Having a party?  Your guests will love the idea of choosing whether they want their salad tossed or on a skewer.  Here is one salad served two ways.  You can either have it tossed or enjoy the same ingredients beautifully combined and skewered.

1 Fresh Cucumber
1 cup of black olives
13-14 feta cheese squares
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp minced garlic

Slice cucumber, drain olives, and cut feta cheese into squares.  Assemble the salad on skewers by starting with the black olive, followed by two to three slices of cucumber and finished off with a square of feta cheese.  If serving as both a tossed salad and skewers, arrange the skewers around a large flat plate.  Once you have created the outer circle in skewers, fill the inner circle with the individual ingredients.  Start off with a bed of lettuce, add cucumbers, followed by slices of black olives and finish off with crumbled feta cheese.  You can either sprinkle the salad dressing on top of the mixed salad or you can toss the entire salad in another bowl and place the tossed salad inside the inner circle.

To make dressing, mix the balsamic vinegar, garlic, and olive oil together until combined.

If you are only serving the skewered salad.  Start off with pouring a small amount of dressing on the plate or your serving platter.  Place the skewered salad on top of the dressing and let sit for a few moments. You want the feta cheese to absorb some of the dressing. Then sprinkle the dressing on top of the skewers and serve immediately.

Ingredients

• 1 can Green Olives
• 1 can quartered artichoke hearts
• skewers
• For the Lemon Butter
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 stick of butter

Preparation

Prepare yourself for something warm, something cool, something sweet, and definitely something fresh!  This beautiful  salad is perfect for fall!!

Ingredients

• 2 red bell peppers
• 2 yellow bell peppers
• 6 scallions chopped
• 1 bag mixed greens
• 1 tbsp capers
• 6 oz goat cheese
• Vinaigrette Dressing
• 4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp Vinegar (apple cider, white, whatever you like)
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation

This salad is wonderful for so many reasons!  It’s unique, healthy, and beautiful to serve… LOVE IT!!!!  I also love that it is sweet and everyone who tries it is really impressed with how good it tastes!

1 lb Cooked Beet
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp Honey
1 tbsp vinegar reduction sauce (or you can use a sweet balsamic vinegar)
1/2 tsp Super Fine Sugar
2 tbsp Salted Sunflower Seeds
4-5 oz Feta Cheese
4-8 oz Spring Mix
Salt and Pepper to taste

Dice the cooked beets and set aside until needed. Heat the olive oil in a small pan. Mix in honey and sugar and season with salt and pepper. Stir until everything is dissolved.

Add the beets to the pan and stir to gently coat all of them. Remove from heat.

Arrange the spring mix in a large salad bowl and spoon the beets on top.  Add the feta cheese.  Pour the vinegar reduction sauce over the salad, sprinkle with sunflower seeds and serve immediately.

Ingredients

• 4 Pears
• 4 cups Butternut squash or yellow squash (chopped into quarters)
• 1 bag Mixed greens
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, blueberries, or cherries
• 1/2 cup Feta cheese
• Ingredients for the Maple Vinaigrette
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 4 Tbsp Grade B Maple Syrup
• 4 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 cup Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation

Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting a new family at our school.  It is always exciting to meet new students and their parents, so I was thrilled when asked to be a buddy family.  We set up a dinner date on a Friday night and although I thought I would have plenty of time to prepare, my day got away from me and I realized that after I picked up my children and stopped at the store for all the necessities, I would only have an hour to prepare a meal for seven.

Since Pizza night is typically Friday night at our house, I thought, why not stick with the theme and keep it simple.  Initially I thought of asking my husband to pick up pizza on this way home, but I actually wanted to impress this new family and since there was no time to make my own pizza, I thought I would offer them a variety of pizza flavors and styles.  I picked up a meat lover’s D’Giorno pizza, a California Pizza Kitchen Vegetarian Thin crust, and an Uno’s Chicago style pizza.  Then, I thought… if we went to a Pizzeria, what other items would be on the menu.  Mozzarella sticks, garlic bread sticks,  and salad… of course! I picked up garlic knots at the store and threw together a quick and easy Caprese salad.

Last but not least, I wanted to impress them with something sweet, but didn’t want to go overboard since  they mentioned they would bring dessert (which happened to be the most delicious Gelato I’ve ever had). I asked my son to quickly  cover some clementines in chocolate and sprinkle lavender sea salt on top!  They loved it!  For the recipe… click here.

