Recipe for Entertaining

How to turn a long nap into a party planning afternoon. A few weeks ago, Lincoln’s 2.5 nap really allowed me to really allowed me to prepare and pull about all the stops for our 4^th of July family picnic. For those of you (like me) who love to host,  but always feel like your under the gun and pressed for time.....all while trying to take care of your babies. I hope you find this helpful. Also, there are a few recipes as well! 

The to do list: 

-Make Cake

-Fruit Salad

-Slice fixings

-Speed Clean: 

o   Pick Up

o   Wipe down counters/dust

o   Sweep

o   Dishes

-Set up paper plates/silver wear

-Attempt to recreate last night’s cocktail

-Season meat & make hamburger patties

-Get ready

-Party!

Cake – Confession, I have always wanted to make a flag cake. But a plain white cake is well, boring! So, instead I decided to just decorate my new favorite cake with strawberries and blueberries. This baby was a HIT! Some people even had thirds (but I won’t name names). I was introduced to this mandarin/clementine cake, by my sweet coworker Ramona. Here's the recipe.

Fruit salad – the only fancy thing here was instead of dirtying another bowl, I decided to hallow out and reuse half the watermelon as our serving dish. After all, nothing says picnic like Watermelon!  One tip, don’t scrap too far into the white, you might puncture your “bowl” or get a bitter pieces of rind. I used my pampered chef ice cream scoop. As a bonus, the juice created by scooping out the little melon rounds can double as a sauce for your other berries/fruit!

Speed cleaning – this Step-by-Step Plan from Real Simple completely changed how I clean my kitchen. Save’s time and really allows you to focus on the fun parts of entertaining. (aka everything else on this list)

Cute Sign – This was added to my list, cause he was still sleeping. Courtesy of where else, PINTEREST!

Cocktail – the night before I fell in love with a drink from the 21C rooftop bar. Adorably named “Putting on the spritz”, I’ve was able to recreate this signature cocktail. Here is what you need:

Watermelon juice

White wine/sparkling wine

Sliced fennel

1 orange

To make, slice watermelon. Puree in blender, and push through a fine strainer. 

Slice fennel, and half an orange. Add to mixture. Then juice other half of orange, adding to mixture. Finally, add the white wine of your choice and mix. Let sit for at least an hour, so the flavors can combine. It is normal for this cocktail to separate, so mix before serving. (Yes, I used the fennel as my stirer)

Last tip, the watermelon juice does dilute your drink (which being a light weight, I prefer). But, if you prefer more guesto in your cocktail, you may want to add two bottles of wine. 

This was the point of the afternoon; I decided to make another cup of coffee.

Once I seasoned my hamburgers, and Lincoln woke up I was very happy to see my mother in law pulling in the driveway. Just in time for me to get ready.

Overall it was an amazing 4^th of July, here are some of the pictures of the kids enjoying a little cousin time.

Half way through the night I realized, this is a good test run for Lincoln’s 2^nd birthday party. Which, (gasp!) is today! I better get a move on. Have a great summer y'all!