Appetizer & Drinks Party

A couple times a year we like to have the hubby's work team over for a social event with their spouse/significant other. As a spouse to someone who works long hours and travels I enjoy to meet the people he spends more time with than me! :-) I also like to celebrate the other spouses/significant others who hold down their side of the family like I do.

Friday evening we had the team over for a Spring Social. I don't care for doing much of anything on Friday nights - I always do my long runs on Saturday mornings and that is sacred to me. It is really hard for me to get out and do a 1.5/2+ hour run by myself. I need to the support of my running group for the route and company to be out running that long. We meet at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings so I try to keep Friday nights low key so that I can get up the next morning. As the summer goes on that will be more and more important. Not only because we will be going longer and longer each Saturday but also because with the warmth of the summer we will be meeting earlier in the morning.

I wanted to keep things easy for myself with preparing for a Friday party. I did all appetizers and tried to prepare as much as possible Thursday night. Below are the recipes I made with notes about what I prepared when.

therightrecipe.org

I made this layered hummus dip a couple of times when my Mom was visiting and it's a big hit so I made it again. See my recipe here. I chopped the olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion the night before. Stored them in a container in the refrigerator and right before guests arrived I assembled and sprinkled the cheese & dill on top. Worked out great!

Annie's Eats

I first had this strawberry bruschetta at a neighbors house (Hi Maria!) and loved it. It's the perfect summer appetizer! I have used this recipe from annies-eats.com. I chopped up the strawberries & basil and sliced the bread the night before. All stored nicely in a baggie & plastic container until right before the guests arrived. 

bevcooks.com

These crostini's are really tasty! I love the combination of the sweet from the honey and peach & the pop you get in your mouth from the blue cheese. I toasted the bread the night before - really all I could do a head of time. It doesn't take too much time to assemble and melt the cheese before the party, but I started with these first when I was getting everything together.

Fresh Catering

Asparagus is in season so I thought these phyllo wraps would be a good appetizer to have and they were perfect because I could prepare the entire recipe the night before minus the baking. I lined them up on the cookie sheet, covered with plastic wrap, and popped in the refrigerator until about 30 mins before guests were scheduled to arrive. 

I of course had to make my "famous" guacamole. Honestly this is a winner every time. The hubby complained the next morning that while he was cleaning up from the party there was no guacamole to snack on or save for the next day. I guess next time I should put a bit away for him in case he doesn't get his fill during the party. I don't have a "pretty" picture of my guacamole so I found this one on the web from Jinie's Kitchen. Click here for my guacamole recipe.

Glorious Treats

I wanted to serve something sweet, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time baking something. I found this recipe for Caramel Cream Cheese Apple Dip on Pinterest and thought it would be great to give a try! I followed the recipe exactly keeping in mind that it works out best if the cream cheese is completely at room temperature. I sprinkled the top with Skor Chip Its because they are a Hershey product and that was the crowd I was entertaining! I made the entire recipe the night before, covered with plastic wrap and kept in the refrigerator until about 30 mins before the party. I wanted the cream cheese to soften a bit to make it easier to dip the apples in. 

Erin's Food Files

And last but not least the signature drink for the party Pineapple Sangria. This unfortunately can't be made ahead of time. I put this all together within the hour of the guests arriving. It was really good! I made small stir skewers of fruit and served it in mason jar mugs! It was a bit sweet, but really good!

I hope you are able to enjoy some of these recipes for your next get together!

Summary Saturday

I'm a day off! Eeek! Not a good start to my weekly summaries! It's been a busy weekend. My Mom has been visiting since Tuesday and the weather has been gorgeous so we have been outside a lot! 

Training

Monday - run: 40 min run with hill repeats. Elizabeth Primrose came out to discuss running form for our running group. Click here for the recap on that. 
strength training: legs, lots of squats & lunges!

Tuesday - off day - drove my cousin & his wife to Buffalo airport and picked up my Mom

Wednesday - run: 40 min run with hill repeats with my Mom! We did hill repeats again because I only got one set in on Monday night because of the running form part. 
strength training: upper body & core. Tonight was low weight, high intensity circuits. My Mom joined us and did great! 

Thursday - off

Friday - 7k easy run

Saturday - 12k long easy run

Web Find

We hosted a few running friends over for Saturday night steak dinner (when we are home on Saturday nights we cook steak). I was looking for some spring/summer recipes. Of course I went to Pinterest for inspiration. I found a great recipe for a hummus layered dip I want to share. It's really easy and the flavors make it taste like it was so much harder to prepare than it really was. I highly recommend it!

Layered Hummus Dip from therightrecipe.org

Layered Hummus Dip Recipe

Ingredients

16 oz container of your favorite hummus - I used a roasted garlic flavor
equal amounts (I did around 3/4 cups each) of diced tomatoes, diced red onion, chopped kalamata olives & diced cucumber
1/4 - 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles
tablespoon fresh dill 

Directions

Spread the hummus evenly on a platter - I used a cake stand like the picture from therightrecipe.org. Mix tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives & cucumber in a bowl. Spread evenly over hummus. Sprinkled feta cheese crumbles over top then fresh dill. I cut off a couple sprigs of the dill and used a kitchen scissors to chop the dill over the dip.

