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!

Mother's Day Weekend Recipes

Whew! It's been quite a week. I feel a bit like a airport taxi service driving my cousin & his wife to and from the Buffalo, NY airport (it's WAY cheaper to fly into Buffalo than Toronto and it's only about 1.5 hours away) and then picking my Mom up there as well!

I sat down to get a head start on my Summary Saturday post for this week and it quickly turned into a post about recipes from last weekend so I'll work on the Summary later! 

When we found out we were moving to the Toronto area I immediately got in contact with my 2nd cousin who has lived here for almost 15 years. We have gotten to know him and his partner very well since living here and it's been great having a piece of family so close. His brother and wife came to visit from Portland, OR for the first time last weekend. Friday I got them from the Buffalo airport - we stopped by Niagara Falls on the way back to our house for a fish taco dinner - with of course my "famous guacamole"! 

Cousins out in Toronto!

Here's the recipe I used for the fish tacos from Brittany's Pantry. They really turned out well, I'll be using this recipe again! I served them with shredded cabbage, guacamole, corn salsa from Trader Joe's, and this black bean recipe. 

Fish Tacos by Brittany's Pantry

Seasoned Black Beans

Saturday night we got an overnight babysitter to head into Toronto. The overnight babysitter was partially my Mother's Day gift - a morning to sleep in and not worry about rushing home to the babysitter after a night out. My cousin made us homemade pizza at his place for dinner - it was Amazing! I'm afraid to even ask for the recipe because I'm not sure I could do it justice, he'll just have to make it for us again some time - soon! 

Amazing Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza!

I have loved the "invention" of Pinterest! It has become a virtual cookbook for me. I have always used the internet to find recipes vs. spending $$ on cookbooks that I only use one or two recipes from. Pinterest has made it so easy for me to organize and save recipes that I have found throughout the web. Feel free to follow my Pinterest boards here!

Do you use Pinterest to organize your recipes or are you a cookbook kind of person?