I love free stuff

 

I got a request from a friend for some inexpensive wedding centerpiece ideas.   Most you already know that sometimes I lack the ability to think chronologically  and today is no exception.  Instead of centerpieces, I ended up back at this great site.  www.downloadandprint.com  There are tons of cute, FREE  templates for wedding invitations, RSVP cards and other invites and announcements as well.  Just thought I should share :)

Now, back to my search for centerpieces…

Birthday Recipes

As promised…a few recipes from Briee’s birthday party. Two of the favorites were the Kiwi-Lime Cups (a Pampered Chef recipe) and of course the Pink Champagne Cake from the Booze Cakes Cookbook.

Kiwi –Lime Dessert Cups
½ cup sliced almonds, toasted, divided
½ package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 lime
2 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 drop green food coloring
2 cups thawed frozen whipped topping
1 cup fresh strawberries
2 medium kiwi, peeled
Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Spray cups of mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray with flour. Set aside 2 tbsp of the almonds. Finely chop remaining almonds.
Cut cookie dough into six ½ -inch-thick disks. Dip disks into chopped almonds, coating evenly. Cut each disk into four wedges for a total of 24 wedges. Place wedges into cups of muffin pan; bake 9-11 minutes or until golden brown (wedges form into cups). Cool in pan 3-4 minutes; remove cups to cooling rack.
Meanwhile, zest lime to measure 1 tsp. Juice lime to measure 1 tbsp. Combine zest, juice, cream cheese, sugar and food coloring; whisk until smooth. Add whipped topping; mix until stiff. (the filling may appear curdled when mixing in the whipped topping; continue mixing until filling appears smooth again). Spoon cream cheese mixture into large resealable plastic bag; set aside. Thinly slice strawberries and kiwi, cut kiwi slices in half.
To assemble, trim corner of bag; pipe filling evenly into cups. Top with strawberries, kiwi and reserved almonds.
*Chef Notes: We did not use the strawberries in the garnish.

Pink Champagne Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 egg whites
A few drops of red food coloring
2 cups Champagne
Pink Champagne Frosting
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
½ cup Champagne
¼ cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
A few drops of red food coloring
Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar 3 to 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat in egg whites one at a time.
Mix in food coloring. Beat in flour mixture and Champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with flour to prevent curdling. Pour batter into pans and bake 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
For the frosting: In a mixing bowl, beat butter 1 minute. Gradually add the confectioners” sugar, Champagne, milk, vanilla, and food coloring; beat until smooth and creamy.
Once cake has cooled completely, place bottom layer on a cake plate and spread half the frosting overtop. Add top layer and cover with frosting.

Briee’s Birthday Bash

 

So Briee’s party was a huge success.  All the guests, young and old, had a nice evening eating, drinking and being merry. 

Thanks to some ideas and recipes from the Cupcake Vineyards Web site and some super cute paper plates from Hobby Lobby, we got inspired and ended up with one sweet party.  See for yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come including pictures of the birthday girl, recipes and the wine selection!

How to Get Inspired in 3 Easy Steps

 

1.  If it is morning, drink lots of coffee.

2.  If it is afternoon, drink lots of coffee and wine.

3.  Spend lots of time on the computer looking at blogs and getting lots of really great ideas. 

Now, if you do those things, you will have sufficiently run out of time and you will have to jump up and get to work right away which will result in the things for your next party getting accomplished! 

I personally don’t recommend this method of inspiration, but I do strictly adhere to it :) 

I will also say that the inspiration for the party tonight came as a result of drinking some great bottles of Cupcake Vineyards Wines.  From that and a trip to their Web site, the cupcake and wine tasting party was born.

Once that was established, we set to work on the details.  Really cute paper plates lead to the color scheme and a new cookbook called Booze Cakes (which Laura wrote about earlier)  rounded out the finishing touches on the decor and the menu.

Look for pictures soon and wish Briee a very Happy 21st Birthday!  

Salmon burgers/Sliders

I have made a variety of salmon burger recipes, but this one is my  new favorite. For those of you that don’t know much about me…I have NEVER purchased canned salmon. Being raised in the Seattle area, the only canned fish we ever ate was tuna fish. Since moving to Colorado 13 years ago, my husband Brian has always found a reason to get up to Alaska at least every other year to fill our freezer with salmon and halibut. So, whenever a recipe calls for canned salmon, I just pull a piece of salmon out of the freezer and bake it up! If you want to make sliders, you just make the patties smaller. Enjoy!

Alaska Salmon burgers
1 – 15 ½ oz can unsalted pink salmon, drained, skin removed
½ cup celery, finely chopped
½ cup dry bread crumbs
¼ cup lite mayonnaise
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons salsa
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1. Combine all ingredients. Mix well.
2. Form into patties
3. Spray nonstick pan with oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides
4. Serve on buns with lettuce, sliced tomato and pickles.

4th of July

I love parties on the 4th of July. It is a great day for friends, food, drink and fireworks. This year…we enjoyed all but the fireworks. The rain and wind do not go well with the lighting of fireworks. Oh well, we enjoyed them on Monday the 5th. I also forgot to take ANY pictures on the 4th. But…I wanted to share the great “slider” assortment and the cute desserts. So, yes, these are pictures of my leftovers. 

There were no leftover salmon sliders…here we have 2 chicken, 1 buffalo

Cute desserts, compliments of Kellee. The other leftover desserts went home with people. They were all cute…and good.

Mary Engelbreit Paper Dolls welcome you to my home.