the mess i make

Cheese Plate

I got this gorgeous cheese board and cheese knives as a birthday gift from our neighbor friends, Matt & Laura. I finally had a chance to use it when I invited some friends over for dinner last night. From my research and experience with cheese platters, I had too many ideas and choices going through my cheese-loving brain. My friend, Breanne, was bringing appetizers so I didn’t wanna go overboard with the cheese plate. So after much thought and consideration, the following made it to the platter:

May 13, 2013 0 comments Read More

Apricot Jam

I love spring/summer for all the fresh fruits we get to eat! I saw these beautiful apricots at Whole Foods and grabbed a few hoping to make a chutney. I was planning a dinner party with some friends so I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone, I put together a cheese platter just so I could use my new cheese board I got as a birthday gift last year and I made apricot jam instead of chutney to go with the cheese. I loved making Fig Jam last year and I can’t wait to make it again this year when they are in season. I followed the same concept with the Apricot jam as well but I was so disappointed with myself because I forgot to turn down the heat and walked away from the pot. The jam was not a jam anymore, it was this dark caramelized goo. Ugh…I had to buy more apricots and tried making it again the next day. I did not forget to turn down the heat and paid more attention to it and thankfully, it turned out well.

May 13, 2013 0 comments Read More

Bruschetta with Mini Frittatas

I love Sunday brunches.

We had some friends over for brunch today, our neighbors, Matt & Laura, Susanna (Laura’s sister) and hubby’s friend, Priti. Matt makes THE BEST pancakes! It is a family recipe so I can’t have him write a guest post on them. Since he can’t share his recipe with me, we made a deal that we should have a monthly brunch where he makes these scrumptious pancakes so we can enjoy them on a regular basis. Sorry folks, you guys are missing out. I have tried to extract the recipe and made a few versions but they are nowhere nearly as good as Matt’s pancakes.

I made Mini Frittatas. It is one of my favorite things to make when I’m hosting a brunch party because they can be served at room temperature so you can make them ahead of time and actually hang out with your friends instead of scrambling around making the perfect sunny side ups when the guests arrive. I didn’t want to make the same frittatas over and over again so I decided to incorporate pesto and bruschetta topping to make things interesting. It was a great combination!

April 21, 2013 0 comments Read More