Category — Entertaining

For the 4th of July party main course(s), I made beer-boiled and grilled brats, oven-roasted BBQ chicken thighs (recipe to follow), and chile-cheese stuffed burgers.

Far and away, the burgers were the star. (Look for Sheila’s Old-Fashioned Potato Salad recipe tomorrow.)

Tram and Julie, filling their plates with burger and brat.

This recipe makes enough burgers for a crowd. It can easily be halved or quartered. One thing you’ll need is a 5-inch template to form the burgers with. The center green area of this plate is exactly 5-inches, so I used it as my guide.

The Grill Pit – where the Magic Happens!

Chile & Pepper Jack Stuffed Burgers

6 Anaheim chiles
4 large jalapeño chiles
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
12-ounces shredded pepper Jack cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 pounds ground beef, divided into 32 three-ounce portions
16 hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls, split and lightly toasted

Lettuce leaves, onion and tomato slices, sweet pickle relish, mustard, and ketchup, for serving

Roast the Anaheim and jalapeño chiles on either the grill or stovetop until blacked on all sides.

To prevent the jalapeños from falling through the grates, use a stovetop-roasting grate, which can be found at kitchen stores such as Sur La Table or ordered online from HERE.

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We weathered the storm, put everything that blew down, back up, and had a wonderful pot-luck 4th of July BBQ/Pool Party.

I’ll be posting photos along with not only my recipes but the delicious recipes from the guests as well.

What better place to start than with dessert? All of the desserts were brought by guests, which makes them all my favorite!

We’ll begin with Tram’s Key Lime Pie. Tram and Steve brought Zak & Zoey, and they were the hit of the party, of course. No one could resist either one of the adorable nearly 4-month-old sweetie-pies.

Unfortunately, Heidi Klum ruined the party for Zoey. How on earth could a supermodel ruin a party for a baby, you ask! Tram, thoughtfully, dressed the twins in outfits that I had given them. The outfit I gave Zoey was from the “Truly Scrumptious Clothing by Heidi Klum” baby clothing line.

Zoey looked adorable, but the outfit was either pinching or scratching or somehow irritating her.  The otherwise sweet-natured Zoey was very unhappy. She screamed bloody murder until the outfit was finally removed but by then she was so wiped out that the only photo I got of her was of her sound asleep on my bed. Poor little Zoey!

Zak, on the other hand, was the life of the party!

Every woman in attendance had their hands on him at one time or another, as seen here with Sloane, proudly showing him off, while Papa Steve is showing off his burger and brats.

Tram and Steve hamming for the camera as they dish up their dessert plates.

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American Flag Fruit Plate

American Flag Layer Dip

Confetti Mac Salad

High-Style Slider Bar

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How completely adorable and at the same time, sophisticated, is this? It’s the picture perfect elegant appetizer.

A cute and savory Smoked Salmon Mini “Ice Cream” Cone.

It is eaten in a bite or two. It is a flavor explosion in your mouth, a combination of creamy, sweet, smoking … perfection!

Believe it or not, it is also a breeze to make. Really, it could not be more simple.

I purchased the mini ice cream cones on Amazon HERE. They came perfectly wrapped and not one was cracked or broken.

I made these for my last week of cooking classes at Les Gourmettes. We served them as they were made during the class, so there was no need for a beautiful table presentation.

In fact, I made a “cone holder” with a heavy-duty cardboard box, an ice pick and, a chopstick. I made the first hole with the ice pick then made it large enough to hold a cone, using the larger end of the chopstick.

You could do the same, even for a more presentable presentation. Just wrap the box in some colorful fabric or simple butcher paper. Or you can buy a holder HERE.

These would be perfect for any entertaining event… say a Christmas Open House, a cocktail party or, maybe even … a wedding.

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The menu for the second of my three-week series of cooking classes at Les Gourmettes was Pool Party. This Pineapple-Palm Tree Fruit Bowl was the centerpiece.

When we have an actual pool party at home, one of the best things about this presentation is that not only is it eye-catching, but it looks beautiful from all sides and can be enjoyed by those in the sunken kitchen or those chilling at the swim-up bar.

It is not difficult to create, the only hard thing is finding the right thing to “impale” the pineapples onto. Three pineapples stacked atop one another is precarious, so you need a sturdy pole. A broom hand or dowel, nailed into a round wooden base would work well.

I happen to have a three-tiered server that screws apart. I was able to remove the center and top tiers and use the bottom tier as the base for the fruit.

The first order of business is to hollow out the pineapples. To do so, cut off both ends of two pineapples and only the bottom of the third. This third pineapple will be the top.

Next, use a sharp knife to score and cut out the center cord of each pineapple.

Continue to dig and whittle away at the center core of each pineapple until you have hollowed it from one end through the other. It’s not hard to do, it just takes a little time and patience.

