Housewarming

So a couple of weeks ago I hosted a housewarming party at my house.  While I didn’t cook with any booze, I did consume quite a bit of Rosa Regale while setting things up.

My menu was pretty basic;  my friend Caroline helped me pick out some cheese for a cheese plate which included a Goat Cheese, a Bleu, and smoked Gouda, an Irish cheddar, and a Creamy Dreamy Cheese.  I served all the cheese with Rosemary Crackers and Plum Paste.

For the food I did an array of finger foods such as Caprese Skewers, Pizzette With Gorgonzola, Baklava Cups, Doug’s Famous Chicken and Brats.  We also had chips & various dips.  All in all I think it went very well.  I didn’t burn anything which is always a plus and everything tasted pretty yummy.

A Giada Inspired Mash-Up

So last night I decided to make a Giada De Laurentiis recipe Stuffed Shells with Arrabbita Sauce.  Since I am a vegetarian (well to be technical I am a pescatarian) I decided to leave out the pancetta from the ricotta mixture–I was worried that the ricotta mix would be bland so I decided to use spinach instead.  I remembered a Lasagna Rolls recipe (also by Giada) that I made a couple of months back had spinach and ricotta in it so I referenced that recipe.  The Lasagna Rolls recipe also had a cream sauce on the bottom of the pan–since I am of the opinion that cream sauce can only make any dish better I decided to include the creme sauce. I put the creme sauce on the bottom of the pan, stuffed the shells, covered the shells with tomato-basil sauce (Whole Foods Brand) and the smothered everything with cheese.  It didn’t look like enough cheese so then I added more.

While the dish was in the oven, we started with Brie and Baguette and had some wine and waited for the yummy ridiculously high calorie dish to come out of the oven.  It was SOOOO GOOD!  The recipe Mash-Up was awesome!!!

For the wine, while I was shopping at Whole Foods I visited the wine section where they were having a wine tasting.  The Whole Foods on Ponce is so strange.  Last Saturday I went in and they had a DJ spinning in the wine section–well between the wine and cheese sections.  It was bizarre–I mean I have never seen a DJ at work in a grocery store before.  Anyhoo, I went to the wine section and I saw a man with a table set up and 5 bottles of wine on it.  I went over and he asked which wine I would like to try–I must have given him the saddest look ever because he proceeded to pour me a sample of each–SCORE!!!!  I tried them all and decided on the Alta Cima Cabernet Sauvignon–a Chilean wine.  I figured it would go well with the pasta and I was right.

This is the first time I’ve deviated so much from a recipe, and I’m glad I did.  My Giada inspired Mash-up was great!

Pumpkin Palooza–A Plethora of Pumpkin

We had a Pumpkin Palooza at work earlier this week.  My contribution was both Pumpkin Ice Cream and Pumpkin Cupcakes.  My live-in boyfriend Doug bought an ice-cream maker last week and we have been making ice cream about every two days since so I figured that homemade ice-cream would be a big hit.

I found a great Pumpkin Ice-Cream recipe from Williams & Sonoma .  I successfully cooked the custard (without burning it) and set it in the fridge to cool overnight.  The next day, I put it in the ice-cream maker, but added a bit more Bourbon than the recipe called for.  As a result the first thing my co-workers mentioned was the Bourbon Taste.  I just figured the more boozy the better (which is always my philosophy).

The Pumpkin Cupcakes were much easier–I found a recipe in October’s Real Simple Magazine for Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting .  For some reason I have always been a good cupcake maker.  I can just sense when they are done.  I would have liked them to be a bit more pumpkiny but they were still good anyway.

All in all, I think my efforts were successful–I did not burn anything, and did not have to throw out anything because it was gross–I just had to answer the question, “Jes, is there booze in here?” Yes, yes there is indeed booze in there.