A Taste of our Tea Party

I am home in beautiful Santa Barbara for the summer, working for my Dad and cooking for mom again. I randomly decided one day, "I am going to throw a tea party." I've always wanted to, and my friends and I have talked about it, but I just decided to make it happen finally! Because there is no time like the present!

It was a blast!

So here is how we (my mom and I mostly) did it. Follow the links for the recipes I used!

L'Invitations

I just created this on Word! The teapot is just an image I found on the internet. I printed it out on shimmery cardstock! 

The cutest part of the invitation is pictured below. I used a paper doilie and folded it around the invitation and tied it with some blue twine. So cute and so classy. It takes a plain invitation up a notch and makes it fancy! 

At the bottom of the invite it says, "Fancy Tea Time dress required, hats encouraged." :)

I used a teapot stamp on the bottom corner of each envelope. 

Le Menu:

Lemon Tea Cookies

I was nervous about these because of their crumbly nature, but they were the favorite at the party! I definitely recommend making the lemon frosting to go with them. The dough is great because you can refrigerate the rolls in plastic wrap for several days before you just cut and bake! These cookies are totally the melt-in-your-mouth type. People love them because they are unique and light! 

Perfect One-Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

These turned out amazingly! Definitely best eaten day of (or like how I did, made them late the night before. Turned out great!) or shortly thereafter. I got cute lacy cupcake jackets at Michaels that were the perfect addition to the table. Anything lace goes with a tea party theme! I added simple pink sprinkles to some of the cupcakes. Nothing too showy is necessary for this kind of occasion! 

Proper Cucumber Sandwiches

I did some research on how people make a good cucumber tea sandwich, and I discovered this version that was good! Just don't forget to salt the cucumber and then squeeze all the water out of them! Also, as a side note, I cut mine in coins instead of strips. It's simpler that way. These are relatively bland, so if you like a little more flavor, look up a recipe that uses garlic or mayo. 

Spinach and Artichoke Quiche from Costco 

(heat up for 20 minutes or so at 375 degrees! right before the party! Keep in warm oven (just turn it off and close the door) until guests arrive!). Link shows you what the quiche I bought looks like. Everyone loves it! 

Fresh Strawberry Lemonade 

This was absolutely delicious! These were served in cute little milk jugs (also purchased at Michael's Craft store) with big striped straws in them. *Important side note about the recipe! I added a full extra cup of sugar and a little bit of extra water to the saucepan. I like my lemonade sweet thank you very much :) *

Le Decorations

Tiny Rose Teapot Centerpieces

My parents were kind enough to go to Farmer's Market and get tiny pink roses in two different shades for us to arrange in tiny floral tea pots. These were adorable on top of paper lace doilies from Michaels. My mom sprinkled tea bags between each centerpiece and lit tiny tea lights as well. We used my Nanny Erma's bridal shower plate set with little tea cups that fit into each plate for water. 

Party Favors

I neglected to get a picture of these cute favors, but I put a tea bag into a little organza bag with a honey stick in each as a cute, simple, and cheap party favor. Each one costed us under a dollar! 

I found a pin on pinterest (that sent you to etsy) of a cute picture of the words "It's always Tea Time" and I just free hand drew it on a framed chalk board we already had at home. Of course I changed it up a bit. I set it up on a stand (similar to the ones you display pictures on) and set it at the entrance of the pathway to where the party was being held. 

Le People

Of course the party would not have been the same without my fabulous friends! I have seen many a vintage movie in my day, as well as many movies set in the south, and I decided HATS would be an adorable way to get a cute photo-op for our tea party. I hired my dad to be the photographer for the first 15 minutes of the party :) 

And it turned out ADORABLY if I do say so myself! It was so fun to have an opportunity to dress up for no reason other than it is a fun way to celebrate the end of summer :) 

Happy Tea Partying! 

Spring and Summer Stuff

So. For starters, this is the holy grail of cookbooks! I love Six Sisters' Stuff! I honestly just open up this cookbook and browse through all the pictures over and over again. Get your hands on one of these! Thanks to my mom for this (very) early Christmas present :) 

I made these delicious CrockPot Porkchops for dinner one Sunday. Loved them. Definitely a repeater. It's a super tangy recipe and just a little spicy.  

Also this College Girl Cheesy Bread is a popular recipe in the Houston Household. You just turn your oven to broil, slice bread (the Ciabatta Sandwich rolls from Costco are our personal favorite), butter each slice, add spices of your choosing (dried basil, oregano, garlic salt) and whatever cheese you have in your fridge on top. Put slices on a cookie sheet in the oven for no more than 5 minutes or so (don't forget about them! They burn easily!) and there you have the easiest and cheesiest side to any meal. 