Slip one pineapple onto the pole. Since my pole was threaded, I placed a piece of plastic wrap over, so the pineapple flesh wouldn’t get caught up in the threads.

Slide on the second pineapple.

And finally the third, with its top still attached. Since I had a large bowl as my base, I filled it with watermelon rind to “fill it up” so I wouldn’t have to use so much fruit to make it look full and lush. If you’re using a flat wooden base, you will skip this step.

If you live in an area with palm trees, go out and cut off about a dozen small palm fronds. If not, these can be ordered through any florist. Use stick pins or florist pins to attach the fronts to the top of the pineapple.

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Let’s begin with a little history of our neighborhood Progressive Dinners. The first dinner was held in April 2005 and the second in November of the same year. I was a participant in those first two dinners, not a planner. I became involved in planning by the third dinner, held in April 2006.

The one person who has planned these events for all nine years is my friend and neighbor, Ronnie. She is the real expert in how to pull off a successful Progressive Dinner, but since I have a blog and I’m the one writing this … I shall be your expert for today.

Last Saturday, we had our 10th Neighborhood Progressive. Here is a list of the ten we’ve had thus far:

As you can see, a couple of times we held two in one year and then there were a couple of years we missed getting it together.

It takes a lot of work and organization to put on a party of this nature for a large group. We have 118 homes in our neighborhood and every single household receives an invitation. If everyone showed up, there would be over 300 party-goers. That has never even come close to happening. I believe our largest group has been about 58 participants or 29 households.

The most difficult task is picking a date. It works best in the spring or fall. We generally avoid the winter since the holidays are already jam-packed and the summer as well because it is not only too hot but also too many people are out of town.

The problem with the spring is working around the various school spring breaks and the fall becomes difficult because around the time the nights get cool enough (late October) it seems as though the holidays are right around the corner and people’s calendars fill quickly.

Once you get over that hurdle and you have your date … here is our organizational structure and our step-by-step instructions:

We begin the evening all gathered at one home – this is the “Appetizer House.” The Appetizer Hosts provide bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages. Additionally, they decorate according to the theme and set the ambiance with theme-appropriate music and such.

Each participating couple brings a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine along with them to the Appetizer House. A few select couples are asked to bring two cases of beer (light and regular) instead.

When the invite is sent out, there is a call for “Dinner Hosts.” Participants can check this box if they would like to host 10 people at their homes for dinner. They set the table and ambiance and let the party come to them. In the past, we haven’t required the Dinner Hosts to provide any of the food, but we’ve decided to change that and will now let them have the first choice at what they would like to provide, instead of being assigned a dish, which is how all other participants discover what they will be bringing.

Finally, there is a “Dessert House” – this is where everyone joins back together after being divided up for the dinner hour. The Dessert Host is responsible for coffee, and liquors (if desired) and for making sure the leftover beer, water, and other beverages from the Appetizer House get to their house before everyone descends upon them after the dinner hour.

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Saturday night was our 10th annual neighborhood Progressive Dinner. The theme this time was “Speakeasy” and we had so much fun with it.

We started with appetizers at Ronnie’s beautiful home, then split up to have dinner at the various host homes and finally gathered back together at our house for desserts.

This was what greeted guests when they entered our house.

At Joanne’s, my “dinner host” home, I enjoyed a wonderful meal where we indulged on Lemon Drops and…

… not only delicious, but beautiful Chicken a la Rose, made by Kim…

… along with Waldorf Salad and Rosemary Potatoes…

… all in a perfectly jazzy dining room! Pictured are Flapper Ronnie, Cool Cat Scott (with his faux cigarette) and Flapper Kim. Can you even imagine a more perfectly themed dining room than this one, with its life-sized jazz band mural?

It all began at Ronnie’s and her beautifully set hor d’oeuvres table!

I made the appetizers for Ronnie’s house and she provided the desserts for mine. I made Piglets in a Warm Puffy Blanket, Bacon Wrapped Cheesy Mushrooms, Spinach Deviled Eggs, and the following recipe for Shrimp Canapes.

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It makes me a bit sad to be entering my last post about Tram’s baby shower. Albeit, five consecutive posts about one party is a lot, I’ve really loved sharing it with all of you and reliving it for myself.

I’ll start with the beginning, what the guests saw as they entered…

… the front doors and the burlap wreaths that I made especially for the shower. I had purchased a couple of springtime wreaths at Home Goods last year, but they were all nasty and faded before the end of summer, so into the trash they went. Once I took down the Christmas wreaths this year, I had nothing to replace them with.

I had pinned THIS tutorial on how to make burlap wreaths on Pinterest and decided, “no time like the present” to get it done! Oh my goodness, it could not have been easier! I whipped them both out in about 20 minutes. Seriously, ten minutes each! Follow the tutorial and you can make some of your own. By the way, I used an 18-inch wreath form. I will be adding some sort of spring/summer embellishments in the near future.

