Wine and Cheese....

are really awesome....
and we had a lot of both at our wine and cheese party the other night.

Veggies and dips (my mom made me the dips cause she's cool like that)....

The artistic fruit platter (the berries are "wine" and the pineapple and melon are "cheese", get it?)...

Cheese (and nuts, honey, mustard, jelly, etc)...

Meat and Cheese....

Wine (well wine charms)...

In conclusion, I recommend that you all have a wine (or beer, or Shirley Temple) and cheese party.  Have your friends bring over some cheese and wine of their choosing and then get someone to make something chocolate (like the awesome chocolate fondue we had which I don't have a picture of).  Then add in fruit, veggies, bread, crackers, etc.  Good stuff.  In all we had about 6 types of cheese, a goat cheese ball with basil oil, goat cheese corn cakes, a fruit platter, veggie platter, fondue with strawberries and pound cake, cheese straws, salami, and a ton of crackers and bread.  Luckily we had those veggies and fruit to balance out all the other stuff.  But as always, the best part was the friendships (which I forgot to capture with my camera).

Have you ever hosted a wine and cheese party?

Handmade Birthday Presents Continued...Inspired by Pinterest

I accomplished 2 goals this past weekend.

1-I finally finished Mo Yo's birthday present and

2-I made something inspired by Pinterest.

(ok well this was one thing but it accomplished 2 different goals.  Multi-tasking)

(Oddly enough my Pinterest insipration came from something I repinned from Mo Yo's sister.)

When I was visiting Mo in Las Vegas last month, I was reminded of the lovely bar/pool table area in their home and I decided I wanted to make something for that.  I found a coaster tutorial on Pinterest and went with that.  It seemed easy enough.

How to Make Easy Coasters from Tiles and Scrapbook Paper.....
Needs-Tiles (from Home Depot or Lowes), Scrapbook paper, Modge Podge or other glue, paper cutter or scissors, clear spray paint.
1-Get your husband or man friend (well or yourself) to buy you some tiles (4.25 x 4.24 inch is a standard size) from Home Depot.  I'm not sure what section, I just know they have them there and my husband has to go to Home Depot a lot for work.  They are really cheap.
2-Buy some pretty scrapbooking paper from Michaels or another craft store.  The 12x12 paper works well for this.
3-Use a paper cutter (you can get these for cheap at a craft store) or scissors or an exacto knife to cut out 4x4 inch squares from the paper.  The 12x12 works well to make exactly 9 even 4x4 squares.
4-Then glue the paper square to a tile with Modge Podge.  I only put Modge Podge on the backside but i think next time I might do a coat on top too.  Let this dry.
5-Once this is dry, spray a coat or 2 of clear spray paint (follow instructions on can) onto each tile.  This seals the tile and makes it water resistant.

I think these came out really well.  Plus they are very cheap to make.  I can just picture myself making millions of these for Christmas presents in December.

Yay, Pinterest success!

Do you use Pinterest to come up with craft ideas?
Are coasters an acceptable birthday present?

The Best Food I Made This Weekend-Shrimp, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Quinoa

I made several food items this weekend but my favorite was the Shrimp, Avocado, Tomato and Quinoa Salad that I made Sunday.  I got the inspiration from this salad I found on Pinterest then I made some changes and additions.

I forgot to upload the photos I took so here is a photo of my inspiration
salad from here.  Mine had quinoa though.

Shrimp, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Quinoa and Lime Vinaigrette
1/2 pound of shrimp (I like easy peel)
cumin
chili powder
garlic salt
olive oil-for cooking shrimp
1/2 cup quinoa
1 small lime
2 tablespoons olive oil (can vary depending on how you like your vinaigrette)
sugar
2 small avocado's (or 1 large), cut into small bite sized pieces
a cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 small red onion, chopped

1-Peel shrimp and sprinkle with a little cumin, chili powder and garlic salt.  Cook these in the olive oil and set aside to cool.  Once cooled, cut the shrimp into smaller pieces.
2-Cook quinoa per directions and let cool
3-Make a vinaigrette by whisking together the juice of one lime, the olive oil, a couple sprinkles of cumin, chili powder and garlic salt.  Add a small sprinkle of sugar.  You can adjust this all to your own taste and preference.  I mix it and taste it and add more as I go.
4-Add veggies to the vinaigrette and then add in the shrimp and quinoa once they've cooled some.  Mix everything together and refrigerate before serving.

This is a very refreshing and healthy summer salad!

What's your favorite summer salad/dish?

Vegetarian Fare

B has decided to cut out the red meat and chicken for a bit so this has given me the perfect opportunity to experiment with some vegetables.  Plus people at work keep bringing tons of veggies in for me to have.

Jumbo green peppers were on sale at Harris Teeter last week so I decided to attempt some stuffed peppers.  I have only ever made stuffed peppers with ground beef in them so I decided to try something different.  I have been using Pinterest a lot lately and used it as an inspiration for my peppers.  I went for a Mexican theme and they ended up pretty good.

Mexican Style Stuffed Peppers
3 jumbo green peppers (or 4 regular)
1 cup instant brown rice
1 can tomatoes with green chillies
1 can black beans
1 envelope of taco seasoning
pepper jack cheese
salsa-optional

Preheat oven to 400.  Cook rice per directions.  Cut peppers in half and seed them and then microwave them for about 5 minutes.  Then in a sauce pan add rice, tomatoes, black beans and taco seasoning and cook until heated.  Put peppers cut side up in a baking pan and stuff each pepper with rice mixture.  Top each pepper with a slice of pepper jack cheese.  Then cover the whole pan with foil and cook for 15 minutes.  Take the foil off and cook for 5 more minutes.

These came out pretty good.  I would have liked my peppers to be a little softer (maybe microwave them more) but B really enjoyed them.  The next day I microwaved one of the leftover peppers with some salsa and extra cheese.  It was really good.

Yesterday Harris Teeter had lemon artichoke pesto on sale so I decided to make some pasta salad out of that.

Lemon Artichoke Pasta Salad with Veggies

1/2 box of shell pasta

1 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

sun dried tomatoes

Parmesan cheese

lemon artichoke pesto

Cook pasta.  Slice and seed the zucchini and squash and then blanch them for a couple minutes.  Mix pasta, squashes, chopped sun dried tomatoes, some fresh Parmesan cheese and some of the pesto.  I also added in garlic salt, pepper and some red pepper flakes.  My vegetarian sister approved this recipe.

Do you use Pinterest?

What is your favorite vegetarian dish?