Tailgate Toss-up

My next dinner club is Sept. 26th and the theme is "Tailgate Foods". Not surprising, I like to bring it at dinner clubs, so I tested out a few recipes on Jimmy today to make sure I had a winner. He kindly obliged to taste test, as that was all I was making for dinner and it's the first Sunday of the football season - a.k.a Christmas in September for Jimmy...

Contender #1 and First Place Winner - Jalapeno Popper Dip with Tortilla Chips

This recipe is from my friend Catherine. She adapted her recipe from another friend, Sarah. You can find Catherine's rendition here. I didn't have parmesan cheese, so I used cheddar and I wish I had toasted my panko crumbs before topping the dip. All in all though, very, very yummy!

Contender #2 and Second Place - Hot Wing Wontons

Though these were very good tasting, any time you make homemade wontons, it's always a hassle. I don't have a good pan for frying - wish I had a fry daddy - so it also made a big mess. For the two aforementioned reasons, this recipe lost points, falling into second place...

Contender #3 and Last Place - Ham and Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Spiral Rolls

For one thing, I don't think these were very "tailgate-ish". I chose this recipe because I had ingredients in my fridge to use up. I also bought crescent roll dough,  not dinner roll dough, so rolling the ham/cheese/broccoli mixture into the dough and cutting into spiral disks, was a huge bust. Jimmy and I both agreed it tasted pretty good though, so I may try doing it the right way for another occasion...

In other news, Team O'Connor is beating the Westchester Crushers 122 to 45 in my ladies Fantasy Football league and the night's not even over!

New "Friend to Follow"

One of my very best buds from UNC has started a blog with her beau Brian to document their 3 week Europe trip. They're both very fun and super witty, so I hope they keep it up when they're back in the States. Maybe they'll share their day-to-day adventures in San Fran?!?! Man, I so desperately want to see Europe, especially Italy.

http://brianandshivadoeurope.tumblr.com/

Shiva having a spot of tea in London....

And it didn't stop there...

After a little clean-up on Sunday, we all hit the beach! After a few hours in the sun, we met up at the Seawitch tiki bar for dinner. While it was such a wonderful Labor Day weekend, I must admit I'm a little worn out. Off to bed for me. Should be an uneventful week, but you know I'll be posting recipes!

Jimmy's 30th Birthday Roast n' Toast

So for months and months now, I've been planning a SURPRISE Roast n' Toast for Jimmy's 30th birthday and Saturday was the big day! Though he definitely started to get very suspicious over the last couple weeks, I think when it came down to the reveal, he was truly surprised. What do you think?

It was seriously so fun. To follow are some picture highlights...

Jimmy seeing the invitation for the first time:

Some decorations and guest shots:

Gag Gifts:

A Back to the Future t-shirt with Jimmy's face photoshopped in from Brittany - classic...

A Dolly Parton biography from Ali. Nice...

A kiddie fishing rod from Jake's dad, Joe...

Funny fishing t-shirt from cousin Katie...

The Roast n' Toast:

For some stupid reason, I didn't get any pics of Kelly and my mom roasting Jimmy, but not only did they step up to the plate, but they were both hilarious. Also, I read a toast Jimmy's uncle Mike had provided via email, which was both very sweet and funny.

Spencer breaking it to me that I was not Jimmy's first love, his wrestling singlet or his "onesie" actually was and then Kevin stripped down to nothing but a singlet and did a lap around the audience...

Lastly, here's the group shot we'll put in the frame everyone signed with the Irish blessing, "May your home always be too small to hold all your friends and family." All in all, such a wonderful party and unforgettable way for Jimmy to ring in his 30th year (actually at the end of this month). Thanks to everyone for your love and support!

Calm Before the Storm

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! We kick started ours when Kelly, Spencer, Kevin and Stefanie got into town on Friday evening. The boys immediately went surfing, while us girls gabbed and drank some wine. Then it was dinner at the Surf House Cafe and a game of Trivial Pursuit. Very low-key, but fun!

And then there was Saturday...

Earl & Our Little Secret

So as I'm sure you know, we've been living the last couple days with the threat of Earl - a category 4 hurricane - potentially making landfall around here. Luckily, it missed us, but I'm thinking the Outer Banks won't be so lucky. We'll see how it goes tonight and in the AM. Below is a picture of the "angry" ocean Earl has produced at our beach access. Not too impressive at 6pm. I'm thinking it looks pretty crazy right now...

All predictions lead us to believe this is going to be a very active hurricane season with an estimated 4 to 6 major hurricanes before the end of November.

In other news, Jimmy and I are finally able to share our secret with you. We know of the best* frozen pizza in the world. It's called Home Run Inn and it's from Chicago. In our area it's only available at Harris Teeter and if you don't look closely you'll miss it, as for every 1 Home Run Inn pizza there are 5 Digiornos and the other major frozen pizza brands. My brother told me about this pizza a year ago or so and it's been our favorite ever since. Enjoy!

*If you like more thin crust, crispy pizzas, this one's for you.

Blueprint - Kitchen Sink

The title of this post makes it seem like in my dream house I'd have a kitchen sink, as in I don't currently have one. That's of course not the case, but the alternate title would have been "Blueprint - Big, Deep Kitchen Sink with High Powered Dish Sprayer Thingy" and that's just ugly sounding.

Washing dishes after dinner tonight - my big Calphalon pasta pot and it's built-in strainer to be exact - my next blueprint post came to me. I would LOVE a more messy cook friendly sink. It needs to be deep and it needs to be big (maybe even two full size sinks like shown below). My current sink is neither big nor deep and while it has a sprayer, it does a lousy job. That's why I'd love one of those heavy-duty sprayers. They have an industrial feel, usually seen in cafeterias and restaurant dish stations, but I think they're super practical.