{Easy Entertaining} Black and White New Year's Eve Party

Happy New Year everyone! We wanted to wish you all a safe and wonderful new year to you and your loved ones.  We'll be staying in with family. I wanted to share with you the party decor I designed for our small party tonight - made even more affordable with all of those post-Christmas decoration sales.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and as always, would love to hear your thoughts about my dessert table.

I love the Anthropologie apron (on right) I got on sale - and used it as an inspiration for the black and white dessert table.  The popcorn cups were simply leftover plastic cups I wrapped in scrapbook paper and decorated with my printed tags.

The Oreo truffles (top right photo) were really easy to make (and a great way to relieve stress!).  I put a package of cookies (I used Trader Joe's version of Oreos) in a large ziplock bag and crushed them.  To the mixture, I added a package of cream cheese.  After it's mixed, I rolled them into small balls, placed them on parchment paper-lined baking sheets, and put them in the fridge to chill while I melted the white chocolate. I coated the truffles in white chocolate and drizzled them with melted dark chocolate. Finally, the truffles are chilled overnight to set.

I had leftover melted dark chocolate, so I drizzled stars on wax paper to make chocolate stars.  They'd be a nice garnish to a coffee chocolate cocktail.

Instead of cupcakes, I decided to make mini-cheesecakes for our guests.  I topped them with cupcake toppers I made.  For decor, I used all of the metallic Christmas decorations I had.  I found these jingle bell ornaments (post-Christmas sale at Michaels) that will be perfect to ring in the new year.

With 75% off Christmas decorations, Target was also a great last-minute stop to find the silver 2-tier cake platter (which held our donut holes), metallic sprigs, and backdrop (textured wrapping paper).

Wishing you a very sweet New Year 2011!!

Happy New Year!

Only a few more hours until 2009 is done and we're preparing for an easy New Years Eve at home.

So with some easy small bite ideas and a couple of New York City photos, we're all ready to ring in the New Year!

In addition to baked brie (wrap brie cheese in Pillsbury crescent roll dough and bake in the oven), our other go-to easy but tasty appetizer are blueberries with sweetened cream cheese on crackers.  To make the sweetened cream cheese, we take a bar of cream cheese, coat it in brown sugar, wrap it up in foil, and refrigerate overnight (Make sure you put the package in a Tupperware container as the sugar will melt and run).  The next day, the brown sugar will have melted into the cheese, leaving you with a sweetened spread to make this simple small bite.

Mini cheesecakes make dessert a snap.  Using Oreo cookies as the base, take any cheesecake recipe you have and pour the batter into lined muffin tins.  We added a dollop of nutella and melted chocolate on top (as decoration, and to conceal any cracks!)

Almost anything goes with cocktails - here we used guava juice (because of its pretty pink color) and mixed it with vanilla vodka and agave syrup.  Blueberries were added as garnish.

For larger parties, we also like to keep things simple by having bottles of sparkling wine available with pitchers of different fruit purees/juices.  This way the guests are easily able to serve themselves and enjoy different Bellini cocktails throughout the night.

No matter what your plans are tonight, we hope you have a wonderful time with good food, drink, and most of all, good company with family and friends.

Happy New Year!

Best of 2010: Our Most Popular Recipes, Events, Restaurant Reviews, Parties, and Drinks

We can't believe how quickly this year has flown by!  Looking back over the posts, we've realized how lucky we've been to meet some of our idols (including Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, and Martha Stewart), eat fabulous meals, and travel to various parts of the country (Philly, DC, Maryland, Midwest, and San Fran) and beyond (Toronto).  But some of our most memorable moments aren't pictured - they're compiled in the lovely comments you make on the site or email to us.

To choose the "Best of 2010", we left the decision to our best judges:  our readers!  So we've compiled our most popular posts (based on page views) below.  Enjoy our look back at 2010! 

 

Most popular recipe: Oven-baked Panko and Coconut Shrimp

Runner-ups:  Summer Vegetable Gratin Inspired by Thomas Keller

 Maitake Mushrooms

Most Popular Sweet Treats post:  Macaron Tour of NYC
Runner Ups:  NYC Cookiefest
Strawberry, Lemon, and Mint popsicles

Most popular event:  Jamie Oliver event
Runner Ups:  Hester Street Fair: 1895 and Now
Le Fooding NYC vs SF

Most popular party:  Halloween Baby Shower
Runner Ups:  Yankees Birthday Party
Red and White Holiday Party

Most Popular Drink post: Beer Tour of Philly
Runner Ups: Happy Hour at DBGB
Wines and Beers for the Holiday

Most popular Restaurant review:  Flour + Water in SF
Runner Ups:  Mile End Brooklyn
Motorino NYC
Marea NYC

Most popular post:
Wine Corkboard

{Easy Entertaining} Festive Blue Holiday Dessert Table and Chobani Giveaway Winner Announced!

