Do you guys know that sherbet party punch that shows up a lot at baby and bridal showers? It’s usually served up in a big punch bowl and is made with things like fruit punch and 7UP® with scoops of sherbet floating on top. The idea is that it’s delicious, non-alcoholic and you get little bits of sherbet with each sip. It’s frothy, super summery and really refreshingly fun! Have you ever had it before? It is seriously some kind of delicious and I love that it’s such a simple concept, but sure enough you’ll always look over mid-party to find an empty punch bowl. Kids love it because it’s sweet and tasty. Adults love it because it somehow makes you feel like a kid again. That’s entirely what inspired these party punch sherbet floats! When I’m having friends over, whether it be for a dinner party or evening spent on the back patio, I love serving up something fun and slightly unexpected. Then you can keep everything else simple and they’ll still experience a taste of that wow factor that makes them feel a little special, and that’s my favorite thing in the entire world. Today I’m teaming up with 7UP to share how I made these easy but totally wow-worthy floats! (Be sure to scroll down for the step-by-step recipe video, too!)
Recipes
Over the last few years I’ve been really into arranging a bunch of food on a board and serving it up as a casual weeknight dinner, a great party appetizer or a delicious mid-afternoon snack on a weekend. Something about food on a board is just so damn enjoyable, and people naturally seem to love food that’s interactive, which is why this one would make such a good addition to your next party. People love a great cheese board, but this is spin on the classic is even better with an excess of good fresh mozzarella and burrata, loaded up with a variety of tomatoes. Drizzle everything with a good olive oil, max out on fresh basil, then sprinkle the whole mess with yummy coarse grain sea salt and you’re in business.
We had a whirlwind of a weekend, hosting two parties and inviting a combined total of over 60 people through the house over the last two days. This morning it is dark and stormy, and I rolled out of bed a solid hour later than usual. I guess 48 hours of intense back-to-back entertaining will do that to you! When we’re throwing parties my rule of thumb is to keep the food simple, but also a touch unexpected and fun. It makes people feel special and gets them really excited to try something new. This strawberry feta bruschetta recipe perfectly fits that bill! It’s a departure from the tomato-based classic, but it’s equally, if not more, delicious. Plus, strawberries and feta always taste amazing together. In terms of prep, it’s also very easy! If you can dice up berries, you can feel confident serving this bruschetta at your next get together.
Over the weekend I made a whirlwind 62 hour trip to Round Top, Texas and back. I’ve been working on a couple of really huge projects behind the scenes, I haven’t washed my hair in at least three days (dry shampoo, I love you), and my feet are still slightly swollen from traveling and lack of sleep over the last week. All of this to say, these peanut butter and jelly ice cream sandwiches are delicious and exactly what you need when you’re exhausted and missing a few of the usually prominent bones on the tops of your feet. An instant pick-me-up! To keep things simple, you can use a cookie mix here. To keep things delicious, I highly suggest making the strawberry jam homemade. Then just smash cookies and ice cream together and eat them right away, or wrap them and stash them in the freezer where they’ll keep for a few days.
I remember on my inaugural trip to Europe as a young teenager being completely confused by Europeans and their penchant for room temperature beverages. Or rather, being confused by their confusion with our love for icy cold beverages. I have a serious love affair with ice. The frostier the drink the better! The fancy ice cube craze running wild these days? I am so completely into it. Not only does it look so incredibly pretty, but you’re also left with a million or more flavor combinations for taking your summer lemonade and your favorite fruity cocktails to the next level. I personally like my ice cubes with fruit and herbs for even just sipping water throughout the day, but latte ice cubes and flower ice cubes and anything else you can freeze into a cube sounds pretty amazing, too! Here are 10 ideas to get you started…
This easy sugar cookie fruit pizza makes a simple and delicious 4th of July dessert or the perfect addition to any summer party menu! Easily change the flavors by changing out the berries for any other combination you prefer.
After Christmas, my favorite holiday is easily the 4th of July. There’s just nothing more festive to me than fireworks and the general summer-inspired glee that comes along with celebrating the 4th. Even now as an adult, the grand finale of any fireworks display makes me clap with excitement, because basically I am a five year old kid on the inside. This year I’m excited about hanging red, white and blue bunting along our front porch for the first time, and I’m also excited about these ice cream cones. Nothing is quite as American as red, white and blue sprinkle dipped 4th of July ice cream cones, am I right? These are such a fun way to serve up even just a simple scoop or two of vanilla ice cream, and you can prep the cones the day before. All you need are sugar cones, white chocolate and all the cool sprinkles you can find. Stay tuned for more fun 4th of July ideas! It’s about to get mighty patriotic about these parts.
When I was in high school there was a little coffee shop in town where many of the kids in my class would gather in the evenings on the weekends. At the time I wasn’t much of a coffee aficionado, but they made the most delicious Italian sodas so those quickly became my regular. Now, every time I have one I am transported back to my last months and weeks of high school, so the timing seemed perfect to share my homemade version. A handful of our favorite teenagers are all graduating in the next several days and our calendar is about to fill up with graduation parties galore. From there we’re zipping right into the lead up into the 4th of July, so naturally I had to make sure my Italian sodas had a little patriotic spirit going on since they’d also make a perfectly festive drink at your Independence Day celebrations, too. They’re made with homemade berry syrups and they’re insanely delicious.
You guys know by now that I’m a vegetarian and have been for well over a decade, so you may be wondering why I’m serving you up an appetizer today that is the very definition of un-vegetarian. It turns out though that this prosciutto wrapped asparagus was a huge hit when I made it on a whim on Easter and at the time Bob made me promise I’d make it again and also that I’d share it with you since it was a huge hit. You know you have a winner on your hands when you write a blog for a living and the family is declaring, “You need to post this!” while they’re enjoying something new you just made. Bob is actually the one who suggested this would make a great Father’s Day appetizer since it could also be made on the grill. So there you go, the official word on this recipe, according to gentleman of the household.
I’ve been in such a weird food rut lately, which isn’t very typical for me and I’m starting to feel it. At the moment I’ve basically been opting for some variation of avocado toast (generally on naan bread) as often as seems reasonable, because I’m just so bored with everything else. I love to cook, but behind the scenes I’ve been juggling a lot of huge projects (that I really really hope I can share with you in the coming weeks) so I’ve been eating on the fly more often. Frankly, I usually devote most of the food prep time to making meals for Em and then I just grab whatever is handy. This week I am planning to stock up on a bunch of fruit, frozen and fresh, so I can start working more smoothies into the routine.
There’s something about food served on sticks that people seem to instantly love. Case in point, the antipasto skewers I shared last year were one of your run away favorite posts of the year! (And, guys, they’re so damn tasty!) Spearing yummy little bites onto sticks is also a super easy way to serve up delicious, crowd-pleasing party appetizers. You can make them in advance, mix and match a million different flavor combinations and keep everyone begging for more.
Hi, friends and happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Did you do anything fun? Try any new recipes? Watch any good movies? Last Saturday we tore up our kitchen for what was intended to be a relatively quick and inexpensive interim renovation, but which is proving to be a much more involved project than we anticipated. Of course. So more than a week later my house is a certified renovation zone once again after taking a much needed break from any major projects since last fall when we wrapped up our living room renovation.