Tea Party

Ever since my good friend gave me a book about hosting tea parties, I've been excited about the ideas that came about from this book, going back to my days back in England years ago. It also turned out to work well, to follow the Royal Wedding! I did have some help (which I, personally, think every good hostess needs) but had a lot of fun putting everything back together.

The Invite

Tea Cups

Tea

The Menu:

Quiches

Scones

Tea Sandwiches

Cupcakes

Creme Filled Phyllo

Lemon Cookies

Close up of Sandwiches

Tea Cocktails

(Tea Forte)

Scones and Jam

The Guests

Tea Forte

Cupcake Tower

Alice in Wonderland Inspired Cupcakes

Roasted Chicken

It all started with a "special" chicken recipe that a dear friend sent to me. I had never made whole roasted chicken before, so this was absolutely an adventure! I followed the recipe from my cookbook: 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know: A Glamour Cookbook making a recipe that was called infamously "Engagement Chicken."

I mean, I had nothing to loose, so figured I could try the chicken! Not that the recipe was really going to get me anywhere, I felt like it would at least be a good recipe!

So the first line of the instructions reads:

"Remove and discard the chicken giblets"

I mean, this seems like such an easy task, it's only 6 measly words. Well, I was absolutely wrong. I have no issues with raw meat, but this really got to to me! Once this part was done, there was another issue at hand with this recipe.

Mr. Movie doesn't even really like lemon, and since the recipe calls for really, only lemon, I had to add some seasoning, to say the least. I added additional vegetable stock, bay leaves, basil, thyme, onion, oregano, garlic and parsley.

I followed the rest of the instructions accordingly and came out with an amazing chicken!

The rest of the meal was broccoli with bread crumb topping, truffle mushroom farfalle pasta with onions. It was delicious! The chicken was juicy and flavorful. I highly recommend it!

Truffle Oil

Broccoli with Bread Crumbs

Final Product of the meal:

Lettuce Wraps and Beef Teriyaki Skewers

One of my favorite item at PF Chang's is their lettuce wraps! I think they are great! I don't know about you, but sometimes I think of my side item, then come up with an entree to go with it! This particular weeknight meal was Beef Teriyaki skewers that I marinated over night with teriyaki sauce and garlic, with a small out amount of salt, pepper and a dash of worcestershire sauce: (it doesn't look that appetizing, but in order to get the full flavor, marinating over night is the best!)

Of course, Mr. Movie loves Pineapple, and I thought it would be a great way to include another flavor to the meal!

I used the George Foreman Grill to grill these guys!

Now for the lettuce wraps, I used:

Ground chicken, mushrooms, water chestnuts, onions, garlic and rice noodles.

For the record, the rice noodles don't taste so great plain, they definitely need to be cooked, which I suppose makes sense, but I didn't realize right away!

Here is the final product!

Do you have a favorite recipe that you like to re-create from a favorite restaurant? I would love to hear about it!

Cookbook Library

There is something about a new book that always is exciting to me. I have loved getting them since I was a kid. Now that I have my wonderful Kindle, I get all of my books on there and love reading from it! There is still something however, about getting a new book, with the smell and the fresh feel of opening the pages for the first time. These days, my favorite library (and only) to fill, is my cookbook library! Recently, I just got two new cookbooks to add to the collection and every time I get more excited to cook when I look at them!

The Food Network, finally put out a cookbook (it's about time!) After looking at it, it seems that it's more of a compilation of the magazine recipes all in one book. If you get the magazine already, the book isn't as necessary.

The next cookbook I purchased was a fun purchase that Glamour Magazine put out, about recipes women should know. I am very excited to try a few of them! I must thank my dear friend, Tanya for suggesting this to me!

My Divvies Bakery Cookbook was a very thoughtful Valentine's Gift from Mr. Movie, to combine my desire to stay dairy free with my love for baking! I haven't tried a lot of these ones, but you can bet that I'll be trying some of these very soon!

This Cupcake book has been so pivotal in my cake decorating! I love every single idea, and loved it so much, I got the calendar for 2011! I totally recommend this cookbook for anyone who loves to make fun cupcakes!

Clearly, my love for hosting and cooking has made it easy for friends to find a great gift for me! I got this Tea Party Book from my dear friend Masha for my birthday. It has inspired me to host a Tea Party on May Day (of course there will be a post on that!). I love the ideas that it comes with and that it doesn't leave anything left in the air!

Here is another cookbook that I received as a gift, for Dairy Free cooking! It has a lot of soy cheese and tofu, which I don't usually cook with, but a lot of great ideas!

I would say that my Joy of Cooking Cookbook, is my most prized cookbook. It has the best descriptions for everything. I would be lost without this one! (Again another gift that most certainly won my heart!)

This was my first Dairy Free cookbook, that has changed my view on cooking with Dairy more then ever. Not only does it include great recipes, but a lot of great information and tips for Dairy Free Living! I love their website even more!!

Another Staple Cookbook, Betty Crocker! Definitely a go to cookbook for quick and easy recipes for me! I love the way it's laid out, and the pictures are great too!

Upon my visit to Josi's Restaurant in NYC, I got this cookbook (signed too!) and love the recipes and creativity in it! I recommend if you are dairy free to get this cookbook!

Another wonderful dairy free cookbook, focused more on the healthy end of dairy free eating. I really love the info and recipes in this one!

Ok, now that I have shared a little about most of my cookbooks, what are the cookbooks you can't live without? I would love to hear about them and maybe even add a few to my collection!

