Tuesday, May 31, 2011

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


Thursday, May 5, 2011

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: