Entertaining - The Everyday Hostess

Entertaining September 18, 2015

End-of-Summer Soirée

SS #2

Decor:

Flowers: The T Shop || Garland: Martha Stewart || Honeycombs: Amazon || Wooden Crates: Distressed White Wash Boxes || Burlap Table Runner: Amazon || Mason Jars: Ball Canning Jars || Paper Straws: Amazon || Paper Plates: Amazon || Napkins: Amazon ||

Menu and Recipes:

Snacks: Cheese Platter || Caprese Bites || Garlic Hummus || Chicken Salad Sliders || Buffalo Chicken Sliders || Potato Salad ||

Sweets: Cream Cheese Cookie Fruit Cups || Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake || S’mores Cookies

Sips: Strawberry Basil Infused Vodka and Jalapeno Cocktail

There is nothing better than a summer party with good food, good friends, and an outdoor patio to enjoy a wonderful cocktail. Because of the Texas heat in July and August, my roommates and I decided to wait until it cooled down a bit to host an end-of-summer soirée and take advantage of the outdoors a little more.

We went for a classy, casual, summery theme with lots of bright and vivacious colors. Between the flowers, the table runner, paperware and pom pom banners, we were able to incorporate different shades of pinks, purples, yellows and greens. Our amazing flower arrangements came from the T Shop and completely tied all of our decor and colors together perfectly! The shop worked with us in advance to make sure that the flowers and vases coordinated with the purple gingham styled table runner and burlap overlay. It is all about the details, my friends!

Appetizers September 13, 2015

How to Create the Perfect Cheese Platter

Say cheeeeese!

If you’re like me, a beautiful cheese platter is more than enough to make you smile! They’re always one of my favorite additions to any party! They are easy to spread around on different side tables and encourage mingling. Plus they are always a crowd pleaser! By selecting the perfect combination of cheeses and adding some fun signs or labels, you can spruce up any cheese platter!

Selecting the Cheese:

If serving as an appetizer/hors d’oeuvres, plan on about 1-2 ounces per person.

When picking out the cheese for your platter, include a variety of flavors and textures of cheeses, including aged, fresh, soft, firm, and blue cheese. I usually like to include one or two (depending on the size of your party and your cheese platter) from each category to ensure a good variety.

Here are just a couple of my favorites:

Cocktails September 6, 2015

How to Infuse Vodka!

My boyfriend and I recently discovered a spicy jalapeño vodka drink at a local restaurant, and we have been determined to learn how to recreate it so we can serve it at our own dinner parties. It has been so much fun experimenting with different types of ingredients and really transforming this cocktail into our own. We messed around with different jalapeño muddling techniques and adding different types of peppers, but what finally really made the difference was infusing the vodka with jalapeños.

Since this little experiment, we have been infusing vodka with all different types of fruits, peppers, and spices to give our own unique spin to some of our favorite cocktails.

We used to go to cocktail bars and read the cocktail menus and think there was no way that we could reconfigure these drinks at home since most of them involved self-infused vodkas. Infusing liquor seemed so formal and fancy to me that I didn’t think it was something we could easily do…but boy was I wrong! Infusing vodka is seriously so simple and just involves 5-10 minute prep time and a few days of infusion…then voila…you have your own personally infused vodka that will last for years! (or minutes since it’s so tasty!)

Infusing vodka involves just a few easy steps: