The first course for the dinner party was this cheesy soup. I told you yesterday that this party was all about cheese and I wasn’t kidding!

Then there was the beer. Since I was serving 20 people, I tripled the recipe. And since I’d bought a nice variety of German beer for the party, I used a variety for the soup too. Honestly, any beer will do. No need to go out and buy anything special, whatever you have on hand, German or not, will work perfectly.

A few photos of my sweet guests!

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While in Germany, do as the Germans do. That’s the saying, right? Well, in Germany, they drink a lot of beer, eat pretzels (and lots of other REALLY good bread!) and throw back a ton of cheese!

You can count on doubling down on that cheese when you’re in Switzerland. All of that led to a lot of cheese at my German-Swiss Dinner Party.

The onslaught of cheese began when guests arrived, at the appetizer table. I served our family favorite, Blue Cheese Fondue with bread, cherry tomatoes, salted baby potatoes, and Belgium endive spears. Directly next to the fondue pots was a raclette grill. What is Raclette?

• ra·clette

  1. a Swiss dish of melted cheese, typically eaten with potatoes.
  2. a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese that is usually fashioned into a wheel of about 6 kg (13 lb). It is most commonly used for melting. It is also a French dish based on heating the cheese and scraping off (racler) the melted part.
  3. a traditional Swiss dish that dates back to the time when cowherds would pasture their animals high in the Alps and camp alongside them. There, they would cut open their wheels of cheese and warm them on a rock by the campfire, scraping the edge of the cheese as it melted over cooked potatoes, pickles, and ham for the most rustic of meals. Raclette comes from the French verb racler, to scrape.

Raclette cheese (as seen above – when we enjoyed it in Gruyere, Switzerland) can be found at specialty stores year-round and at Trader Joe’s during the holidays. It wasn’t available at TJ’s yet and I didn’t feel like going to another store, so I used a delicious apple-pie cheddar, Gouda, and Gruyere in my raclette grill.

The cheese was served with the same accompaniments that we enjoyed in Switzerland; boiled potatoes, pickled onions, gherkin pickles, and thick slices of bread.

This is my raclette grill, it’s not as big and fancy as the Swiss version. It has eight small grill pans that slide under the broiler along with a granite top that heats up and can keep accompaniments warm if desired. I served the accompaniments at room temperature, off to the side.

To go with all that cheese, I whipped up some homemade mini-pretzels. The large ham and Swiss cheese pretzel sandwich pictured above is one that I devoured in Munich. It was SO good!

My pretzels were a bit tamer.

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The signature cocktail for the German-Swiss Dinner Party was a blend of cranberry juice, Grand Marnier and Prosecco. If I had more time and energy I would have dressed it up with a few fresh cranberries and a sprig of thyme or rosemary.

But you know what? Those accouterments prevent one from quickly downing their cocktail, they just get in the way. Now that I think about it, I’m glad I didn’t dress it up!

Here are most of the guests, some with cocktails in hand, celebrating Tram & Steve for being named Best Power Couple in the October “Best of Phoenix” issue of Phoenix Magazine. I know they were a bit embarrassed that I placed an issue of the magazine on each table and then made them pose for me. What can I say? I’m proud of them!

Plus, it’s such a great photo of an amazing couple! Congratulations Steve & Tram! Love you to pieces!

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This week’s posts will be all about the German-Swiss Dinner Party I hosted on Friday night. It was, of course, inspired by our July trip to Munich, Germany along with the Swiss bus tour and Rhine River cruise.

There were two things in particular that inspired me to host the party. The first was these Swiss Canton flags that we saw in towns throughout Switzerland.

I searched high and low until I found a set to buy for myself. I picked up a set of Swiss national flags while I was at it.

The second was this darling menu on a skillet that I spotted in Germany. You know I had to do this!

I went to Goodwill and found two pans for $3 each and used one for the dinner buffet …

… and the other for the appetizer table. All I did to prep them was brush chalkboard paint on the center of each pan, let it dry, write the menus in chalk, and set them in plate stands.

There was also a “fall” aspect to the theme, even though it was about 90 degrees when the party started at 6:30. A bit warm for my taste, but it worked out fine.

To create the look I wanted, I needed hay bales. My neighbor, Lisa, whose daughter rides horses, suggested Scottsdale Livestock for the hay. They deliver, but the delivery charge was $25 and three hay bales cost only $27 ($9 each) so I couldn’t stomach paying the delivery fee. I went and picked them up in my “magic car 2.0.” 

That may have been a mistake. I’m not sure I’ll ever get all the hay out of it. Oh well, I guess that’s the cost of being frugal, OK, cheap!

It was worth it! I love the way the three hay bale vignettes turned out.

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I know it was just one week ago that I said I wasn’t going to continue with the Travel Tuesday feature, but I forgot about something I promised to report back on.

Nearly three months ago, when I was about to board our flight to Europe, I wrote about these adorable carry-on cocktail kits.

Well, I’m here to report that they were as adorable and fun as expected, with one exception. Let’s just say that there was a Lime Situation. More on that later.

