Last night Spike and I hosted an awesome (and adorable) dinner party for some couple friends of ours. The question on everyone's lips... the theme? Well, at first I came up with the idea of doing "couples," aka things that go together, like mac and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, etc. The idea, let's admit, is genius. The only downside was applying the idea to the decor. I am not really into the kitschy application of a theme. I mean obviously I could've done famous couple featured centerpieces and things of the sort, but like... I wanted it to be pretty. I have been helping my sister move into her new apartment and her colors are seafoam, yellow and lime green. Which are beautiful together. The scheme started to inspire me, and with a little pinterest binge, the idea came to me: American Nuvo.
One of my favorite things about a dinner party is setting the table. I treat it like a blank canvas. You take this rectangle, or circle, or whatever shape and you add the background, the textures, the colors and you have this fantastic, unique work of art. On pinterest I saw the idea of using brown paper as the tablecloth so the guests can color on the table. Pinterest had it featured as an element for a "girls night in pizza party," so I repurposed it.
I went to Michaels and got 2 green watering cans, the white doiley chargers, the chalkboard & clothespin name tags, and mason jars. I also went on the hunt for some lace. I've seen online lace tape, which would've been great, but on short notice I couldn't find it. Michaels did, however, have this lace ribbon which was beautiful. After the brown paper was taped onto the table, I took the lace ribbon and did two strips in the middle to act as a table runner and stapled it to the paper. Super easy and really added a level of class to the simple brown paper. Keeping with the couples theme, there were two watering cans, and two types of flowers for the centerpieces.
Oh, I also bought some twine string! I used this to tie 2 crayons together for each person, as well as a making pseudo napkin rings. Everyone had a great time coloring all over the table. While I will admit I love to make things look delicate and fancy, I like to think of myself as a very informal person. This way the presentation got to be pretty and had that "OMG" shock value, but at the end it became just fun and the best part: easy clean up! After dinner we played Cards Against Humanity, so we kept score right on the table cloth!
Okay, so I was still into the couple thing, but now I needed to add the American theme to it all... which actually was easier than expected. For the appetizers we did Pigs in a Blanket and Mac 'n' Cheese... but of course with a twist.
"Pigs in a Blanket": Wasn't as easy as I thought to find a good recipe for pigs in a blanket with a twist. For a "breakfast for dinner" themed dinner party Spike and I threw in the past we did breakfast sausages in croissants. But I wanted to try something else. Then I found this Chorizo in Cornbread Mini-Muffin Recipe. Being that I am gluten-free I couldn't try them, but they were a big hit.
Next up was the Mac 'n' Cheese. Very traditional American, and also a perfect pairing. While the recipe was pretty basic, I baked the premade M&C in a cupcake pan. Adorbs, simply adorbs. And apparently tasty (although again I missed out on the tasting).
Spike then came up with the idea of doing a "couples shot." This past summer we went to the Loveless Cafe in Nashville and they gave us these cute mason jar shot glasses to keep. Spike's brother makes this AMAZING homemade Cinnamon Apple Pie Moonshine (which Spike gives out very sparingly because its that exclusively good). Each couple shared a shot of this piece of heaven in a mini-mason jar as we toasted the start to an awesome evening.
Unfortunately at this point I had already had a couple drinks and was in the swing of things and stopped taking pictures of all the treats. But I will give you a quick run down of the rest of the meal.
The Signature Drink: Rosemary Infused Watermelon Hard Lemonade
A lot of work, but in the end it came out amazing! Like I had 3 glasses and wanted so much more! (and I don't even like watermelon). Basically what I did was I used this recipe and added lots o' vodka. Yum!!
The Main Course: Orange Glazed Turkey Meatballs w/ Zucchini Pasta in a Pecorino Cheese Sauce
This was our play on "Spaghetti and Meatballs." This was the recipe I found for the turkey meatballs. I made them bigger than the recipe calls for, just for convenience sake. So fucking good! I also made them early, before everyone came over, and put them in my slow cooker on warm, that way they were done and I didn't have to stress out about them while trying to host. The "spaghetti" though was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. This dish was all Spike. (He had made it for me before and I just loved it). This was the recipe he used as his inspiration. What you do is take zucchini (a lot of them) and use a peeler to take off and discard the skin, then continue peeling the zucchini until you hit the seeds. All these peels them become your pasta. The recipe calls for using real pasta as well, but Spike just used all zucchini, which in the end is much healthier and super tasty. I may have eaten 3+ servings of this, no big deal.
The Side Dish: Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes
Although it is not really a perfect couple pairing, just because its called "twice" made this a no brainer. I went with sweet potatoes as opposed to regular potatoes in order to keep up the eclectic theme. The recipe I found on my fav website Allrecipes (I don't know why I love it, I just do) called for mini-marshmellows to top off the sweet potatoes, so yea, had to be done! And it went really well with the orange-glazed turkey meatballs.
The Dessert: Gluten-free Apple Pie a la mode and Chocolate-covered Strawberries
I have to admit, I didn't make any of this. I have a hard time relinquishing control... maybe you've noticed. But, come on!!! I'm kind of awesome. Anyway, Spike convinced me to let some of the guests make the desserts and they did, and they were AWESOME!
