Saturday, January 4, 2014
New Year's Eve!
When we FINALLY moved into the house, one of the first things I had said to Nick was, "We are hosting the New Year's Eve party this year!" Nick and his brother used to host the party at their house every year. Just as I used to host the party at my house before Nick and I met. So it was nothing but fitting for the two of us to have a party with both of our friends.
I kept the decorations very simple. The house was still decorated for Christmas which left a festive flare. I purchased a NYE party kit and displayed the hats, tiaras, and horns around the house. I set up a little bar area and placed snacks throughout each room. After lighting a few candles and turning on the fun "disco" under cabinet lighting we were ready for a party!
To keep it a little easier on myself, I had everyone bring snacks and drinks to share. This actually left us with lots of meatballs, chips, and cookies the next day. But everything was very delicious! The evening was spent with good friends, good music, and lots of dancing! I would not want to ring in 2014 any other way!
I kept the decorations very simple. The house was still decorated for Christmas which left a festive flare. I purchased a NYE party kit and displayed the hats, tiaras, and horns around the house. I set up a little bar area and placed snacks throughout each room. After lighting a few candles and turning on the fun "disco" under cabinet lighting we were ready for a party!
To keep it a little easier on myself, I had everyone bring snacks and drinks to share. This actually left us with lots of meatballs, chips, and cookies the next day. But everything was very delicious! The evening was spent with good friends, good music, and lots of dancing! I would not want to ring in 2014 any other way!
My girls and I had a bit of a photo shoot as well. Our photographer really got some good shots.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving!
It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone already. A month of preparation, changing the menu at least four times, coming up with the perfect tablescape...lots of work went into the day but it was all worth it. My work began Wednesday night. My sister came over and we cut up the vegetables and cheese for a little appetizer platter. I made the cranberry sauce, along with the croutons for the stuffing. Plus, I had made the Pumpkin Pie Lasagna Tuesday night to give me a head start as well. Doing all of this prep work ahead of time saved me the headache on Thanksgiving day. This also allowed me to have a dinner out with the family and meet up with some friends who were in town for the holiday.
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Menu
Oven Roasted Turkey (Ina Garten's recipe)
Mashed Potatoes
Apple, sausage, and pomegranate stuffing
Homestyle stuffing
Roasted root vegetables
Corn
Sauteed green beans with slivered almonds
Cranberry-orange sauce
Crescent Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Caramel Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie Lasagna
I started my day out early to get a walk in with the dog before all the cooking started. The turkey went into the oven just at 11:00am allowing me to enjoy some brunch with the twins. From here we just continued cooking throughout the afternoon. I had a cheese and crudite platter along with shrimp cocktail ready for when the rest of the family arrived. With a little help from the twins and my mom, I was able to get the rest of the meal cooked and on the buffet just after 5:00pm. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. Of course we were all stuffed to the brim. We wanted to wait for Nick to get home from work before we had dessert, so this enabled us all to digest our dinner to make room for our delectable desserts. Overall, it was a nice day. I really enjoyed cooking this meal for my family. It was a lot of work but fun to cook up a bunch of different recipes. Next year I'll be sure to try some new ideas along with keeping some of the old. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. And perhaps a few of you were able to get some great deals on Black Friday as well!
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Menu
Oven Roasted Turkey (Ina Garten's recipe)
Mashed Potatoes
Apple, sausage, and pomegranate stuffing
Homestyle stuffing
Roasted root vegetables
Corn
Sauteed green beans with slivered almonds
Cranberry-orange sauce
Crescent Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Caramel Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie Lasagna
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Thanksgiving Preparation
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| Norman Rockwell's "The Thanksgiving Picture" (1942) |
I would say that Thanksgiving is the biggest and most highly anticipated dinner party of the year. People spend weeks preparing for this event. The guest list, the menu, the entertainment...there are endless things you could spend time on to plan the perfect day. Creating this American tradition can become very daunting and stressful. However with a little planning and preparation you will be able to enjoy the company of your guests and savor your delicious meal.
Below I have shared with you a few tips and tricks I have learned by watching others throughout the years. This year will in fact be my first year preparing the entire meal. I decided to follow my own advice to be sure that I can enjoy the day as well.
1. Plan your menu.
The food is after all the main event. By planning ahead you will be able to save a lot of time and stress rather than waiting until a few days before. First you want to figure out how many people you will be serving. This will give you a general idea of how much you will need to make. To start, you want to choose a few light appetizers to hold people over until dinner. You do not want anything extra filling or heavy as everyone will be too stuffed to enjoy their dinner. Crudités, a cheese platter, or any assortment of savory dips are all good options. Plus they can be prepared ahead of time.
For the main course, you of course want turkey. If preparing a whole turkey, figure you'll need a pound per person. Turkey breasts are good substitutes if you are only serving a small crowd. As far as the side dishes, try not to go overboard. There are so many options to choose from this can become quite difficult. Before you know it, you are mixing up ten different side dishes on top of the turkey itself. This can get a bit crazy and time consuming. Narrow down your choices to a handful of dishes. This way you are not overloaded with left overs and you'll be able to save yourself some time in the kitchen.
Now of course you cannot forget dessert. Pies are of course the traditional ending to a Thanksgiving meal. Although there are a plethora of other options. Again, try not to go too crazy and complicated. Three to five options, depending on your number of guests should be plenty. Just be sure to have enough for your each person to enjoy.
2. Decor
The table setting can be just as important as the food itself. You want decor that will showcase your meal, but not overwhelm it. I enjoy the neutral colors of the season. Tans, greens, golds, and browns are all perfect for tablecloths and napkins. Throw in some pops of orange and purples for accents as well. If your table is big enough, utilize the food as the centerpiece. Throw in a few votive candles and you have yourself a beautiful tablescape. If you however will not be using the table to serve, try a few small bouquets of flowers in autumn hues. Be sure that the displays are short enough for people to see the person sitting across from them. Again, use a few votive candles to create a nice ambiance. For service, I like to use white plates and serving dishes. This will really show off the food that you've spent hours preparing for your guests.
