DIY Party Projects

For Sarah's dinner party, which I blogged about earlier today, I did a lot of DIY projects for decor. It was really fun and saved some money. Plus, it was something fun for me plan for, since I'm no longer planning a wedding. ;)

DIY Painted Vases

I bought some cheap old vases from a thrift shop to use to decorate for the party. I had plenty of vases already at home, but I wanted some that I could paint, and not worry about messing up. Then, I bought some paint in shades of aqua and fuchsia. I then painted the inside of the glasses so that they would have a unique look, with the glass still visible, but the color on the inside. Be sure to use water-resistant paint or enamel-based paint, so that when you add water to the vase it wont cause the paint to come off. I used one of the aqua vases for the centerpiece of the table and the fuschia one for the dessert table. Another one that I did, the paint ended up flaking off the inside when I added water, so be careful about buying the right kind of paint! These were inspired by blog posts I saw here and here. Final results:

DIY Birthday Banner

For this project, I bought 6 sheets of glittery 12x12" card stock in teal and hot pink, grosgrain ribbon, clear tacks, and silver puffy paint. Although I had many different ideas for how to do the lettering on the squares, I decided to paint them by hand after I had trouble getting any paper to stick to the glittery card stock.

First, I cut the 12x12" cardstock into 4 squares of 6x6"each. Then, I organized them how I wanted them (alternating teal and pink). I then took the silver puffy paint and carefully painted one letter on each card. I used a hole punch to punch holes in the upper corners of the cards. Then, I laced the ribbon through the holes and hung them on the wall with tacks. I tied the extra pieces of ribbon around the ends of the ribbon for a cute look.

Other details....

I bought fabric from JoAnn's Crafts for the "tablecloth." It was sheer, hot pink organza with glitter and rhinestones. I thought it was really cute and made the table pop! I also designed the place cards and birthday cake sign on my computer and printed them at home.

Homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu and Risotto Recipes

The recipes that we used for the main course of Sarah's birthday dinner were originals that Kevin and I came up with ourselves. I had scoured the internet trying to find a unique pasta or entree that would fit nicely with our other meal plans, but I couldn't find anything that I wanted to use for this occasion. So, since risotto is Kevin's specialty, I enlisted him to help and create something fabulous that could go along with a chicken dish that I would make. We decided to make sun-dried tomato and spinach risotto and I'd serve chicken stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, similar to chicken cordon bleu. We also chose asparagus to round out the plate. So, here's how we did it.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

- 6 thin sliced chicken breasts

- 6 slices of prosciutto

- 6 slices of mozzarella cheese

-

½

box panko bread crumbs

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 4 eggs, lightly beaten

- salt, pepper, garlic powder and Italian herbs and spices

Preheat your oven to 375. Depending on the thickness of your chicken breasts, you may need to flatten them out even more. The thinner they are, the easier it will be for you to roll them up and they'll cook faster. To do this, place a slice of chicken on a cutting board and place some clear plastic wrap over top and pound them with something heavy. You can add a little bit of vegetable oil to make the process easier. Then use a meat mallet, frying pan, or rolling pin (something heavy and flat) to pound the chicken out evenly. Repeat this with the other slices until you have them all about the same size and thickness.

Take your thinly sliced chicken and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and herbs. Then, lay out the chicken breast flat on a plate or cutting board and top with one slice of prosciutto and one slice of cheese. You can use any cheese you like, many people like to use swiss, but I chose mozzarella for this party because it is pretty universal and doesn't have too strong of a flavor. Then, holding one side of the chicken, roll the layers towards the other end so that you have a spiral of chicken, prosciutto and cheese on the middle. Place the roll with the flap-side down, so it won't come unrolled. Repeat this for the other slices of chicken.

Prepare a breading station using 3 shallow dishes or bowls and a casserole dish. Add the flour and a pinch of salt and pepper to one dish, whisk the eggs together and add them to another, and add the panko bread crumbs to the last. To bread each chicken roll, first coat the roll evenly with flour, then dip into the egg and finally coat in the panko breadcrumbs. Place the breaded chicken roll into the casserole dish and repeat with the other rolls.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked throughout. Serves 6.

