Category — Recipes

My cousin, Ty, and his beautiful wife, Michelle, brought a pasta salad to the potluck. She named it, not me. She cracks me up.

It’s not only ridiculously easy but also ridiculously delicious!

Above are the “Three T’s” –  Ty, Tram, and the Twins. Below is Michelle with Zoey … doing … I’m not sure what but they sure are cute!

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Here are a few select images of decorations from our 4th of July Pot-Luck Pool Party.

I say “a few select” because I had more than six dozen to choose from.

Believe it or not, I’m exercising a lot of constraint here.

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This is a photo of my lovely neighbors, Dana and Dale, enjoying dinner at the swim-up bar.

While I would love to post dozens of photos from our 4th of July Pot-Luck Pool Party, I am beyond exhausted, so much so that I’m barely able to type. Seriously! It’s taken me forever to get my fingers to type these letters correctly. It’s like I have no control over my motor skills… it’s only 7:25 PM on a Tuesday night and I’m ready to hit the hay, but before I do, I want to post at least one recipe. With all that in mind – please excuse any and all typos, grammar mistakes, and basic rattling on…

My beautiful neighbor, Dana, adapted a recipe from Simply Recipes and it was the hit of the party and my personal favorite! Not only did I love it but I love that Dana is all about the presentation. She not only brought it ready to serve in a cute Red, White & Blue Flag Bowl, but she also had that bowl sitting in a clear bowl filled with ice to keep her dish cold. She also brought her own serving spoon and blue tortilla chips in a red bowl … AND she brought the perfect plastic martini/margarita glasses to serve it in! Like I said – I loved it and I love her! Pure Perfection.

OK, here’s the recipe – I need to go to sleep before I pass out.

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This dessert recipe could not be easier or have less ingredients. Is four ingredients few enough for you?

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I made them for our small 4th of July Pool Party, so one batch is just enough. I found a video from dingster.eats on Instagram and immediately knew that this is my kind of baking recipe and that it would be perfect for the 4th.

They are made in Mason jar bands and are the cutest things ever.

I’ll also be baking my All-American Berry-Cherry Flag Pie.  For that recipe, I’ll need a can of cherry and a half can of blueberry pie filling.

With that in mind, I decided to use three pie-filling flavors for the hand pies; apple for the White, the other half of a can of blueberry for the Blue, and a few tablespoons of the cherry for the Red. For the flag pie, I plan to supplement extra fresh cherries with the cherry filling I swiped from the can. Ignore the can of peach pie filling, I was waffling between the apple and peach and ultimately decided that since it’s the 4th of July, it had to be an apple!

One last thing – I used a Silpat to line my baking sheet. I don’t recommend that the bottoms did not brown properly. Use parchment or just grease the baking sheet instead.

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If you live in Arizona, you try to get out of town over the 4th of July weekend. If you are one of the unlucky few who are stuck here – welcome to the exclusive, yet unhappy, club.

We are in town because we leave for a European river cruise in two weeks.  I know, I have nothing to complain about, except the heat!

Anyhow, I decided to make the best of it and host a Pot-Luck Pool Party. I invite 48 adults and their families. All but 12 of the aforementioned adults (along with two toddlers) are escaping the heat. Those lucky dogs!

That’s okay, the 12 of us are going to endure as we float in the pool, sip on this light and lovely rosé sangria and indulge Tram’s twins, Zak & Zoey, with all sorts of love and attention.

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Steve and Tram are building a new home. Their house recently sold and they have to be out in a month. They love to entertain but haven’t been in the position to do so for months now. The reason? Well, many of us know how difficult it is to keep our homes clean and ready to show at the drop of a hat. Imagine trying to do that with two full-time jobs and 2-year old twins. Talk about stressful!

Saturday night, the overachieving duo hosted an intimate dinner party. Steve was the stellar chef and pitmaster and Tram was the dessert queen.

It’s bittersweet to sell the house you brought your babies home to, so Tram lovingly called the evening The Last Supper. I call it a Housecooling, you know, the opposite of a Housewarming.

I created a new cocktail for the occasion, so in honor of Zak and Zoey’s first home, I’m attaching that moniker to the drink.

I’m already looking forward to the Housewarming Party!

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Kim sent me a video on Instagram from The Food Network. The video showed how to make a Watermelon Tiki Drink. Since Marissa was in town over the weekend for her best friend’s wedding shower, I thought it would be the perfect time to give the cocktail a try.

I’m calling it The Watermelon Crawl Cooler and I call it absolutely adorable and perfect for a summer pool party! I’ve even made a little movie for you. It’s at the end of the post. Oh, and be sure to turn on your volume – the song is awesome!

You’ll need an immersion blender. The one in the video from Kim was fancier than mine. The edge was wavy and sharp and it cut into the watermelon.

Mine doesn’t have that ability, so I just pressed the hand blender hard onto the center of the watermelon to score it.

Next, I used a paring knife to cut around the score…

… and cut out the top of the watermelon.

Oh, and before you do any of that, check to see if your watermelon will stand or roll. If it rolls, slice a little off the bottom so that it will stand and be steady.

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Happy Birthday to one of my dearest and most beautiful friends, Anne!

Anne is not on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or any other sort of social media – I know, right?!?  But she does read this blog daily, so if you’re lucky enough to know Sweet Anne, please feel free to wish her a Happy Birthday in the comment area below.

To celebrate, Peggy and I took Anne to the wonderful Virtù Honest Craft in Old Scottsdale.

Anne and Peggy had the Seared Orata.

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When I entertain, I want everyone to feel special and loved. That means not only taking dietary restrictions and food preferences into consideration but also thinking of those who don’t imbibe. Often people think that individuals “of age” don’t drink because they have been through AA. But there are many reasons your guests may choose not to drink. A guest could be pregnant or trying to become pregnant (fun!) or it may be they’ve given up alcohol for Lent or for a diet. Or they could just be taking a break from it after one of those, “I’ll never drink again!” weekends.

No matter the reason, you want to offer them something more special than water, tea, coffee, Coke, or soda water. You want them to feel like they are part of the party … because … they are!

I created this mocktail for just such an occasion. The best way to make all feel included is to create a full-flavored and well-rounded drink that tastes just as fabulous without alcohol as it does with it.

Not all cocktails can be turned into a mocktail. For instance, a dirty martini doesn’t make the cut. Your non-drinkers would basically be drinking olive juice with a couple of olives on a pick. That’s not going to happen!

This drink makes the cut and then some. I’ve named it after the nickname that Steve and Tram gave to my backyard because the main ingredients, pink grapefruit, and rosemary, come from there. I’m calling the virgin recipe a Spritzer and the alcoholic version a Gin Fizz. Oh, and please don’t be intimidated by the length of the recipe. It is not at all difficult or time-consuming, it’s just my rambling instructions.

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Here is a recipe that I forgot to post from a few weeks ago when Kim generously gifted me with fresh Mission figs.

I have a beautiful fig tree of my own but I adore Mission figs and unfortunately, mine is a Kadota fig tree. So Kim’s figs were a real treat. Thank you, Kim! xoxo

You’ll need only a handful of ingredients for this delicious and quick “anytime of the week” dinner.

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