3. Prepare ahead of time
There are quite a few items on your menu that I'm sure can be made or prepped ahead of time. Desserts and appetizers can definitely be made a few days in advance. This will also free up oven space on the big day. Cut up any fruits, vegetables, herbs, cheese, etc. and package them all to the desired measurement ahead of time. That way when it is time to cook the dish of choice, your prep work is already complete. Cranberry sauce, soups, or any other side dishes that are able to be made in advance can be quickly reheated and served to, again, save you more time. I can not stress enough, the more you prepare ahead the easier your Thanksgiving day will be.
I hope that these few tips and tricks will assist in your Thanksgiving Day planning. Be sure to share any of your favorite recipes, ideas, or tips as well!
Happy Planning!
Monday, November 18, 2013
Friends-Giving!
This is the first holiday season in our new home. Naturally, I am very excited about this. Anyone who knows me is aware of my love for this time of year. So when my mom had asked me to host Thanksgiving this year, I jumped right into. After agreeing, I decided I should have a test run. It would after all be my first Thanksgiving dinner that I cook entirely on my own. This is when I decided I would host "Friends-Giving"! We like to have "family" dinner whenever possible, so why not host the biggest dinner event of the year! This way I could test out some of my recipes on a large group of people and have fun while doing it.
The evening started out with a handful of people, but quickly turned into a lovely dinner party. I asked that everyone contribute in some way. I cooked the turkey (along with a few side dishes) and everyone else brought various other desserts, beverages, and accompaniments.
Below is what our menu looked like:
Two turkey breasts: One roasted, another was cooked in the slow cooker.
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Sweet Potato Hash (This dish was previously mentioned in the last "My Week of Dinners" post made by Deirdre)
Macaroni and Cheese
Green Bean Casserole
Pulled Pork
Cranberry Sauce
Crescent Rolls
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Apple Tart
Strawberry Cream Pie
Every last bit of it was delicious. And of course, we were all stuffed to the brim upon finishing. It turned out to be a lovely evening with a great group of friends. Quattro of course was enjoying the company as well.
After cleaning up, I realized I had two breast bones left over. I decided that I would not let them go to waste. Tonight I made turkey stock which I figured will be perfect for various dishes on actual Thanksgiving next week. It was pretty simple too!
Turkey Stock
Ingredients
Turkey breast bones
1/2 onion, cut in half
3 carrots, roughly chopped
3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
8 sprigs of time
Palm full of whole peppercorns
Water
Directions
Place all of the ingredients in a stock pot. Fill the pot with water until the turkey bones are covered. Bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer and cook for about 2-3 hours. Strain the liquid into a container and seal. Refrigerate or freeze once cooled.
This recipe can easily be used for chicken stock as well. If using a whole turkey carcass, double up on the veggies.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
A Visit to the Vineyards
I have previously posted about my friend Cara's bridal shower. We in fact hosted two showers for the bride-to-be since her family lives in Upstate New York and the grooms family lives in Downstate New York. Both went off without a hitch. The next scheduled event was of course the bachelorette party. The MOH planned a wonderful weekend for the bride and her friends. We kept it small and intimate with just the bridesmaids. Liz arranged for a limo to pick us up in the morning to take us out to Long Island vineyards. Anyone who knows Cara is aware of her love for wine. So this was nothing but perfect.
It could not have been a more perfect day. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze. We enjoyed the ride with some mimosas and good music. The tour took us through three different vineyards where we were able to enjoy a number of different wines, some lunch on one of the vineyard patios, and live music. Of course the day would not have been complete without paying a visit to a few members of the animal kingdom. We ended the days events with a hibachi dinner for six and a three hour game of Cards Against Humanities.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Cara's Bridal Shower
(Myself, the bride, and the MOH Liz)
Today I co-hosted a bridal shower for my very dear friend Cara. Cara, Liz, and I have all been friends since high school. I have been so happy and honored to be apart of this special time in her life. This shower was the second of two bridal showers. The first was held in downstate NY for the grooms family and friends. Though today's shower was a bit smaller, I am pleased to say it turned out quite well!
We kept the decor very simple, but charming. The center pieces consisted of a charger plate, mason jar with wild flowers, tea lights, and pictures of the bride and groom throughout the past five years of their relationship. We were able to get all of the pieces fairly inexpensively. The Christmas Tree Shop sells all of the items at half the cost you would normally pay. The flowers we were able to purchase in bulk at the local farmers market for a fraction of the price at a florist. The MOH also came across a pretty heart-shaped wreath that we decorated with some of the flowers. We used this for the back of the brides chair as a small, inexpensive touch.
Yours truly baked the dessert, vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. The wedding favors were DIY as well. We packaged cookies into a cellophane decorative bag and tied it together with a handmade flower and bow.
We organized two games for the ladies to partake in, as any traditional shower should. The first was "Finish the Song Lyrics". I had printed versus from various love songs and left out a part of the lyric. The woman with the most correct answers at each table was awarded the floral center piece! Also, naturally, we had bridal BINGO. By using the centerpieces as the prizes, not only were we able to get rid of 8 vases of flowers that neither Liz nor I wanted to truck home, we were also able to keep spending minimal by not having to buy additional gifts to give away.
I feel that any event, in this case a bridal shower, can be completed on a budget. We were able to cut costs by doing a lot of the details ourselves. Be creative! There is a whole world of ideas out there by just simply searching the world wide web. When in doubt, scroll through Pinterest to get your wheels turning, then let your creative mind do the work.
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