Serve with pita chips! Enjoy!

Goals for the Week

* I really need to get my nutrition back on track. My Mom is a healthy eater, but I feel like we drank more than usual - toasting her visit and the fabulous weather we were having. 

* With not feeling the greatest last week I did not wake up before the boys any morning. I really enjoyed that time so I need to start that again.

* Run again on my own on either Thursday or Friday. I have been only running 3 days a week since that's all the group meets for - but running this Friday morning with my Mom felt really good. I also know that will benefit my training for the marathon.

Do you have any weekly food traditions like Meatless Mondays or Saturday night Steaks? How many days a week do you run when training for a long distance race?

My "famous" Guacamole

I really love to entertain people at our home. I mostly host parties with appetizers and drinks, although I have been fine tuning my "dinner parties" as well. I am an extremely social person so I don't like to be stuck in the kitchen preparing food while my guests are at the house. I tend to prepare most items ahead of time and have them all out to munch on so that I can enjoy the party with my guests. One of my staple prepare-ahead-of-time-foods is guacamole. I make it so often people have come to expect it at a get together at our home. My cousin came to visit with his wife from Portland, Oregon and I made fish tacos for dinner. What better to serve that with than my "famous" guacamole. For a while I wasn't giving out my "secret ingredients" but I was getting asked about my recipe so often, I decided to be flattered instead of secretive about it.

So consider yourself lucky that I'm sharing my recipe, ha! :-)

I usually don't measure out my ingredients when making this guacamole. I have made it so many times I know when it's good by a quick taste or consistency. I measured things out this time around to be able to post the recipe. But with all recipes, feel free to add more of the things you like and less of what you don't!

I always consider my crowd when adding the jalapeño pepper and red hot sauce - more for those I know can handle it, less for those that can't or if I know kiddos will be eating it. Have you heard that Midwesterners, specifically Minnesotans can't handle spice? I've heard the joke that ketchup is considered a spice in Minnesota! I'm not one of those people - I can handle the non-ketchup kind of spice! :-)

I base the amount of my ingredients for this guacamole based on the number of avocados I'm going to use. I base the number of avocados I'm going to use on the amount of people I'm serving. For this batch I was making it for 6 people + a couple toddlers sneaking bites!

Ingredients (missing garlic)

Begin by chopping the cherry tomatoes. Depending on their size I usually cut them in half then quarter each half. I prefer cherry tomatoes because I like that they are firm after cut into eighths. I like my guacamole chunky! 

Halve cherry tomatoes, then quarter each half

Dice red onion - Have you ever wondered why they call it red onion when it's clearly purple?!?!

Diced red onion

Using rubber gloves chop the jalapeño and garlic. Roughly chop cilantro. 

Mix together tomatoes, onions, jalapeño, garlic & cilantro in a container you can close tightly. Squeeze the juice from one lime over the tomato mixture. Stir well, cover and refrigerate for a hour or overnight. I usually make the guacamole this far the night before. That way before I'm serving it I don't have the mess in my kitchen of all the chopping. I like how the guacamole tastes with these veggies marinating in the lime juice! 

Veggies marinating in lime juice

Just prior to serving cut up avocados. I forgot to take a picture of myself cutting the avocados. I found this picture from ourbestbites.com on how I cut them. First run your knife around the avocado the long way. Remove the pit. Slice into the avocado making a checker board look. Then spoon out into a large bowl. Repeat with each half of the avocados.

How to cut an avocado by ourbestbites.com

Mash the avocados to desired consistency. I always like to leave it a bit chunky. 

Stir in marinated tomato mixture. Add tablespoon of worcestershire sauce. This is my secret ingredient - I like how it gives the dip a smokey flavor. Depending upon how spicy I want the dip or how spicy the jalapeño is I'll had 3-4 dashes of red hot sauce. Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper to taste. I usually don't add too much salt even if it tastes like it needs it - tortilla chips have enough salt on them! Stir well and serve with tortilla chips! Enjoy!


Guacamole Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
3/4 cup diced red onion
1 medium sized jalapeno pepper (seeds removed from all or half depending on spice level desired)
2 garlic cloves - minced
juice of one lime
3 ripe avocados
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
3-4 dashes of red hot sauce (more or less depending on taste)
salt & pepper to taste

Begin by chopping the cherry tomatoes. Depending on their size I usually cut them in half then quarter each half. Using rubber gloves chop the jalapeño and garlic. Roughly chop cilantro. 

Mix together tomatoes, onions, jalapeño, garlic & cilantro in a container you can close tightly. Squeeze the juice from one lime over the tomato mixture. Stir well, cover and refrigerate for a hour or up to overnight. Just prior to serving cut up avocados. Mash the avocados to desired consistency.

Stir in marinated tomato mixture. Add tablespoon of worcestershire sauce. Depending upon how spicy I want the dip or how spicy the jalapeño is I'll had 3-4 dashes of red hot sauce. Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper to taste. I usually don't add too much salt even if it tastes like it needs it - tortilla chips have enough salt on them! 

Stir well and serve with tortilla chips! Enjoy!

Do you have a dish that you consider your "famous" or "signature" one? Do you share the recipe?