts (I followed this recipe from Cooking Light, which I found through Good Things Catered)

These were so fresh and tasty… a great combination of flavors!

Beef sliders with toppings…

I made the burgers by adding some salt, pepper, garlic powder and Country Bob’s all purpose sauce to ground 96% lean beef, and then grilling them (obvi ).

The star of the show (unsurprisingly) – spinach artichoke dip (using this recipe from Cooking Light).

This is the BEST spinach artichoke dip (including less healthy versions)!! I’ve made it numerous times before (I found at least 4 posts on my blog with pictures of it and happy “customers”) and really have no desire to ever try another recipe. Why mess with perfection?!

DESSERTS

Blondies (I followed this recipe from Cooks Illustrated)

They were delicious, but unfortunately a little dry (I got busy and overbaked them by mistake ). Most of them are gone, though, so I’d say they were still a “great success.”

Lauren brought the most delicious Veganomicon‘s Apple Peanut Butter Caramel Bars

Molly brought some yummy brownies (Molly, do you want to share your secret recipe with us? )

And Shannon brought apple and carrot shortbread cookies (I believe she followed this recipe). These were a little more subtly sweet than the rest of the over-the-top desserts. I personally really enjoyed them (you’ll even see them in my breakfast this morning )

My sister and I split this little plate and enjoyed it very much

We also enjoyed some pomegranate margarita!

Oh yeah, I also can’t get enough of this seasonal hard cider:

GOOD FUN

My friend Pran being silly (I thought she was a little close to me when we were posing… )

Shannon, me, Pran, Dina and Katy

More posing…

Adam and me

Black is where it’s at

You know the party is not bad when people start doing tequila shots at the end of the night (not moi). A little salt helps it go down easy…

It was so much fun! It was a lot of work, but I think Adam and I did a great job organizing everything and everyone seemed to have a really good time… that’s all you can ask for! Do you love entertaining?