Happy Belated Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus/Holidays everyone! We just returned from a quick, but wonderful, visit to my hometown of Toronto. While we were there, my mom told me we were also surprising my dad with a "Congratulations on your (sorta) Retirement" party (sorta since my dad will still be working part-time with his employer - they can't let him go! =) )

So I wanted to put together a fun dessert table for him but because it was a surprise, I decided on a "Winter" theme so he would think it was a table for our Christmas party. Unfortunately, I only had a day to put everything together. And since I was in Toronto, I was without my stash of pretty paper, fancy hole punches, and color printer.

I scrambled and improvised. It's not as festive as last year's dessert table (which I also had a lot more lead-time for in addition to being able to bring supplies from NYC), but I think the dessert table turned out well.  Read on for tips on creating a quick and easy dessert table.

I made last year's cake pops from scratch but this year I cheated and bought Timbits (or donut holes). The best donut holes to use are the round, dense ones (i.e. I used cherry and chocolate Timbits). In each Timbit, I stuck a 6 inch Lollipop stick. Then I melted a bag of Wilton Candy Melts and coated each donut-hole-on-a-stick with the melted candy coating. It only took minutes to make these cake pops!
 

One bag of popcorn, some homemade spiced nuts, and a pan of brownies can go a long way when served in mini baking cups. I also love using brightly-colored ornaments and peacock feathers. Cut flowers, fresh fruit, or anything else you might have on hand can be used as decoration on the dessert table. Rummaging my mom's china cabinet was the best place to find plates and glasses to hold the desserts.

Less than one roll of patterned wrapping paper goes a long way! Instead of cake platters, I wrap empty boxes to elevate the desserts. I also used wrapping paper as cupcake toppers/flags.

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones!

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Thanks for everyone who participated in the Chobani giveaway! Using Random.org, the winner is Tara @ Chip Chip Hooray who wrote:

I like to use yogurt when making muffins--it helps me to think they're a liiiittle bit healthier when I make breakfast out of 'em! :) 

Congrats Tara! We'll email you with details on how to claim your prize.

{Easy Entertaining} Red and White Holiday Table

Merry Christmas everyone! We wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of you and your loved ones a very happy holiday full of warm company, good eats, and safe travels.  Most of all, thank you for reading our blog! Your kind comments and encouragement have blown us away.  Peace and Joy is the theme for our dessert table this year and we wish you both. We hope you enjoy our photos. I'll update this post (after we fly home!) with information on how I made the various desserts and decorations on the table.  Happy Holidays! 

So I cheated - I didn't make the Gingerbread House from scratch, but I did add onto what the kit provided.  I like using frosted mini wheats cereal for the roof to add texture and make it look like an English cottage.  I also used rock sugar (found a large bag in an Asian supermarket for 99 cents) for window panes and the icy ground.  The red (cherry) jolly ranchers were used to make the tiled walkway.  And of course, I had extra ice-cream cone trees (from my cupcakes) to fill out the front lawn.

The background was large cardboard (from large TV boxes) covered in Christmas wrapping paper ($1 from Target). The little swirl lollipops came from Oriental Trading ($9.99/24) and the name tag holders were from the dollar section at Michaels.  (Did you notice that I used the paint chips for the food tags, like I did for Thanksgiving?)

I made my first cake pops!  After reading Bakerella's blog for so long, I finally made my own lollipop cakes. All you do is make a cake, crumble it up, and mix it with frosting. Form the balls and chill/freeze them with lollipop sticks. After they have chilled, dip them in melted candy melts (I used Weston's Candy Cane candy melts), sprinkle some red or white crystal sugar on it, and keep them elevated with a Styrofoam block.

I also colored some fudge cookies with red King's icing and created all of the cupcake toppers and other tags myself.  The JOY sign was also from Target (only $2.50!)  For all of the empty glass jars and tumblers I used to fill with candy, I just searched around my mother's cupboards.  

I made all of the cupcakes and decorated them myself (the instructions are in this prior post). 

 

Wishing all of you a very sweet holiday season!!

{Sweet Treats} Holiday Cheer

Since we've landed in Toronto for the holidays, all we have done is eat and eat and eat (while catching up with friends and family of course!)  One of the holiday parties we've attended was hosted by our friends Daniela and Christina.  These ladies know how to cater and decorate for a party (Christina was the same friend who hosted a Twilight Birthday party for Daniela).  We absolutely loved their Gingerbread Houses (which we thought we just as beautiful as the ones we saw in Le Parker Meridien).  Enjoy these sweet treat photos and stay tuned for my own holiday table (in case you missed it, here's the sneak peak!)

My favourite part of their Gingerbread House creations? The hockey game between two gummy bears in the backyard!

Every guest complemented the Gingerbread Houses with delicious baked goods.

The festive red and green sugar-rimmed glasses were a fun idea.

Thanks Daniela and Christina! We had a wonderful time.  I hope my holiday dessert table comes out as pretty as yours!

