tapas party (finally!)

The tapas party (that happened almost a month ago) was truly a night to remember! It was so fun to have everyone come over to my (mostly) clean apartment, eat some delicious food, and have amazing sangria and other drinks!

Here is the menu:
* Saffron shrimp
* Warm marinated olives

* Manchego cheese with tomato jam
* Clams with salsa verde
* Drunken melons with Serrano ham
* Octopus with red potatoes

* Savory pork empanadas
* Scallop ceviche
* Roasted red pepper empanadas
* Chorizo with onion and potato
* Assorted cheeses
* BREAD (duh!)
* Dates with almonds and Serrano Ham

* Almond cake accented with Citrus
* Rose Truffles

The first thing I made was the empanadas (which happened on Thursday night) - I figured that they would be easy (the author of the book said to use frozen dough which saved a LOT of time and prevented a huge headache), and they were!

The only frustrating part was that I was having a hard time getting as much

filling into each empanada as I wanted. The roasted red pepper filling was gone by the time I was finished with those, but I have left-over pork for another round, I guess.

On Friday I made the octopus with

potatoes - I found the octopus canned in olive oil and it was really quite delicious! I also put the olives together - they had honey, onion, pink peppercorn, and garlic in them. The recipe said that they were even better after being heated up the next day and it was so true! I hadn't ever thought of warming olives up before this recipe and it was such a good idea.

I also made the tomato jam, which was really good, but took wayyyy longer than the recipe said to thicken. But, I also like thick jam, so that could have just been me.
The cake was made - no flour, just almonds, which were interesting to work with and made a nice flour substitute. The cake had lots of zest, and I was so happy that I got to use my incredible birthday present from J2 for them!
I made a trip to AJ's for their "Flower Happy Hour," which is an incredible deal - all of the single

stems are half-price and the flower lady helped me put a really nice arrangement together! (I also went and got Abby and Yuri some kitty food from the Noble Beast, which is the coolest pet store around, in my opinion!)

Last, on Friday, I made the rose truffles, and I am still on the fence with how I feel about them. They called for rose water, and I used as much as it called for, but then my whole house smelled like rose perfume....strong, old lady rose perfume.....They had a hard time setting, the butter separated, but then once I brought the truffle batter to room temperature and mixed the butter back in, it worked much better. Once it was thick and not separated, I rolled the truffles out and rolled them in a bit of coco powder to make them look nicer.

Saturday - the day of the party....lots to do, and it was so fun! I marinated the shrimp for later, put the chorizo and potatoes together, and chopped everything up for the ceviche.

I also put together the dates, which were by far the biggest hit of the party. They were so good and so easy! Here's the recipe:
12 Medjool Dates (I actually doubled the recipe, and I am so glad that I did!)
8 oz. of slivered, blanched almonds
1 package of Serrano Ham

* Slice the top of each date and then remove the pit (I used my hemostats for this and it made it easier and the dates stay together better).
* Stuff each date with 1 teaspoon of almonds
* Wrap a piece of ham around the stuffed date
* Before you are ready to serve, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
* Arrange the dates on a cookie sheet and bake for about 5 minutes, or until the ham is sort of melting into the dates (I thought this was weird, but it actually made sense when I was cooking them)
* Pull them out of the oven, announce they are ready, and stand back!

J2 came over and helped arrange all of the cheeses and wrote all of the signs AND helped me decide what to serve everything on! She also helped with the drunken melon, cutting it up, and marinating them.

J1 and her darling husband made and brought their delicious sangria which went well with the tapas.

All in all it was so fun to have everyone over and it was even more fun to cook all of the delicious food! The dates have been requested again by almost everyone, and I agree!!

Up next post: One of my favorite cookbooks and recipes from it!

Cupcakes and planning

Good news! Two posts in two days! Watch this never happen again....

Today is Wednesday, meaning that my lovely Fall Break is half over. On the plus side of Fall Break though, ALT brought me a beautiful cupcake today made by Tammie Coe. Not only is it really pretty (and a monster) it is absolutely delicious! With some milk.....yum. Thanks ALT

Also - I am having a lot of fun planning formy upcoming party - it is going to be awesome. I mean, just look at the grocery list? How great is that list? Don't you wish you were going to the grocery store tomorrow with me??

Another awesome thing that you are able to see in these pictures: my super clean bedroom! (not mentioned, but should be noted is the really nice nail polish from OPI - it is in the Swiss collection....and it makes me want to name paint colors for a living....who does that anyway?!?!)

Off to finish cleaning the living room and enjoy the delicious monster cupcake!

Inspiration

So - a good friend of mine, J2, and I were out last night (as we do almost every week) to our favorite Monday night treat. As we were enjoying our amazing Little James wine and yummy bruschetta, we were talking about how I should start a blog about food - places that I have gone to eat and loved and things that I have cooked. Maybe because it is Fall Break and I'm still recovering from last Saturday, maybe it is because I am excited about my upcoming party, or maybe because J2 is just full of good ideas, but I have been inspired to start!

I love to cook and I love to eat - I was the one growing up who would finish breakfast, look around, and ask "So, what's for dinner tonight?" My dad is a delicious cook and my mom a wonderful planner/shopper/chopper/cheerleader, so obviously cooking and eating good food runs in the family.

Some of my favorite things pertaining to food are (in no particular order):

• cupcakes (but only really good ones with delicious and pretty frosting!)
• reading cookbooks for fun - they really are satisfying and quick reads
• trying out new recipes
• a good glass of wine
• take-out pizza (I figure that I better be honest from the get-go and just put it out in the open)
• eating at delicious restaurants with good friends
• CHEESE!!!! (all kinds)
• bread - almost in any form - loaf, roll...you name it, I'll probably eat it
• reading reviews about food, restaurants, happy hours, cookbooks
• my lime-green KitchenAid mixer - it really is one of the coolest things ever

So - even though I am doing this, I am not promising to be faithful and update it frequently or take fancy pictures of everything I eat. I do promise to share good food and experiences I have.

*I am not a food critic, and I don't think that a blog is the place to be a food critic. I just want to share my thoughts and ideas about food.*

Up first: on Saturday I am throwing a tapas party with J2 for some friends that will be from "The Opera Lover's Cookbook." This cookbook has made me drool for

a few years now, and the other two recipes that I have tried from it are really quite good, so I am looking forward to throwing a whole party! I get to go shopping on Thursday and make the empanadas first. So excited! (Pretend you can read backwards to enjoy the picture of the chapter!)