Over the weekend, Sean and I decided to have a BBQ at our place and invited over a bunch of friends (college friends, non-college friends, and work friends) and had a GREAT time. There was an over-abundance of food, lots to drink, and a fall beer tasting contest. We are really lucky to have such great friends who are really generous (and GREAT cooks!). The idea was that Sean and I would provide all of the meat, a few desserts, a few dinner sides, and some apps and everyone else was going to bring a side or dessert. Here's what the menu consisted of:
Lauren & Sean
Teriyaki chicken
Lemon pepper chicken
Jalepeno cheddar burgers (Sean's specialty)
Regular burgers
Guinness brats
Hot dogs
Cucumber tomato salad (see recipe below!)
BLT salad
Pepperoni rolls (see recipe below!)
Brie cheese bread bites
Oreo dream dessert (see recipe below!)
Mint chocolate chip ice cream cake (see recipe below!)
Sangria
Fall beer taste test
Jesse
Brent & Kristin
Jeremy & Allie
Ashley & Martin
Cherry margaritas
Corn salsa
Matt & Sam
Danielle & Dan
Nicole & Seth
Tim
Collin & Sarah
Stephanie
Needless to say, we had a TON of delicious food! I don't have pictures of everything, but out some of the pictures from Saturday:
Jalepeno cheddar burgers:
Red wine sangria:
Pepperoni rolls (Jesse made these for me!):
Oreo dream dessert:
Mint chocolate chip ice cream cake:
Caramel apple grapes:
Funfetti cookies:
No-bake cookies:
Brie cheese bread bites:
Cucumber salad:
Now that you've seen some of the food spread (I drank too much on Saturday and forgot to take pictures of ALL of the food...oops!), enjoy the Pinterest updates!
Pinterest Idea #18
"Pre-mixed drinks in mason jars"
I loved this idea ever since I found it on Pinterest. Last week I went to a few estate sales with Martin and Ashley and luckily I found some mason jars for next to nothing! It couldn't have been better timing considering we had our party on Saturday and I wanted to make pre-mixed drinks in mason jars. I decided to make a red-wine sangria and I put them in the mason jars for everyone to enjoy. What a hit!
Cute jars:
Pinterest Idea #19
"Red wine sangria"
This was the sangria that went into my mason jars from the idea above. I think it turned out great! The recipe called for triple sec, but Ashley makes the BEST red wine sangria and she uses brandy, so I subbed that in instead of the triple sec. Unfortunately I don't have a different picture, but I really liked the sangria and I didn't think it was too sweet...success!
Sean approved!
Pinterest Idea #20
"Pizza rolls"
I need to start this by saying that these are AWESOME and EASY. I made these for the first time about a month ago for Sean one night and he ate almost all of them! Considering all you need is crescent rolls, a little bit of spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, and string cheese, the recipe is delicious! Everything seems so simple, but it turned out so good. I was running out of time on Saturday (which is so unlike me since I'm OCD), so Jesse made these for me. My only recommendation if you are going to make these is so only put a small amount of spaghetti sauce so it doesn't ooze out the sides. Other than that, I'll be making these again!
Jesse making the rolls:
Ingredients:
Finished product:
SEAN APPROVED!
Pinterest Idea #21
"Oreo Heaven"
Let me start this my saying MAKE THIS RECIPE! If you only have one last thing to cook before you die, I would suggest making this. It was AMAZING. About half of it went the night of the party since everyone was in a food coma by the time the dessert came out, but it was great because I got to have it for breakfast on Sunday and then Sean and I finished it for dessert. Are we like little fat kids? Yes. Do we care? No.
This picture is awful, but it was so good:
SEAN APPROVED!
Pinterest Idea #22
"Ice Cream Cake"
I didn't make this recipe exactly as the directions said to. For the crust, I used chocolate animal crackers crushed (we couldn't find chocolate graham crackers or plain chocolate cookies, so this worked!). I decided to use mint chocolate chip ice cream for the next layer since it's Sean's favorite. I then put a layer of chocolate fudge mixed with chocolate animal crackers to hold together the ice cream and the cake. Next, I made a layer of chocolate cake (I cheated and used Duncan Hines!). Lastly, I drizzled some chocolate syrup on the top and placed oreo halves over it. In between each layer, I put the cake in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to keep it solid. If I had to make a recommendation for next time, I'd say to use brownies instead of cake. The cake got a little weird after it was frozen, but all in all, I think it turned out pretty good!
Cake baking (Sean decided to make tator tots at the same time...):
Sean licking the batter in the bowl...he dropped the rubber scraper!
He then decided to vacuum (I felt the need to document him helping me clean).
I froze the cake for 5-10 minutes after adding each layer:
I cooled the cake (it broke when I flipped it out of the pan):
The fudge/cookie layer:
Fareway ice cream:
The finished project (for some reason it is uploading sideways)!
Sean approved!
Pinterest Idea #23
"Tomato, cucumber, feta cheese salad"
Last week, Lauren Hanson brought in a bunch of home grown cucumbers, which were AWESOME, and I had the find something to do with them, so I made this cucumber salad. This recipe is super easy and it's really good. Sean doesn't particularly like balsamic vinegar, but he even liked this one. The recipe calls for cucumbers, grape tomatoes, onions, basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and feta cheese. When I made it the first time, I also added celery and had to use grated parmesan cheese and it turned out just fine. I love summer salads and this is one that is going on my list to use again!
Yum!
Another picture (check out my cute pepper plant from Trader Joe's!):
Sean approved!
Lastly, our dog Hootie looked too cute this weekend to not post a few pictures of him...Enjoy!