{Easy Entertaining} Decorating Holiday Cupcakes

After styling the food tables for my friend's baby shower and my husband's birthday, I've been eager to design a holiday dessert table for my parents.  This year, I decided to go with a red and white theme (maybe because my parents live in Canada). And every dessert table needs an abundance of cupcakes, so I chose three fun ways to decorate them.

For my ice-cream cone Christmas tree cupcakes, I was inspired by both Martha Stewart's Christmas tree cupcakes and Bakerella's Candy Cane Christmas tree cupcakes.  My version is very easy to make and uses fairly easy to find ingredients (though I had to go to a few grocery stores to find mini triangular ice-cream cones)

Martha used waffle cones and Bakerella used sugar cones, but I opted for mini ice-cream cones because they're smaller (no need to cut them) and the $2 box I found contained 72 of them (in case I break or mess up a few "trees").  I also used red Jujubes, snowflake sprinkles, silver dragees, frosting, white sugar crystals, and candy cane candy melts.

I melted the candy cane candy melts in a glass so that I could easily coat the cones.  I then sprinkled white sugar crystals on top to make them shimmer.

After frosting my cupcake, I added the cone.  Using frosting, I added the other decorations onto the cupcake and cone.  My Christmas tree cupcake is now ready for its close-up!

Another of my favorite entertaining sites is One Charming Party.  It's where I found their cute North Pole cupcakes and had to make my own.  (They also provide free "North Pole" sign template on their site)  If you're short on time, these are much easier to make than the Christmas tree cupcakes.

Instead of candy canes, I used old-fashioned cherry candy sticks and broke them in half.  Because I had a bunch of berry gummies, I used those instead of gobstoppers.

Using frosting, I "glued" all of the candy together to make these cute North Pole cupcakes.

The last, and easiest, cupcake decorating method I used was making my own Cupcake Toppers.  I designed a whole bunch of toppers on my computer and used my 1-inch circle punch to cut them out.  I glued them onto sparkly red circles I made with my 2-inch circle punch.

But if you have a bunch of old holiday cards lying about, I would take a 2-inch circle punch and glue these circles onto lollipop sticks. Instant cupcake topper - with a green-friendly twist!

There's still more to do for my holiday dessert table. Stay tuned for the complete post!

{Easy Recipes} Yogurt Biscuits + Chobani giveaway + Dolce Gusto winner announced!

For a quick weekday breakfast, yogurt's my go-to dish-to-go. But I also enjoy how versatile yogurt can be. For a healthier Caesar salad, I use plain Greek yogurt instead of dressing. For baking, much like pumpkin puree or applesauce, yogurt is a great healthy substitute for oil, shortening, or butter.

So when Chobani offered to send us some yogurt and fulfill a giveaway to one lucky HLFD reader, we happily agreed. We love the lemon, mango, and pineapple flavors, but use plain Greek yogurt most often.

I've been fighting a cold now for about a week, so I decided to bake some biscuits to go with the French Onion soup my husband was making for me. I used a recipe found in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (a great resource that every kitchen should have!). I love making biscuits - they're so quick and easy to make. These ones were best served hot with the soup or with jam and hot tea.

Read on for the recipe, details on our Chobani giveaway, and the announcement of the Dolce Gusto giveaway winner!

Yogurt Biscuits (adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)

Ingredients (makes 10-15 biscuits depending on size)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup 2% plain yogurt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. 

2. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and rub butter into mixture to thoroughly blend until it resembles coarse meal. 

3. Stir in yogurt until mixture forms a large ball. 

4. Drop 1-2 tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. 

5. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve within 15 minutes.

Thanks to Chobani, we're able to offer one lucky HLFD reader some delicious yogurt! For readers living the U.S., you'll have a chance to win three 32oz containers: 0% Plain, 2% Plain, and 0% Vanilla. Each container features a recipe to help inspire you with ways to cook/bake with the yogurt. And to celebrate Chobani's launch in Canada, this giveaway is also open to our Canadian readers who have a chance to win one 32 oz container of the 0% Plain yogurt (the Canadian version unfortunately does not have the recipe printed on it just yet)

To enter the giveaway, simply:

 

Leave a comment telling us what you like to cook/bake with yogurt.

This contest is open to residents who live in the continental US. and Canada and the winner will be chosen via Random.org.  The contest will end on 12/26/2011 at 11:59 pm EST and the winner will be announced the next day (12/27/2011).  Good luck!

And the winner of our Dolce Gusto coffee maker giveaway (as determined by Random.Org) is Amy Beth Marantino who commented "I gave a special young man a spiderman web blaster. He was thrilled to no end." Congrats Amy! We'll email you with details on claiming your prize.    

 

FTC Disclosure: Prize provided and fulfilled by Chobani. I did not receive any compensation for this post though I did attend a Chobani kitchen event, enjoyed  complimentary small bites made with yogurt and received some yogurt. All opinions expressed are my own.