South of the Border BBQ

p.s. still time to enter my giveaway!!

There’s always been a Memorial Day weekend BBQ at my place. It started…I’m thinking 5 years ago when I was living in Somerville with my bff Jocelyn! Brian’s birthday usually falls around then so we had a bbq/party and the tradition stuck.

Last year, it was our first big BBQ at our new House with our new patio furniture…and a little more tame than years past ;)

Recap of last years BBQ

This year was different. The Half Marathon was that weekend and the last thing I needed was to be overly stressed by hosting a party…but I still wanted a party!!

Solution = SMALL party :)

I find, at least for myself, I get the most stressed about having people over when I have multiple “groups” of friends coming. They all might know each other, but I constantly feel like I need to spend time and chat with everyone while still trying to get all the last minute food details ready.

I’m much more relaxed once everyone has eaten haha.

So in order to have a stress-free gathering I stuck to a small group of people…9, including Brian and myself.

Although, I still managed too make enough for 20…oh well! Leftovers!!

The Menu was entirely inspired by the June issue of Cooking Light!

There were SO many awesome sounding Mexican-ish dishes in there, that I decided to have a Mexican themed BBQ!

The Menu:

Drinks

Minted Lemon-Lime Watermelon Aqua Fresca (non-alcoholic, I had two lovely pregnant ladies that day)
Skinny Girl Margaritas!
Brian’s beer (he has 2 varieties on tap in the basement)

Snacks

Homemade Guac – I special requested my friend to make it since she uses our FAVORITE recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.
Mango Salsa – homemade by another guest!

Main Dishes

Flank Steak Tacos – made the recipe for the steak and had the options out for people to make tacos: tortillas, cheese, salsa, sour cream, avocado
Ancho Chili Chicken – a favorite family recipe! Already on the blog!!

Sides

Cilantro Lime Rice – made by a guest
Baked Black Beans with Chorizo – LOVED this recipe, the chorizo gives it so much flavor.
Grilled Corn on the Cob – never got around to making the jalapeño butter, but I bet it’s delicious.
Pasta salad – made by a guest, minus the chicken
Fruit Salad – made by a guest

Dessert!!

Margarita Ice-Cream Sandwiches – I wasn’t in love with the sound of these at first, but they looked so cute and went perfectly with the theme!
SOOO happy I made them, they are delicious!!
Dessert Nachos! – totally came up with this one in my head and I am obsessed with how they came out! Definitely going to do a full post on these :)

The plan:

Friday:

• Shop for all ingredients and drinks. Also assess if you need any paper plates, or other disposable items. I already had enough at home.


• Clean!!


• Make cookie dough for ice cream sandwiches (it has to chill before baking)
  

Saturday:

• bake off cookies for ice cream sandwiches
  


• make marinade for chicken, rub for steak, and get all meats into large Ziploc bags to marinate overnight


• make Ancho chili sauce
  


• Make/Prepare beans to be baked the next day. Don't add cheese, tomatoes, or green onion yet.


• Make simple syrup, and prep lime juice for watermelon aqua fresca


• chop up watermelon


• Prepare tortilla chips for dessert nachos
  

Sunday:

• Run half marathon (if that’s what you’re doing that morning)


• come home, shower, and get ready


• final clean up/pick up


• husk corn


• Guests Arrive!!


• Fire up the grill and start grilling the meats, then corn


• Place toppings on beans then bake


• Make your friends a batch of Watermelon Aqua Fresca
  


• After everyone eats, sneak back to the kitchen to make the chocolate sauce and whip the cream for the desserts :)


• ENJOY!

It was a fun low-key, relaxing day. No one stayed too late, we did a quick clean up, and were able to crash at a reasonable hour considering we had got up around 6 that morning!

How do you handle the stress of being the hostess?? No matter how stressed I get, I still LOVE having people over! Usually my problem is a bite off more than I can chew…we probably didn’t need as much food, especially 2 desserts…oh well! I’ve been enjoying mini ice cream sandwiches all week!

Happy Friday!! I have my first dance performance tonight for the company I am in up in NH. This is sort of a practice performance for just one of the pieces, but still…a little nervous :) Our big show isn’t until September.

Blogspiration

First a word of advice: 
WEAR GLOVES WHEN CHOPPING HOT PEPPERS

I’m sure most of you already knew this, and you’d think I would of thought of this as I’ve experienced this “problem” in the past, once.  However, I don’t use hot peppers often and so it just slipped my mind.

I chopped 2 jalapeños Monday night for chili, and 24 hours later my fingers still taste spicy…and lets just say I finally DID put on gloves to put my contacts in my eyes.  Oh the burn.  After a little googling, sounds like it can get a lot worse for some people, when their hands just start burning on their own luckily mine is only if i put my finger in my mouth (or eye)…yeah. 

GLOVES people.  gloves. 

Blogspiration = Blog Inspiration.