I was so thrilled at how easy everything was to make and my dinner was ready in less than an hour!

Get ready for a delicious treat your guests will “ooh and aah” over!  This is the perfect recipe for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Bring the flavors of fall inside with this delicious and super easy pumpkin cheese ball.

Ingredients

• 2 (8 oz) Packages of Cream Cheese
• 1 packet Onion Soup Mix or Ranch Dressing
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 1 Green pepper stem (you can also use a celery stick with leaves or a broccoli stem
• 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• Apples, pita chips, baked tortilla chips, or crackers

Preparation

Presentation

Brace yourselves, you are about to fall in love!!  While I was working on my 30 day salad challenge (that’s right, I’m making a new salad every day for 30 days), I discovered this recipe.  Originally, I made it for my Sun Dried Tomato & Mozzarella Salad.  I didn’t add enough olive oil to the recipe initially, so my dressing turned out a bit thick.  When I tasted it, I was IN LOVE.  I quickly put it on top of some french bread and voila… it was as if it was meant to happen!!  Below is the recipe… enjoy!!

4-60z  Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil
1 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp capers (drained)
1-2 garlic cloves
9-10 basil leaves

Combine all ingredients above in a food processor (leave a few basil leaves for garnish) and pulse until well blended.  Spoon the mixture on top of french baguette pieces and top off with basil leaves. If the mixture is too thick, add more olive oil until the desired consistency.

What is one of the easiest parties to throw?  A wine and cheese tasting party, of course! Just ask your friends to bring a bottle of wine and a wedge of their favorite cheese, and before you know it, you’ll have a buffet worthy of royalty!!  You can even make a “theme” out of it.  Ask your guests to only bring a particular kind of wine (red or white) or narrow it down to a wine from a specific region.  You can also choose a single type of cheese you want your guests to bring.  For example, ask everyone to bring only their favorite sheep cheeses or only goat cheeses.  It’s fun to see what people enjoy and you don’t have to take on the financial burden of paying for all the cheese and wine, which can get pricey!

As the hostess, I love making fun recipes which guests can sample.  As I said in my TV segments, I don’t typically like to have all my dishes be experiments, but I at least try one dish which is a little bit out of the  box.  Here are three recipes which I find to be easy and very attractive and they are all perfect for a wine and cheese tasting party!!  One of the recipes, the easy Antipasto Plate, was contributed by a very talented florist and friend, Rhae Adams, owner of FOUND IN NATURE.  

Would you like to watch these dishes be prepared?  You can go to the videos page and find the recipes you like and watch how simple they are to create. http://www.partytipz.com/media/

Rhae’s Simple Antipasto Plate

Go to the marinated and canned section of your store and find what you love. I love purchasing these items at Trader Joes since they are all right next to each other. Some of my favorite things are:

1 can of Artichoke Hearts
1 jar of marinated olives (stuffed with almonds, onions, garlic, or whatever
you like)
1 jar of marinated red and yellow peppers
1 jar of pre-made tamponade
1 jar of sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
additional jars of items you like
goat or sheep cheese
crackers

Make sure to drain all jars of the water or olive oil. Cut up the items (such as artichoke hearts and peppers into small pieces, carefully arrange all items on plate, making sure that the colors go well together. Use chopsticks to move and arrange items neatly on the platter and use paper towels to absorb any extra liquids which may mix on the platter. Lastly, add your favorite cheese have a selection of various crackers, and add some fresh bread. Enjoy!

Cheese Stuffed Strawberries

1/2 bottle of white wine
5-6 strawberries
25 small slices of Fontina cheese
Balsamic vinegar or balsamic reduction sauce

Soak strawberries in wine for 24 hours
Slice and fan strawberries
Slice fontina cheese into thin and small slices which can fit inside the
strawbwerry
Place each slice in the strawberry crevices
Drizzle balsamic vinegar or reduction sauce on the strawberries
Top off with almonds or mint and enjoy

Cheese Kabobs

Skewer Sticks
Mozzarella cheese
Salami
Meat or cheese tortellini
Heirloom Tomatoes

Grease the skewers with oil
Skewer a tomato, followed by mozzarella cheese, salami, tortellini and
repeat until you cap off with the last tomato. Arrange finished skewers on
platter and drizzle with balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and serve

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup canned of pumpkin (you can add more if you would like a stronger pumpkin flavor)
• 1/2 large container of Light and Fit vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 container Sugar Free Cool Whip
• 1/2 cup sugar

Preparation