The first cocktail I made in-flight was the Old Fashioned.

I “procured” our mini-bottles of alcohol from the complementary stash in our room on the cruise.

So all I need to ask the flight attendant for was a cup of ice and another empty cup.

The drink was fun, easy to make, and ever so refreshing.

Seriously delightful!

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These tasty flatbreads have so much going for them.

1. They are easy and quick to make
2. They have bacon
3. The bread is prepared naan, with no dough to knead
4. Did I mention that they have bacon?
5. The ingredient list is short, with only five things, one of which is bacon!

I haven’t had bacon in a long time, as you can tell, I’ve really missed it.

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This image is one of my favorites from the thousands of photos I took on our Swiss-German summer trip.

My original intention was to post photos along with commentary for weeks worth of Travel Tuesdays. This is my third entry and I’m over it.

I’ve just got too much other stuff going on to focus on the past.

It’s becoming harder to remember the details from the trip and write about them when my mind is filled with what I still need to accomplish in the now!

Not to say it wasn’t an amazing and gorgeous trip. It was. I just have to move forward.

Luckily, if you want to know more about our travels and exploits…

I have a really wonderful place for you to go and not only read about our journey …

… but also see photos much more gorgeous and wonderful than these.

My Australian friend, Nell, was using a real camera to capture it all, while I was snapping away with my iPhone.

Not only that, she created a special daily blog page on Facebook.

With Nell’s permission, I share it with you. Here is the link to check it out.

When you open the page, the top entry is the end of the trip, so scroll to the bottom of the page to begin at the beginning.

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Remember when I had my 7^th Blogiversary contest and Nancy was the Grand Prize Winner and we cooked together?

One of the other contestants who put forth a recipe for the contest sent me the sweetest email after I had delivered the stack of 7 cookbooks to her front door. Amy G. said that she still wanted to share her winning-worthy recipe. I made it, so I know it’s a winner! Amy said that the recipe could be frozen, so I made a double batch at the end of August and can’t wait to pull my frozen stuffed steaks out of the freezer for Sunday’s supper!

So yeah, not only did I get to cook with Nancy and make her great overnight Rellenos but I got Amy’s delicious stuffed flank steak recipe too! I’m the winner now! Thank you, Amy G.

Here is what Amy wrote:

“I know I wasn’t the lucky winner to prepare a recipe, but I still wanted to share my flank steak recipe with you.  And, it is not so much a recipe, as a method.

Do you recall the Phoenix Meat Market at 7^th Ave and Osborn?  I think it closed mid-1990s…boo hoo!  They sold a steak called “Mexi-Flank Steak”,

And I was lucky enough to watch them prepare a batch one day.   After the market closed, I’ve made my own.

I’ll warn you…this is NOT a pretty presentation…the cheese and chilies will squish all over the place when you carve the meat! But, it is oh so yummy, and piled on to a tortilla, it doesn’t matter what the heck it looks like! I serve the steak with hot tortillas and seasoned black beans, (or a bean/corn salad) and Spanish rice if you really want to blow the diet!  Can’t go wrong with guacamole, too!”

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So many people to thank, so little time.

First, I want to thank you all for the comments and encouragement on my new venture, Miscellany Shed. It took less than 24 hours for the Miscellany Shed Facebook page to get 100 likes and that is in big thanks to these lovelies for sharing, posting, tweeting, and inviting others to like the page: Marissa Sandell, Tram Mai, Beverly Bertrand, Sloane Hansen, Whitney Cody, Sydney Wigle, Amy Kilpatrick, Lisa James, and Cyndi Greening. You are all amazing and wonderful friends and I can’t really thank you enough.

Speaking of someone I can’t thank enough, at the very tippy-top of that long list is Cyndi Greening. Cyndi is the “Blogmaster” who set up this very site for me back in 2009. She has been my dear friend since we worked together on the Beach Balls for Phoenix Children’s Hospital in the mid ’90s. Cyndi taught me how to use my first desktop personal computer, the first computer we had in our home. I know, hard and strange to remember NOT having a computer. Flying Toasters, anyone?

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Do you remember, back at the beginning of the month, when I told you that I had big news to announce on October 1st?

October 1, 2016

Well, I’m announcing it to you, today, a couple of weeks earlier than expected!

I have a new business! It was built out of my love of entertaining, my love of stuff and my wish to share. You see, I am a collector, an “Organized Hoarder”, some in my family would say.

When I entertain, the first thing I do is come up with a theme. I build the entire dinner, event, party, or whatever around that theme. The theme is what sparks my imagination and helps me create. Once I have the theme, I’m off and running. The theme is where my inspiration comes from for the decor, the food, the cocktails, the music playlists, and sometimes even the guest list.

So what does all of this lead to? It takes me to the fact that I have A LOT of stuff. A bunch of great collections.

One evening last fall, while enjoying cocktails with my BFFs, Peggy and Anne, we discussed the obvious need for me to do more with all The Stuff!

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