I also made a yummy Peach Blueberry Streusel Pie with the leftover peaches and blueberries we had in the fridge before our Girls' Hawaii trip! This recipe is awesome. The lemon juice really adds something to it, but it also helps that these lemons came from our backyard! Nothing like home-grown lemons :) 

Here are my parents loving the streusel pie! It was a real winner.  

Aussie Chicken and Flourless Chocolate Cake

My parents are in town and my family gathered at the condo for Sunday dinner!

I took this opportunity to try out some new pinterest recipes and victoriously add them to my "Tried it" board!

This Sunday I tried Aussie Chicken over mashed potatoes served with asparagus and salad. Special thanks to Katie and Curtis for making the mashed and my Dad for making the asparagus :) We all have our jobs.

For dessert, I tried a naturally gluten free dessert. This Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe is a great one. It's not overly rich and delicious with strawberries as a garnish!

There are only 3 ingredients in this divine creation: Eggs, semi-sweet chocolate, and butter. No sugar, no flour!

Brazilian Stroganoff

My sister Katie made us this Brazilian Stroganoff (she served her mission in Brazil so it's super authentic) and I loooooved it!!!! So I asked her for the recipe and here it is! I added green bell peppers.

Delish! 

*You can freeze cream! I put it in a large mason jar and stuck it in the freezer. I pulled it out when I needed it and let it defrost and voila! It helps you avoid buying a bunch of cream for one recipe and feeling like you need to use it all before it goes bad.*

Stuffed Chicken and Cookie bars

Yesterday I finally tried a recipe I've been DYING to try and I finally had all the right ingredients (mostly)!

My wonderful and super talented sister Christina gave me a bunch of veggies from her garden yesterday, and so I used fresh basil in this dish, as well as fresh tomatoes.

PANKO CRUSTED CHICKEN STUFFED WITH RICOTTA, SPINACH, TOMATOES, AND BASIL

I didn't have any Italian bread crumbs, so I put 3/4 of a roll of Ritz crackers in the food processor with some Italian blend seasoning and garlic salt and blended it up! It was fantastic! 

Also, after much Internet research about how to prepare Swiss chard (also from Tina's garden!), I finally decided to cut out the veins/stems and put it in the salad! I highly recommend this. Most of the websites I found said Swiss chard is similar to spinach and kale. I love it! 

The chicken is SO good! and it really wasn't very hard. So much gooey deliciousness all wrapped up in a chicken. 

Courtney and I drove to PG to hang out with Mollie and her cute/hilarious kids! We made these yummy/classic cookie bars and watched Once Upon a Time on Netflix :) 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars 

We didn't make them thin in a jelly roll pan like in the picture on the website, we put it in a 9x13 pan and they come out nice and thick like you see above. I prefer deep dish cookie bars myself! These would be AMAZING with vanilla ice cream on top!

We love Mollie! She's the best! :) We taught her about snapchat last night too and she made a debut in my snapchat story! 

This. Was. GOOD.

Okay Court and I loved this.

And it's healthier than normal sloppy joes. Courtesy of Rachel Ray.

So I had some ground turkey already cooked in the fridge so I basically sauteed it in a frying pan with a little oil, chopped white onions, a little bit of chopped red bell pepper. Then Court mixed up the simple sauce from the recipe and we mixed it in, simmered it for 5 minutes or so.

We used whole wheat sandwich thins (lower cal and still delicious!) and put sloppy joe mixture on 4 halves and sprinkled some mexican cheese on top, baked it in the oven at 415 degrees for 2-3 minutes and PRESTO! Cheap, healthy, good. The golden attributes of college cooking.

Sloppy Turkey Joes 

Mmmm mmmm. 

Back to school college meal! Plus peaches.

School starts next week!

I picked up my roomie Courtney from the airport and my friend Miranda from her hotel and we were all STARVING. So we pulled together this beauty pretty quick. I had exactly three pieces of pork in my freezer and voila! The carrots were a little....uhhhh charred. Oh well. We just made some instant mashed potatoes we already had in the cupboard (the juices from the pork are great on the potatoes) and a salad.

Cheesy Garlic and Brown Sugar Pork Chops

The cuties. 

It is my family's fave season- Peach season!! We got a huge box of peaches from the Harward Farms stand, and I was gifted with like a million peaches when my parents left for SB that were all rotting before my very eyes, so we whipped together: 

Southern Peach Cobbler

and served it with ice cream (and I added whipped cream because I do that.) 

