Dinner party

Every single gift I received at my bridal shower was so cool that I had to have a dinner party to show them off! Seriously- my apartment looks like a Williams Sonoma catalog! I am just in love with all of my new stuff. Anyway, Andy was out of town this weekend, so I invited my parents over for dinner to keep me company. It turned out that he was home by the time we got around to cooking, so we all got to eat together :)

I had won a gift card a while ago to this gourmet Italian market by me, so I decided to pick up some things there for dinner tonight. If you have one of these type of markets by you, I highly suggest that you try Rao's homemade pasta. We had the fusilli tonight and it was unbelievable!

So, for an appetizer, I used my new cheese board and knife and put out an assortment of cheeses, salami, olives and crackers... it goes great with a glass of red wine.



For dinner, I decided to make this pasta dish that my friend Erin made when she had us over her house for dinner one night- it has sausage, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and it is soooo delicious! The recipe is from Giada de Laurentiis.

AND for dessert.... the other night I was flipping through the new Food Network magazine and I came across a recipe for the Cheesecake Factory's pumpkin cheesecake, and being a pumpkin-lover, I had to try it. The only thing was, I had to be up for work on Saturday morning at 4 a.m. (don't ask!) and I decided to start making my cheesecake at 9 p.m. on Friday- not realizing it takes almost 3 hours total to cook! To make a long story short, I got about 3 hours of sleep that night but my cheesecake turned out great! Thanks for my springform pan Aunt Susie!

We had such a nice time tonight and I got to use my new bread basket, new placemats, new candlestick holders and new dishes... and my new squirty sponge got a lot of action too :)

Cheers!

Oh, and my dad and Andy hung the mirror I got today... what do you think??

Amazing Spinach Dip

Robyn requested this recipe a while ago and I completely forgot to post it! It's from Billy Joel's much, much, much younger wife, Katie Lee. It is really pretty amazing- try it and you will know what I am talking about!

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip

One 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
One 9-ounce package artichoke hearts (drained jarred or canned, cooked fresh, or frozen, but not marinated)
1 cup steamed spinach (1 pound raw or one 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed), well drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves
6 large fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish. In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, mayo, Parmesan, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper. Spoon into the baking dish. Top with the mozzarella. Bake until bubbling and the top is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.

Serve with crackers, tortilla chips, or toasted rustic bread.

Yield: 4 servings

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Wow- it's been so long since I've updated my blog... I have been a little bit busy lately, so I apologize, but now that I have all of these amazing new kitchen gadgets, I just had to get back on here!

This post is dedicated to my awesome new Cuisinart wine cellar that got delivered today! It was a bridal shower gift from my Aunt Sylvia, Aunt Shirley, Aunt Marilyn and cousin Kim and I LOVE IT SO MUCH! It fits perfectly next to my refrigerator and has a cool amber light that illuminates the inside so that you can see the wine bottles.

I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and start cooking... in fact, I'm going to head out to Publix right now to get something to make for dinner :)