I found the yarn and number twos at Hobby Lobby and the baby shoes at, Micheal’s, of all places! I used clear adhesive dots to adhere the shoes to the burlap and the twos to the doors. Of course, the shoes went home with Tram.

To the right of the door was a chalkboard sign (of course!) telling guests what to do and where to go. Some people are so darn bossy!

About an hour and a half into the shower, Peggy set the Party Favors out in the same front courtyard so the guests could easily snag them on their way out.

You have to know by now that there was another chalkboard sign, with instructions. This is a school theme, after all!

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Creating a party around a theme is all about the details. The little touches that tie it all together add up to a lot.

Once the theme for Tram’s baby shower was solidified in my mind, I began scouring my house for items to build the theme around. Chalkboards, Scrabble tiles, various items with the number 2 on them, scales, globes, children’s books, etc. Then I made a list of the additional items I’d need to purchase to make it complete.

Two such purchased items were these Dr. Seuss flipbooks. I bought them at Half-Price Books and then proceeded to take them apart.

In doing so, I could use the flashcard-like pages to place all around the inside and outside of the house.

Similarly, I cut up the pages of other books to make garlands and bunting.

These were strung on just about every surface available cabinet front.

I used vintage flashcards from an ABC set I already owned to make not only the garland seen below, but…

… also to scatter about as seen on the tray that held the classes at the drink station.

Notice that many of the glasses themselves are numbered, adding to the schoolhouse theme.

Other school-type items I used were rulers and yardsticks. This one is my favorite. It is from my husband’s family’s old lumber and fuel store in Rockton, Illinois. You can see just how vintage it is by the 5-digit phone number.

Oh, but not everything was a hit.

Tram and I had decided that neither of us wanted to “play games.” But at the last minute, I thought I’d put one out, just in case anyone felt the urge to partake in a little competition.

I found a Celebrity Baby Name Game on the internet and printed it out. Actually, I found two, so I printed them both out and called the second one, “Extra Credit.”  There were no takers. I should have known better and gone with my first instinct to forgo any and all games!

Much more popular was the opportunity for guests to give Tram a favorite parenting tip. Guests wrote down their best hints and tricks. Tram, Peggy, and I read through them after everyone left. Some were funny, others were sweet and touching and some should prove to be quite helpful to the first-time mommy and daddy.

When guests first entered, there was a place to drop off the unwrapped books they brought …

… to build the twins’ library.

I started it off with a set of ten classic children’s novels. (Oh, and the book in the wagon was sent FedEx by a sweet friend who lives in Texas – so very thoughtful!)

And this is what it looked like by the time the party ended.

Over on the gift table…

… we started out with a gift from Peggy and me and a second one that a friend who wasn’t able to attend had dropped off.

Another decision Tram and I made ahead of time was to not open gifts during the shower. This sign informed the guests of that matter upfront as they dropped their gifts off.

It reads, “Time has not been set aside for gift opening. We will be enjoying our time together ‘mingling.’  If you would like to have Tram open your gift while you are here, just pull her aside.”  Tram and I were happy with the decision, I hope the guests were too.

This is what the table looked like at the end of the shower. Such generous guests!

Speaking of the lovely guests… here they are.

Emma, Tram, and Jen.

Lin Sue and Tram.

Heather, Tram, Matt, and Kacie.

Tram, Cruz, and his mommy, Veronica.

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… we’ve got it all!

We’ll start with the coffee. As I’ve mentioned here before, Tram and her husband, Steve, own Press Coffee Roasters. They have locations in the Scottsdale Quarter and at Sky Harbor Airport.

Plus … there was a very special third, albeit temporary, location in my backyard on Saturday morning.

Steve came over on Friday and set up all the fancy machinery. I do not drink coffee, I know, weird for an adult, but it is what it is.

This means that I don’t know anything about coffee, except that I enjoy the smell of it and I adore the burlap sacks that the beans are shipped in. Oh, and I love love love coffee ice cream too!

Steve knows everything there is to know about coffee. As he was setting up, he tried his best to teach Peggy and me a thing or two. Peggy “drank it up” – the info and the coffee and she loved every drop of it.

Not only did we have our own Press Coffee station, but we also had our own barista to specially brew each cup for each guest to their specific tastes and requests.

Nanda graciously spent her Saturday morning serving coffee, even though her real job is Head Roaster at the Press Coffee Roastery. Thank you, Nanda, for not only spending your morning with us but for being a great group photo photographer too!

As you can see, the guests loved their coffee!

For some strange and somewhat annoying reason, most of the coffee table was taken up with coffee “stuff” – but I did manage to squeeze out the front corner for some decor to carry through the theme. A massive vintage scale and an old typewriter.

Three ABC flashcards added a pop of color to all that industrial-looking black.

Behind the station, on the kitchen window, I hung a couple of book page baker’s twine buntings. The book pages were taken from a nursery rhyme songbook that I found at a second-hand store.

On to the cocktail…

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