Weeknight Cooking

One of my biggest hurdles during the week is thinking of a new recipe that meets a full criteria, they are: the recipe won't take too long, is somewhat healthy and tastes delicious, especially for those eating, including by not limited to my Italian food loving boyfriend, "Mr. Movie." Honestly, there are days where I wish I could just stay at home and think about what to make and spend hours making it, but the reality is, people have to work!

Thankfully, I started looking on Food Network for some ideas of something that would be a little different then our usual. I came up with Turkey Meatballs, Spaghetti and Spinach and Broccoli Stuffed Rolls. I laugh because I say that I wanted something easy and the aforementioned might sound crazy, but only takes less then an hour to make! I will note, that there were two grocery store runs, so always, make sure you have everything you need before getting started! Mid-cooking grocery stores are my LEAST favorite thing!

First the Turkey Meatballs (from a mixture of recipes!)

1 LB Ground Turkey

1/2 an Onion, chopped

1 1/2 Cups of Breadcrumbs

Basil, Thyme, Oregano and Garlic

(as much or little as you like)

2 Eggs

Mix everything up:

Brown in oil

(I know, so healthy right?)

Then serve with Pasta and Sauce!

These Turkey Meatballs turned out really tasty!

Then we have the stuffed rolls.

This has been a fun thing that I have been making with Mr. Movie for the past couple of years. We have fun using store bought pizza dough to stuff with whatever we have left over (Sausage and Peppers work great in the rolls), to give it a new spin! These particular rolls are filled with broccoli, spinach and mozzarella (mine had only broccoli and a little mayonnaise, to keep the dairy out but still have something to keep it from being too dry!)

Stuffed Rolls Recipe:

1 package of store bought dough

Vegetables of your choice, in this case Spinach and Broccoli

Sliced Mozzarella

Olive Oil to spread on top of Dough

before putting in the oven

Once the Veggies are cooked, roll out the dough, fill with your ingredients and roll up like a burrito then spread a little bit of oil on top to brown ! (See Below!)

Here is the finished product!

My favorite part of Italian Food, the red wine!

If you have extra meatballs, they make a great leftover meal for the next night. Turkey Meatball sandwiches made a quick and easy (and delicious) meal for Wednesday!

Again, I'm not saying I'm the best cook, by any means, but I know that I get bored of some of my recipes and love to hear new ideas. This meal would not likely ever been made by me, had I not moved to New York but am happy to share my new recipes with those who might be willing to try! Please feel free to post and share with me your favorite weeknight meals and let me know if you decide to try this one!

Girls just wanna have fun! {Bachelorette Party}

I have had the joy of being apart of (and planning) many bachelorette parties in my time. I am sure a large part of that had to do with living with 18 girls in my college years. In any case, each one is so very different from the other and it's always fun trying to come up with something more unique then the last, yet still with the same idea, of the final outing as a single woman.

I won't go into too many of the details of the happenings of the actual event, but I will say we had a great time setting up and executing it. I think our Bride-to-be enjoyed her time as well!

An idea that I came up with (thanks to some other blogs/internet research) was to use a white tablecloth:

add a little:

Then you get:

I also made some chocolate dipped strawberries and bananas! I would say that my biggest challenge was the messy factor and the bananas! I don't really make chocolate dipped fruit too often, but it took me longer then I expected! The were delicious, and the Dolci, Fruit dipping chocolate was actually much better tasting then I had expected!

Following our party, I made a dinner that didn't get too many pictures (unfortunately) but the menu was as follows

Appetizer:

Steamed Artichoke with Chive Aioli

****

Entree:

8 oz Tenderloin

Served with:

Roasted Potatoes

or

Vegetable Quinoa

And wonderful Desserts

brought by a fellow guest!

We had a great time!

Secret Family Recipe

I'm sure that every family has a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation. In fact, those are some of my favorite recipes, where you don't know how long it's been in the family, but you know that it's always been there. Well, today happens to be my Great Grandmother's birthday and in her honor, I wanted to post the wonderful secret family recipe of her Coffee Cake. Of course, I am totally biased, but in my opinion, this is the best coffee cake I have ever tasted. Not to mention the amazing smell it brings to a home and the way it just makes you feel. I can't say that I've tried any other coffee cake recipe to make, so I can't really compare to to much, but I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

Recipe:

Gramma Wyatt's Coffee Cake

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 13x9 pan

In a separate bowl set aside 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tblspns cinnamon and 3/4 cup crushed walnuts (optional)

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 large box or 2 small instant vanilla pudding

1 tsp imitation vanilla

4 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

Beat for 10 minutes with mixer, the batter will be thick. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the greased and floured cake pan, add 1/2 of the sugar/cinnamon using a teaspoon and stagger piles then use the other end of the spoon and swirl into the mixture. Pour the other half of batter and repeat. Sprinkle unused and/or extra cinnamon on top and bake at 325 for 55 min. Cake should stand in pan for about 30 mins before serving, but is always amazing when you eat it warm!

Here is what it should look like:

Inspired

I have seen so many friends lately update or go back to their blogs. Given the fact that I'm miles away from some of the people I would be happy to share some of my wonderful ideas with, I figured, I do have something to contribute to the blog world! I have been eating Dairy Free for about a year now and would say I'm pretty good at finding ways to do it. I've also been decorating cakes/cupcakes for various events and it's been such a fun adventure. I always love to host a party whatever the occasion. Finally, since Christmas, I have been subscribed to multiple magazines and want to try the recipes and share the mishaps and triumphs where I can. Of course, it's fun to share thing with others and learn how to do things better for next time. I'm excited to see where this leads.