Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I don't know if it's from having an Irish grandmother or simply being American, but St. Patrick's Day is always celebrated in my house.  Off to get this year's preparations, I leave you with pictures from last year's St. Patrick's Day tea.

Tapas Party

Back from my trip yesterday, I woke up in typical jetlagged fashion this morning at 3am.  Until I upload my photos, here is a look back at a tapas dinner party we threw for our friends last month.  Although we only started prepping a few hours before, the beauty of this type of party is that it can be as little or as much as you make of it.  Following the Barefoot Contessa's golden rule of stress-free entertaining, we didn't make every dish from scratch.  There was the cheese and meat plate we put together with fig jam and the mixed olives bought from the deli.  Fresh caught prawns bought from the store to go with our homemade lemon butter dipping sauce.  And as far as cooking, everything was pretty simple.  We stuffed piquillo peppers (from a jar)  with tuna fish, mayonnaise, and lemon juice.  I tossed evenly-cut potatoes with Spanish paprika and oven roasted them.  I made a homemade aioli to go with that.  There were roasted curry chickpeas. Oven roasted chicken wings.  Simply-cooked asparagus.  

And then there was dessert.  Since M. is gluten-free, we whipped up a gluten-free mixed berry crumble.  There wasn't any measuring going on.  In a bowl, I thawed a bag of mixed fruit with a little sugar.  I put some brown sugar, rice flour, and gluten-free oats in the food processor.  Then I slowly added cold chunks of unsalted butter.  I pulsed the mixture until it got a crumbly texture.  I mixed the fruit with the crumble, adding extra crumble on top, and baked it in the oven at 350 F for about 45 minutes.

Summer BBQ on the Deck

Having spent many a summer night in New England where my mom's family is from, I am all too aware of the nightmare of mosquitoes and the horrible bites they inflict on even the cutest of babies.  Despite the warm evenings New England enjoys all summer, unless one has a screened-in porch, often times al fresco dining has to take a backseat to insects.  I will never forget a warm summer evening spent at Bia Bistro, a lovely restaurant in Cohasset, Massachusetts.  We asked to sit outside only to be swarmed by mosquitoes incessantly while we waited for our drinks and appetizers.  The moment we saw our waitress, we begged to be let inside and she kindly obliged.  Which brings me to the great Pacific Northwest.  Although much of the summer was colder than average, as soon as I got back from my vacation earlier this month, the sunshine hasn't left.  One of my favorite things about this region is the concept of the deck.  It's such a Northwest thing.  No bugs to worry about here.  So....last week I threw a neighborhood BBQ on our deck.  I had great fun preparing the menu, decorating the dining room and deck, and putting little personal touches on things.  The guests all enjoyed themselves, the burgers were a hit, and though I was tired by the end of the night, I was asking myself, "When can I do it again?"  I realized that I love entertaining and bringing people together.  The only unfortunate thing about the whole evening was that I was so busy preparing and entertaining with neighbors that I completely forgot to take any pictures of all the fun!  At the end of the evening I managed to snap a few lonely photos-- of the "bar" in the dining room and a sad pitcher of (nearly finished) white sangria.  At least we had so many delicious leftovers that burgers were on the menu for the next three nights and I was able to take a picture of my plate the next evening!

Bar in dining room included:
Wine glasses, sangria and glasses adorned with swizzle sticks
Lemons in vases as an easy way to incorporate what I already had in the kitchen into a summer decoration
Bowls of chips and homemade yogurt dip with toasted pita slices for guests to snack on while I was preparing the final dishes
Do-it-yourself burger toppings including sliced tomatoes, onions, and lettuce

Leftover goodness- homemade burgers with potato buns and pink sauce, watermelon panzanella salad, oven-roasted rosemary fries, slow-roasted tomatoes, and jalapeno chips


Thank goodness I used recyclable paper plates so that the dish-washing was kept at a minimum!  More time to slowly wake myself from the oh-so-worth-it food coma.