Sunday, August 23, 2009

My First Hostess Experience in Photos: Shower Menu, 7 New Recipes and GOOD TIMES!

So... I had an amazing weekend!! I will do a separate post catching up on everything (eats, finished a book, tons of home projects done, etc.) but I wanted to devote this post to Saturday evening - the baby shower I hosted for Jimmy & Mary. It was SO much fun having so many of our closest friends in town to celebrate and just hang out. I personally think they're all hilarious and so to have them all in one place was awesome!! Three couples stayed over too so it was like a big spend the night party! Most importantly, I think Mary and Jimmy had a great time, the game I made up seemed to go over well, they got lots of beautiful gifts and it was just GREAT!!

As far as food, I wanted to do a mediterranean/Greek theme for a few reasons. 1) I've been loving the food lately! 2) It's pretty. It's just so colorful! 3) Mary and Jimmy are Greek! Perfection! So I began scouring my favorite food bloggy sites and put together the menu below. I was so nervous and so excited. Were they going to work out? Would they look good? Would it taste good? eek!! I made everything Thursday night, but about an hour before the shower I put items together and set it all up. Here goes! And a special thank you to For the Love of Cooking, Recipegirl and Cooking Light...

Shower Menu

Greek Appetizer Skewers from Recipegirl.com


Greek Salad Bites from Recipegirl.com

Marinated Mushrooms from Recipegirl.com

Penne with Chicken Sausage AND Pasta Salad in Vinaigrette from For the Love of Cooking


Herbed Greek Chicken Salad Pitas from Cookinglight.com



Tomato & Fresh Basil Crostini with feta and roasted garlic cheese spread from For the Love of Cooking


Pitas + Hummus from Trader Joe’s (1 bag of mini pitas and 4 flavors of hummus)


Baklava + Chocolate cover Pretzels from Trader Joe’s



Please note: We LOVED every recipe. Seriously! The recipes are posted below - AMAZING - I was so happy with it. ALSO, we had A LOT more food than shown above - I restocked the pasta bowls at least 2 more times, same with the greek Salad bites, skewers, etc.

The Spread




The Good Times

The boys... always a good time

Our best friends on our porch! i'm a cheeseball...

Reuben had friends in town, too - Teresa & Forrest's Cassie

It took a long time to get this group shot!

See what I mean?

Jimmy being Jimmy hehe

And Ryan being Ryan.

A "candid" hehe


The boys!! With their cigars of course.


The Girls (the hand on hip bookends were not planned!)

Me and Austin - not our best photo but what are you going to do?!

Teresa and Daisy!


Mary and Jimmy were SO cute opening gifts and playing the game I made them play. hehe


The Velotas's and their prezzies


Mary and Mary - reunited and it feels so good!

The boys being forced to be in more pics!


Cassie girl ran security all night SO cute!


Last but not least - part of our beverage center - WOWZA we went through so much beer, wine and vodka!!


THE END!!

Tomorrow I will post:
  • A book review (finished Undomestic Goddess!)
  • Thursday, Friday and Saturday's workouts (I even ran you guys!)
  • My eats
  • A bit more about my weekend - the house seems so empty now!! :(
This week I will post:
  • More house pics (a lot of our projects are DONE!!)
I hope you all had wonderful weekends!! I'm going to catch up on your blogs.... NOW!!!! Yay! I missed blog world!

25 comments:

Erica said...

ah! All that food looks seriously delicious! Great job. You all look like you had so much fun as well. Glad the event was super successful!

angieinatlanta said...

Ah! That food looks amazing! And it looks like you guys had a blast!

Mica said...

You were definitely the hostess with the MOSTEST this weekend. You totally cooked up a storm, and I am super impressed.

I'm glad you had a fun weekend with friends!

Melinda said...

You throw a fabulous party girl!

I LOVED Undomestic Goddess and all of Sophie K. books!! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow. I'm really impressed! That food looks delicious. Looks like a really fun shower.

april said...

Wow what good food! I think the dessert looks best though :) Your such a great party planner!

Paige@ Running Around Normal said...

Wow the food looks great! Nice job. Looks like you all were having so much fun:)

Julie said...

Looks like you had a wonderful weekend. And ommmmggg those apps look amazing...I can't wait to try some of the recipes out...ecsp the mini stuffed pitas!

Emily said...

wow what fun! looks like you did an amazing hostess job...everything sounds and looks delicious! and you're so pretty... i loveeee that dress!

Andrea@WellnessNotes said...

What a fun shower! The food looks amazing!!! Awesome job!

Cuban Pete said...

The food looked amazing! Love the Mediterranean diet...incredibly healthy! Yaso!

Anonymous said...

Great job on the spread! I love that you went with a Greek theme.

She-Fit said...

YOu did such a great job. Way to go. Love the menu. The food looks great

RecipeGirl said...

Wow, I've spent some time looking at your before & after pics and your weight loss journey- congrats! I really would like to eventually do the same and keep it off. It's so hard! (especially when you bake as much as I do)

I'm happy that your recipes worked out so well. Looks like you had a wonderful time & the spread looks great!

Therese said...

That is one heck of a spread! What a fun weekend :) Did you have any leftovers...I would bet not lol!

Every Gym's Nightmare said...

looks like a lot of fun with a lot of good eats!

Anne said...

This post made me hungry! All the food looks so yummy. Congrats on being such a wonderful shower host!

Liz said...

That food looks great! It looks like you threw a great shower for your friends.

Anonymous said...

Got any leftovers? Greek is my FAVE!!!

Kelly Olexa said...

OMG looks like a dang magazine spread woman!! ;-)
You owned it!!

Kelly Olexa said...

OMG looks like a dang magazine spread woman!! ;-)
You owned it!!

Therese said...

That is one heck of a spread! What a fun weekend :) Did you have any leftovers...I would bet not lol!

Cuban Pete said...

The food looked amazing! Love the Mediterranean diet...incredibly healthy! Yaso!

Paige@ Running Around Normal said...

Wow the food looks great! Nice job. Looks like you all were having so much fun:)

Melinda said...

You throw a fabulous party girl!

I LOVED Undomestic Goddess and all of Sophie K. books!! :)