Here's the risotto recipe from Kevin:

Sun-Dried Tomato and Spinach Risotto

- 1 ¾ cups Arborio Rice

- 7 cups Chicken Stock

- ½ cup dry white wine

- 1 white onion, diced

- 4 cloves of garlic, minced

- ½ stick of butter

- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

- 1-2 cups of baby spinach leaves

- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

- salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian herbs to taste

Sauté onion in ¼ stick butter, add 1 tsp salt and pepper.

Add garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes until light brown.

Add Arborio rice and the white wine, cook over med-high heat, until wine is evaporated, stirring often.

Add 2/3 cup chicken stock and cook until boiled out, stirring often.

Repeat until half of the stock is gone, Add spinach and sun-dried tomatoes.

Continue adding the stock until the rice is soft, there may be some stock remaining.

Add ¼ stick of butter and

Parmesan cheese, stir.

Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and herbs to taste.

Garnish with parsley and serve. Serves 6-7.

Easy Sautéed Asparagus

- 1 large bunch of asparagus

- Extra virgin olive oil

- salt, pepper, garlic powder, italian herbs

- Parmesan cheese

Wash and dry asparagus. Chop off the woody ends of the stalks with a knife or snap the end of each spear by hand at the point they want to break(this ensures that you won't get any pieces that are too hard to chew). In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add asparagus and season with salt, pepper and spices. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until tender. Remove from heat, plate and sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese.

We hope you have a chance to try out one of these recipes... enjoy!!

Sarah's Birthday Dinner Party

Good morning everyone! It's been a while since I blogged last, I've been really busy at work recently and haven't found time to blog in the evenings. I was also using all of my creative energy to plan a dinner party for Sarah's birthday. Her birthday was actually on August 6th, but she was in Atlanta then, so we decided to celebrate when she got back to Raleigh! I hosted a dinner party for some of our friends and think everything turned out fabulous! Here's the menu and links to some of the recipes from the night.

Dinner Party Menu:

Hors d'Oeuvres

- Three Cheese Mini Macs (Mac & Cheese Bites)

- Miniature Cheese Soufflés

- Miniature Crab Cakes

- Mushroom Asparagus Tarts

Salad

- Salad greens with grape tomatoes, julienned carrots, and choice of dressing

Main

- Homemade chicken cordon bleu

- Sun-dried tomato and spinach risotto

- Sautéed asparagus

Dessert

- Strawberry cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

- Chocolate covered strawberries

The mac and cheese bites were really great, we only made part of the recipe but I wish we had made more of them, yummm. The mushroom and asparagus tarts were also even better than I expected! We had wine and prosecco for drinks. I put a raspberry in each glass of prosecco for garnish and it was so delish! Angela brought the chocolate covered strawberries and some balloons for Sarah. :) Here are some pictures from the night that I took and some I stole from Sarah.

I'll post the main course recipes and instructions for all of the DIY decor items later! Have a great Monday everyone.

Tonight's Dinner

It's been a good weekend, but it went by so fast! Today I went to shopping at the mall and went to Southern Season in Chapel Hill for some goodies. If you've never been to Southern Season, you have to go! Its a wonderful store that sells kitchen products, specialty wine and food, gifts, and they have an amazing deli and bakery.

Before leaving Southern Season, I picked up two twice baked potatoes and some of their wonderful banana pudding for dinner. Kevin loves this banana pudding, and I agree, it's some of the best around! So, for dinner, Kevin grilled steak and zucchini and yellow squash. Then we served this with the twice baked potatoes. Everything was so good, but we had so much food, I barely ate half of mine. I'm excited to have left overs for lunch tomorrow!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Our Wedding Video!

We received our wedding video and trailer this week. We are so thrilled with the results! Cinematrimony was so great to work with and their videos are amazing. Although we made the decision to hire a videographer pretty late in the planning process, I think we really made the right decision. I just wanted to share the trailer that they posted on their blog with you. Enjoy! :)

Meredith & Kevin! from Cinematrimony on Vimeo.