Friday, December 21, 2012

Hot Appetizer Recipes


Fried Mozzarella
A favorite pub snack goes upscale when you coat bocconcini (bite-size fresh mozzarella balls) in panko breadcrumbs. Accompany them with a dish of warm tomato sauce for dipping.
Get the Fried Mozzarella Recipe



Sausage-Cheddar Balls

While these look like meatballs, they’re really bite-size biscuits generously studded with sausage and cheddar cheese. Serve them with your choice of dipping sauces, such as mustard or barbecue sauce.

Easy Goat Cheese Appetizer

To make this easy appetizer, marinated goat cheese or feta is baked until soft and golden brown, and then drizzled with olive oil and garnished with thyme sprigs and pink peppercorns. Serve the warm cheese with crackers, sliced baguette, or red bell pepper strips or blanched broccoli for dipping.

Hot Spinach Dip

Mozzarella and cream cheese make this hot spinach dip extra-rich. To save time, you may use frozen spinach in place of fresh. This appetizer can be made up to three days ahead of time and baked shortly before you are ready to serve it.





Thursday, December 20, 2012

Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table


Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Taste the rainbow… with hearts and ruffles! From sprinkled cupcakes and striped heart cookies to an AMAZING ruffled cake and matching cake pops, this Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table is COVERED in colors! My friend Paige of Paiges of Style always throws fun, colorful & inspiring parties (to see more of her fabulous features go here and here)!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

– Rainbow striped party hats with a red pom pom ball fringe
– Striped paper rosettes + an eye-catching ombre rainbow paper rosette backdrop
– Cute rainbow party invitation with a fun request: Please wear your favorite color of the rainbow!
– Heart striped (and rainbow of course!) cupcake toppers & rainbow confetti printable wrappers

Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
Ruffled Rainbow Dessert Table
*****

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Paige
:

Somewhere over the rainbow you’ll find this fun and colorful birthday party! Rainbows, ruffles and lots of sugar are a dream for any child’s birthday celebration.
The focus of this party was a fabulous dessert setup. To set the stage, we made a background of rainbow paper rosettes inspired by this amazing rainbow party. Stevi of Hey There, Cupcake made the most incredible rainbow ruffly cake. It was literally breathtaking, almost too pretty to eat. To keep up the ruffly goodness, Pam of Cake Ball Love created rainbow ruffle cake pops, the detail on these were spectacular, and the cutest rainbow sprinkle cake pops. Kris of Kcreative created the rainbow striped heart cake pops, so darling! Hayley of Hayley Cakes and Cookies baked the most beautiful rainbow heart cookies. A rainbow party wouldn’t be complete without a rainbow of macarons, they were so beautiful and tasty.
The paper details of the party added to all of the colorful fun. Everything from the invites to the cupcake wrappers and rainbow party hats helped the little guests have a blast. My little girl’s were in awe of the colorful goodness and loved celebrating the rainbow.
*****

VENDOR CREDITS:

– Rainbow Party Package, Styling, Photos: Paiges of Style
– Rainbow Ruffle Cake: Hey There, Cupcake
– Ruffle rainbow cake pops: Cake Ball Love
– Heart Cake Pops: Kcreative
– Heart Cookies: Hayley Cakes & Cookies
– Macarons: Baked
– Photo Editing: Nicole Benitez Photography

courtesy of HWTM

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party


Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant” is the perfect word to describe this warm & modern, textile-inspired HOLIDAY DINNER PARTY byJennifer and Jeff of Honeycomb Events & Design!
The chic Ikat fabric that hung on the wall behind the dessert table served as the inspiration for this entire party (Learn more about Ikat here.), and I love how Jennifer & Jeff carried their ornamental ikat design throughout the gorgeous invitations & paper details – including the super cute “place cards” that hung from ribbon on the backs of the chairs! Other favorite highlights include the cactus party favorsvibrant red peonies, and whimsical desserts like chocolate dipped spoons and pudding adorned with Persian fairy floss.
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Read on for more lovely photos & creative details… {P.S. This would translate beautifully to a Valentine’s Dayparty too!}
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
Radiant Red Ikat Holiday Dinner Party
*****

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Jennifer & Jeff

::
The holiday season is full of life, color, and brilliance. We wanted to take the best and brightest parts of the holidays and create an intimate and radiant dinner party.

The inspiration for this party came from the Ikat fabric featured on the wall behind the dessert table. Ikat is a dying process similar to tie-dye, but the threads are dyed before construction. This red and white repeating pattern reminded us of the shape of a glass blown Christmas ornament. It had just the right touch of holiday color and modern, natural aesthetics. We kept the color story easy and modern, but brought out the details in the textures, from the woven strands of the Persian fairy floss that adorned the pudding, the shredded flakes of the coconut cupcakes, down to the smooth and uniform petals of the succulents. This dessert table was all about taste and texture.
The ornamental Ikat reappears in paper with the name cards pinned to the backs of the dining chairs. A white lacquer branch and ribbon polish off this festive touch. This table combines the abundance of life and little dash of shine. These marvelous succulents bring in a soft sprinkle of green while the vibrant red peonies and gold candlelight radiate the warmth of the season.
The real fun and whimsy of this party is found at the hot cocoa bar, where guests are invited to grab a mug of cocoa and customize it to their liking with salted caramels, whipped cream, toffee chips, homemade marshmallows, and chocolate and peppermint dipped spoons. All of this atop vintage board games that can be played while enjoying a one-of-a-kind chocolaty creation. The hearty succulents were so beautiful that we had to give them away as favors, so our friends and family to take a little bit of our holiday with them.”
*****

VENDOR CREDITS:

– Event Design: Honeycomb Events & Design
– Menu, Invitation & Printables: Honeycomb Events & Design
– Caramels: Iris Estell
– Rock Candy: RockYourMouthGB
– Wooden Sticks with Ball Ends: Wood Candy Sticks
– Vintage Games: Penny Pickers
– Persian Fairy Floss: iPashmak

courtesy of HWTM