One of the best things about the blog world and keeping up with SO many blogs out there is all the great ideas you get!  As much as I love cooking magazines and cookbooks, I find I get ideas for dinners, desserts, snacks…products, ANYTHING from other bloggers!

Even better when I can take ideas from more than 1 blog and combine them to create my own version of dinner…

Crispy Shrimp Tacos with Mango Slaw

You want to prep the slaw first.  I read about this slaw on Cara’s blog when she made her slow cooker buffalo chicken.

She didn’t give a recipe, but I used her description as a starting point.

My slaw contained:

• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 mango, chopped
• 1/2 head of purple cabbage sliced
• cilantro
• juice from 2 limes
• splash of red wine vinegar
• 1-2 tsp granulated sugar

Adjust the dressing quantities to your taste. 

Let the slaw hang out while you make the shrimp!

The crispy shrimp taco idea came from How Sweet It Is blog.  I used Jessica’s recipe for the preparation of the shrimp.

Crispy Shrimp
from How Sweet It Is

• raw de-veined shrimp, tails removed – I used about 3/4lb
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Clean and dry shrimp with some paper towels. Combine salt, pepper, garlic and cumin and sprinkle it over the shrimp. Add the flour to a small bowl, and dredge the shrimp through the flour to get a very light coating on it. Heat a skillet on medium high heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the shrimp and brown on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the shrimp and let drain on a paper towel.

Brian and I loved how the shrimp came out!  Must use this method again.

I went back to Cara’s recipe and used her method for making the tortilla shells…however, I guess the brand of tortilla’s I use like to “puff” up 

Hard to see (and this was the better of the two) but they puffed up so much in the oven it was hard to get them off the rack without breaking them!!  Next time I’d poke holes in them first.

We topped our tacos with grated Cojita cheese (which reminds me of a saltier, drier feta!), and an Avocado cream:

• 1/2 avocado, mashed
• add sour cream until you’ve reached your desired mix…mine was a very light green.  It was delicious!!

A little hard to eat, but these were incredibly flavorful and we both loved them.

Thanks bloggers!

Taco Night and Banana Muffins

Why do so many guys LOVE tacos? I mean, I love tacos, but Brian LOOOOOVES tacos!! So he was way excited when I mentioned we make tacos the other night with the ground turkey we had in the freezer!

It must be all the fun toppings and things you can add! I new I was going to make mine into a kickass taco salad…and kickass it was!

It all started with the salad spinner. Seriously what did I do before I had this baby? I know, I would use like 1/4 roll of paper towels to dry my lettuce!

washed, dried, and chopped Green leaf lettuce into my bowl.

The rest into the bag for use throughout the week.

The spinner used again for the cilantro! I LOVE cilantro and I love when I can add it fresh to a meal, but I hate having to buy a big bunch of it to use just a little.

This is my salad prepped before adding the “taco”

I cooked a package of ground turkey breast with a little olive oil (it was very lean), then added:

• a package of taco seasoning (I found the McCormick brand to have the least “crap” in it)
• 1 can black beans
• and some green pepper strips

After simmering for about 5min, it was done and we started building our dinners.

To my prepped salad I added:

• turkey/bean/pepper mixture
• grated cheese
• sour cream
• salsa
• hot sauce
• fresh cilantro
• some crushed tortilla chips

This salad was AWESOME!!!!!!!!

While making my salad I also made another for lunch the next day…perfect!

Brian wants “taco night” added to the frequent rotation :)

I decided after dinner, it was about time for some muffins seeing as I had 4 lovely over-ripe bananas just hanging around

Banana Muffins 12-27-09

In a large mixing bowl combine:

• 1 1/2 c. White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 c. Oat Bran
• 1/3 c. Hazelnut Meal
• 1/4 c. APF
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1.5 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• shakes of Cinnamon and Nutmeg
  
  
  In a Separate Bowl Combine:
  
• 1 egg
• 4 very ripe Bananas – mashed (if you have less banana you may need to increase the agave/sugar and oil a little)
• 1 cup Buttermilk
• 1/3 c. Apple Sauce
• 2 T Canola Oil
• 3 T Agave Nectar (might add 1 more Tbsp next time)
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
  (p.s. this powdered buttermilk is GREAT to keep on hand when needing to bake with it. No more buying a carton of buttermilk just for that 1 cup.)
  
  Add wet ingredients to dry and add:
  
• Chocolate Chips – approx. 1/4 cup
• Chopped Walnuts – approx. 1/3 cup
  
  Mix until just combined (don’t over-mix!)
  Spray muffin tin with canola oil spray (or other cooking spray), and fill with batter.
  
  
• Top muffins with Raw sugar and/or dry oats
• Bake for 18min at 375 degrees

I had extra batter and made a mini loaf:

As usual these are not super sweet like muffins from a bakery, but they are moist and banana-y and perfect for breakfast. If your used to traditional sweet baked goods, add more agave or a little sugar.

I like my muffins to taste like breakfast not dessert :)