I know I write wayyyy too much and I'm sure you have given up after the first sentence, but if you did get through it all- please use some of these ideas and have an awesome dinner party of your own... and maybe invite me? Yes? No?
One of my favorite things about a dinner party is setting the table. I treat it like a blank canvas. You take this rectangle, or circle, or whatever shape and you add the background, the textures, the colors and you have this fantastic, unique work of art. On pinterest I saw the idea of using brown paper as the tablecloth so the guests can color on the table. Pinterest had it featured as an element for a "girls night in pizza party," so I repurposed it. I went to Michaels and got 2 green watering cans, the white doiley chargers, the chalkboard & clothespin name tags, and mason jars. I also went on the hunt for some lace. I've seen online lace tape, which would've been great, but on short notice I couldn't find it. Michaels did, however, have this lace ribbon which was beautiful. After the brown paper was taped onto the table, I took the lace ribbon and did two strips in the middle to act as a table runner and stapled it to the paper. Super easy and really added a level of class to the simple brown paper. Keeping with the couples theme, there were two watering cans, and two types of flowers for the centerpieces.
Oh, I also bought some twine string! I used this to tie 2 crayons together for each person, as well as a making pseudo napkin rings. Everyone had a great time coloring all over the table. While I will admit I love to make things look delicate and fancy, I like to think of myself as a very informal person. This way the presentation got to be pretty and had that "OMG" shock value, but at the end it became just fun and the best part: easy clean up! After dinner we played Cards Against Humanity, so we kept score right on the table cloth!
The Food!!
Okay, so I was still into the couple thing, but now I needed to add the American theme to it all... which actually was easier than expected. For the appetizers we did Pigs in a Blanket and Mac 'n' Cheese... but of course with a twist.
"Pigs in a Blanket": Wasn't as easy as I thought to find a good recipe for pigs in a blanket with a twist. For a "breakfast for dinner" themed dinner party Spike and I threw in the past we did breakfast sausages in croissants. But I wanted to try something else. Then I found this Chorizo in Cornbread Mini-Muffin Recipe. Being that I am gluten-free I couldn't try them, but they were a big hit.
Next up was the Mac 'n' Cheese. Very traditional American, and also a perfect pairing. While the recipe was pretty basic, I baked the premade M&C in a cupcake pan. Adorbs, simply adorbs. And apparently tasty (although again I missed out on the tasting).
Spike then came up with the idea of doing a "couples shot." This past summer we went to the Loveless Cafe in Nashville and they gave us these cute mason jar shot glasses to keep. Spike's brother makes this AMAZING homemade Cinnamon Apple Pie Moonshine (which Spike gives out very sparingly because its that exclusively good). Each couple shared a shot of this piece of heaven in a mini-mason jar as we toasted the start to an awesome evening.
Unfortunately at this point I had already had a couple drinks and was in the swing of things and stopped taking pictures of all the treats. But I will give you a quick run down of the rest of the meal.
The Signature Drink: Rosemary Infused Watermelon Hard Lemonade
A lot of work, but in the end it came out amazing! Like I had 3 glasses and wanted so much more! (and I don't even like watermelon). Basically what I did was I used this recipe and added lots o' vodka. Yum!!
The Main Course: Orange Glazed Turkey Meatballs w/ Zucchini Pasta in a Pecorino Cheese Sauce
This was our play on "Spaghetti and Meatballs." This was the recipe I found for the turkey meatballs. I made them bigger than the recipe calls for, just for convenience sake. So fucking good! I also made them early, before everyone came over, and put them in my slow cooker on warm, that way they were done and I didn't have to stress out about them while trying to host. The "spaghetti" though was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. This dish was all Spike. (He had made it for me before and I just loved it). This was the recipe he used as his inspiration. What you do is take zucchini (a lot of them) and use a peeler to take off and discard the skin, then continue peeling the zucchini until you hit the seeds. All these peels them become your pasta. The recipe calls for using real pasta as well, but Spike just used all zucchini, which in the end is much healthier and super tasty. I may have eaten 3+ servings of this, no big deal.
The Side Dish: Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes
Although it is not really a perfect couple pairing, just because its called "twice" made this a no brainer. I went with sweet potatoes as opposed to regular potatoes in order to keep up the eclectic theme. The recipe I found on my fav website Allrecipes (I don't know why I love it, I just do) called for mini-marshmellows to top off the sweet potatoes, so yea, had to be done! And it went really well with the orange-glazed turkey meatballs.
The Dessert: Gluten-free Apple Pie a la mode and Chocolate-covered Strawberries
I have to admit, I didn't make any of this. I have a hard time relinquishing control... maybe you've noticed. But, come on!!! I'm kind of awesome. Anyway, Spike convinced me to let some of the guests make the desserts and they did, and they were AWESOME!
I know I write wayyyy too much and I'm sure you have given up after the first sentence, but if you did get through it all- please use some of these ideas and have an awesome dinner party of your own... and maybe invite me? Yes? No?
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| Ciao for now... |
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