Showing posts with label Rachael Ray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rachael Ray. Show all posts

Monday, February 25, 2008

After the Oscars

We had such a great time at our Oscar party last night! I always try to class up the house and decorations by using gold, black, silver, red and crystal. This year we got a HUGE boquet of white flowers--think old classy Hollywood On the drink table, I used a white table cloth, a red runner to mimick the red carpet (thany you Rachael Ray). Also courtesy of Rachael Ray, I got white napkins and drew black lines on them and where they met I put a gold seal. They looked like the envelopes--except this year they used red seals. Oh, well. I was happy with the results. I picked up some red burlap fabric on sale and used that for our red carpet. Ralph picked up some really fun prizes. We have used Blockbuster gift cards for the last few years so we of course used those again this year. We also gave away a "Juno" soundtrack, an "Enchanted" soundtrack, "Michael Clayton" on DVD and two "date nights" (two tickets to a movie, popcorn, and something else--Ralph got them). Everyone seemed to have a great time.
We served hot apple cider, a champagne punch (minus the simple syrup), French press coffee, and water with lemon. The punch is a wonderful light, refreshing punch. It serves quite a few people and is really easy to make! We had some really creative food again this year. I just picked a couple to show. Our friends Jeff and Sarah made the "There Will Be Blood Pudding." Jeff spent all afternoon on the structers. Kelly made the "Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pies" for "Sweeney Todd." I have to admit--I loved what I made. They are called "Texas Millionaires." They are caramel, pecans and chocolate. So yummy! I made them for "Charlie Wilson's War"--about a politician who surrounded himself with Texas millionaires.
I will go into the dresses in a later post but overall no huge fashion blunders--some should look at hiring a new stylist and some should maybe get one, but overall I loved the dresses!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Yummy food

Ralph and I have decided we need to eat at home more this year. We are trying to both save money and eat healthier. So last Wednesday, I planned a menu and shopped. The menu was supposed to have been for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We made our dinners on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday I made some spaghetti sauce with a ton of veggies and simmered it all with the rind of parmesan cheese. We had garlic salad and garlic bread with it. (Can you tell we like garlic just a little bit?) Thursday we made Knife and Fork Burgers with Provolone Dipping Sauce and Roasted Tomato Salad. They were really good!


 

Then we took a little break. Ralph got a call/text from a good friend asking us to go to dinner with him and his girlfriend on Friday night. We had wanted to get together with them for a while, our house was a disaster and we were too tired to host so we went out. Then Saturday after work we raced down to Kettering from Fairborn to make it to church and were much too tired to cook after that so we went out.


 

Sunday we used one of the recipes/menu items for HC. We made Sopa de Pedra (Rock Soup). It was so good. To look at it, it looks like just another tomatoey soup recipe, but the hot sauce gives it this great kick! We used ham for the meat. It was really good! I had it for lunch today and it was even better the second day. Tonight we made Jon's Grilled Tuna Salad. I loved it! We served it on toasted English Muffin Bread. I really like it! It was salty and tasted fresh and light at the same time. Ralph only thought it was "ok". It just wasn't what he was expecting when he thought "tuna salad." This is especially sad due to the fact he made it. Come to think of it because I have been working so much, he not we made most of these recipes. If you are looking for something new, I would recommend all three and Ralph would recommend the first two. Are we walking advertisements for Rachael Ray or what?