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Archive for July, 2010

Evites are inviting!

Posted in Entertaining Ideas, Referrals, tagged , , , on July 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

You're Invited!

The other day I received an Evite invitation for my cousin’s virtual baby shower. I thought it was such a cute and clever idea. My cousin lives across the country, it is her first baby, and she’ll be home in a few months for her younger sister’s wedding, so her older sister is throwing her a virtual baby shower.

Not that you needed all those details, but the point of all my rambling is that Evites are a fun way to invite people to an event and that is why they receive my Wednesday shout-out.

You can check out their very fun and clever website here.

Once you register, which is free, you have access to hundreds of invitations (which are free) and you can click, create and send an invitation in just a few minutes to a group of friends. You can track your guest responses and, here is the part I get really excited about, it sends a reminder for you just before the party, so you don’t have to remember to call and remind everyone to show up. Did I mention it is free? Yep, free.

Check it out and have fun with it. You can get a variety of great party tips, ideas and more!

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

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Creating a Summer Beverage Station

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, tagged , , on July 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“Summertime
And the living is easy
Fish are jumping
The cotton is high…”
When George Gershwin penned those words so many years ago, do you suppose he knew we’d still appreciate them today?
Summertime is all about living with ease and simplicity, particularly when we entertain. It is hot, backyards and pools call out to us and the last thing we want is to be tied down to a stuffy kitchen.

Make things easy on yourself when you entertain by making it easy for your guests to self-serve.

One really simple thing you can do is create an outdoor beverage station.


Start with the one thing you will need in outrageously plentiful amounts – ice. I can’t stress this enough, but have twice as much ice as you think you will need. Running out of ice is like a death sentence to your gathering. No one wants to sit around and drink luke-warm or hot beverages when it is 90 degrees outside. So buy ice, lots of it!

Have a party bucket or container that you can fill with ice and put in individual-sized bottles, like pop, water or juice,  or keep larger bottles chilled.

For a pre-mixed beverage, serve it in a pretty glass beverage server so guests can see of what delicious drink they are about to partake.

Always, always, always have water available. Serve it in icy cold pitchers or have individual bottles, but make sure you have it out and available.

Set up an area at the station with glasses. If you have a variety of different drinks that require a variety of glasses, set the glassware next to the beverage. If it is one-size-fits-all, place all glasses together. Offer charms or cute little stickers to put on glasses so each person’s glass is easily identified.

A tray set with fun little extras like fruit or olive accents on picks, little umbrellas, swizzle sticks and more can add a fun finish to most any beverage.

Remember to relax and have fun and connect with your guests. That is what savvy entertaining is truly all about!

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

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Gone Berserk

Posted in Musings, tagged , , on July 12, 2010| 1 Comment »

Today’s word of the week is berserk.

ber·serk

{ber-surk, -zurk}

1. violently or destructively frenzied; wild; crazed; deranged:
My kitchen stove has gone berserk!
Yesterday, after cooking dinner and sitting down to enjoy the meal, Hubby mentioned he could hear something beeping. We started listening and looking around only to see our stove had turned itself back on and was flashing an error code on its little digital screen. Not good. So I turned it off again.
We finished eating dinner and went back in the kitchen which was suddenly really warm.  I walked past the stove and felt a blast of horrendously hot air coming from it. Opening the door, the heating elements were blazing hot and bright red. It was then I decided my stove had gone berserk –  it is out to get me, burn down our house and wreak havoc with our mostly peaceful existence.
So I made Hubby unplug it. Hopefully it doesn’t find a way to turn itself on with absolutely no power available to it.  Stupid, crazy oven.
For a while I may need to sign off as the
Toaster and Crockpot Cooker

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Flank Steak Salad

Posted in Easy Recipes, Salads, tagged , , , , on July 9, 2010| 3 Comments »

Flank Steak - a long and flat cut of meat that can get really tough if not prepared properly. Grill it quickly and it is so good!

The other day I had a wild and crazy idea that I didn’t want to cook dinner and declared it would be salad night. Hubby agreed, as long as there would be meat involved, so we settled on Flank Steak Salad. It was pretty tasty, so I’ll share what we threw together here.

Salads are a great way to eat light (in theory) and not heat up your kitchen by cooking. Enjoy!

Ingredients for Flank Steak Salad

Season the meat before taking out to grill.

Flank Steak cooking on the grill. The heat should be indirect.

Grilled Flank Steak - my mouth is starting to water.

The manly-man Captain Cavedweller version of Flank Steak Salad. Not for the faint of heart or those on a diet.

The prettier, lighter version of Flank Steak Salad. I tossed on a few crumbles of Feta Cheese and, boy, was that a delicious decision.

Flank Steak Salad

1-2 flank steaks per person

lettuce (whatever kind you like best is fine – yes I was lazy and used bagged lettuce)

tomatoes (sliced)

cucumber (sliced)

sliced black olives (again, lazy and used pre-sliced)

shredded colby-jack cheese (pre-shredded – lazy and yes, there is a trend developing here)

salt

pepper

Mrs. Dash (or whatever meat seasoning you like)

Flank steaks are thin cuts of meat that cook really fast. Season them with salt, pepper and whatever seasoning you like best. Get creative – Hubby usually does which is why I ask for half-seasoning on my meat!

Grill the flank steak for just a few minutes. Hubby put these on a hot grill with indirect heat. It took just shy of two minutes per side for them to be done to perfection.

Once the meat is done, let it rest a few minutes before slicing. I made long, thin strips of meat and Hubby whacked his into bite-sized submission.

Layer lettuce, tomato slices, olives and cucumbers in a dish or bowl. If you want the cucumbers to look fancy, peel and then run a fork’s tines down the outside of it all around. It creates a nice pattern when they are sliced.

Place the meat on top and then finish with a sprinkle of cheese. I added Feta cheese crumbles to my salad and it was tasty. Hubby added croutons, sunflower seeds and almost everything except the kitchen sink to his salad. My point would be, add whatever tastes good to you. I used a light vinaigrette dressing and Hubby coated his in salt.

So much for a healthy meal… maybe next time.

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

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