Good morning foodies!
It has been a while since I’ve done a post, and I just have to say life has been crazy busy. From road tripping to College Station (to get our butts kicked) to going home to Austin to class and catching up on homework, it’s been a lot. Anyway, on with the good stuff.
I love to cook as you know and also love perusing DIY/craft/dinner party idea blogs. For my good friend Katie’s birthday this year, I got together with the girls and we decided to put on a little dinner party for 6.
To start, I made this wonderful cream cheese frosting chocolate cake, with a recipe sent to me from Katie’s mom. The frosting turned out to be a strange off-white color (maybe because of the organic powdered sugar I used?), but turned out very tasty and cute. I decorated with edible pearl “sprinkles” to give it a girly look.
Since we were all super busy with class and meetings throughout the day, we didn’t get the time to truly decorate, but our gifts all seemed to follow the same color scheme.
For quick and easy decorations, we used flowers (lilies and hydrangeas) for a festive and feminine touch, and also a bouquet of balloons to amp up the party feel.
To start, we popped in some frozen spanakopita in the oven and took them out 10 minutes later for our passed hors d’oueuvres. Flaky little triangles of film dough stuffed with spinach and feta, these little treats are delicious and perfect for walking around with your drink and are super easy to heat up.
Everything else we made was completely homemade. Our wonderful bartender, Ali, made the cocktails. A recipe from our friend Eme’s family, the peach cocktail made for a fun and dangerously delicious concoction.
Made with one part vodka, one part pink lemonade, blended fresh peaches and some ice. I loved the peach as a garnish, and could really envision these drinks served in Bell jars. How cute! These tasted incredible and really turned out to be the perfect summer drink.
Next up, the appetizer. Our personal favorite: the caprese salad. To add some nutritional value (and presentation too), we put some extra mixed greens at the bottom, grape tomatoes, some little mozzarella balls, drizzled balsamic and oil, basil and some pepper. So simple and so yummy.
For the entree, we did a rosemary pesto grilled chicken with a side of Eme’s amazing spelt spaghetti with a vodka sauce on top. Mmmm she made the sauce herself and it turned out to be super rich and satisfying. I won’t show a photo of it because the photo just doesn’t do the dish justice.
A successful dinner party, and many more to come. What are your dinner party essentials?
Bon appétit,
ThatFoodieGirl