Also, on a GF note, I tried this new flourless/butterless cookie recipe and it was a HIT. Definitely a repeater. 

Soft and Chewy Toffee Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies 

Happy Back to School Cooking! 

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Dessert.

Well today I decided was a cooking day. So here's what I got:

Better For You Banana Muffins with Crumble Topping

Yummy, simple, classic. The best part is you can freeze them by wrapping each individual muffin in saran wrap! Perfect for a college student with busy mornings, late mornings, and mornings where you forget what day it is because your alarm didn't go off at the right time and you realize you've already missed a class. Whoops. 

Chicken Zucchini Fritters 

I love this recipe! Thanks to Christina, I had two zucchinis to use. I used ground turkey instead of ground chicken, and it was delish!! I chose to eat them at this particular meal as an open-faced burger/sandwich thing. You could just as well eat them plain or dipped in ketchup/chili sauce! I just made a few for myself and froze the rest of the mixture to fry later. Also perfect for a college student who needs a quick and light lunch before classes.

Pork Chops Dijon

I recently read something on pinterest that suggested you not eat carbs after lunch, so I decided to try it. Instead of making a wrap with a tortilla or a sandwich or pasta, I just pulled one porkchop for myself out of the freezer, browned it on both sides butterfly-style, put some chopped onions in the pan, mixed a little dijon mustard, italian dressing and black pepper and put it over the top to cook until the meat was done. I used some of the extra sauce to dip my meat in afterwards, because as my sister says, "I'm a sauce girl".  It's a single serving miracle! Of course, you can make it for multiple people but you easily adjust it to feed one. It's quick and much more filling than cereal for dinner. But of course, we've all done it. Don't be ashamed. :) 

Banana Chocolate Delights 

I have wayyyy more bananas than I could ever use by myself, so I sliced two bananas in coins, put them on a cookie sheet, spread peanut butter on every other slice and made a sandwich with the other half. I melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave with just a smidge of butter and attempted to dip each one fully in the chocolate, but then I got lazy and impatient and just dipped one side in. But hey, it's less calories that way, right?! 

I put my banana snacks in a tupperware in the freezer to eat whenever I'm craving something sweet! Small portions for the win! 

Pink Breakfast Smoothie

An absolutely delightful and easy smoothie was born, courtesy of Pinterest. 

Also, please keep in mind that.....

all burgers are beautiful. 

That is all. 

Just a little chicken fried

I hope you all know that country song. If you don't, please look it up ("Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band). Thank you.

My favorite munchkins (because they're both fun-sized humans, not because they're any younger than me) in the whole world, Sara and Nimisha came over and we made dinner together last night! And it was DANG GOOD.

We made Crusted Honey Mustard Chicken (It's like very flavorful, healthy, homemade fried chicken. And ridiculously easy!), mashed potatoes (with garlic salt, milk, and cheese added), and a salad.

Find the recipe for the chicken here! It's weight watchers as a bonus! 

*we sprinkled a little bit of fried onion on the top (like the kind you sprinkle on salads and such) after it was all cooked, and it was delish. 

Unfortunately, this meal isn't quite in the "no white diet" category because you have to specifically buy gluten free cornflakes. Apparently cornflakes have malt in them which is *NOT* gluten free. What a bummer. But this can be easily fixed! Have no fear! 

In other news, I made these cute little tacos for lunch today. Literally just threw some corn tortillas on a cookie sheet, put some pieces of rotisserie chicken from costco on there with sliced black olives, a little bit of mild green taco sauce, red salsa, and cheese and broiled it in the oven for about 5-7 minutes. Boom. Lunch is served. Also, this is gluten free thanks to the corn tortillas. 

Improvised Dinner with Friends

My parents (aka my guinea pigs for trying healthy new things I make) were gone last night for dinner so I invited my friend Courtney over to make dinner with me and our friend Miranda joined us later once it was all cooked :) (not on purpose of course). So, Courtney chose a chicken stroganoff recipe we found on this website. BUT. It said it was going to take an hour so we improvised a few parts. And we served it over pasta!

It was delicious! Although we did add too much mustard. Whoops!

We served it (Court's idea) with this lovely spinach salad which has cucumber, celery, red onion (still my new fave!), blueberries, sliced almonds, and a soft Mexican cheese (with the texture of goat cheese pretty much). Balsamic vinaigrette or Red Blush Wine vinaigrette is perfect on this type of salad. 

Success!