Eat, Pray, Live Party @ My House

Good morning to you all, I hope you have sun and you're all out enjoying it!!!  In case you didn't read it over at Shoestring's facebook page. I am sending you my apologies for being absent for so many days with no word, but my back went out and I wasn't able to let you know or work on any of my "projects".  Prayers have prevailed, again!! and I am back here at my keyboard to share with you all!!

So, to get on with it, so to speak, I want to share with you a recent experience of mine!  Last Friday, I provided the Food and Place for one of my new Life Groups through my church called "Eat, Pray, Live".  With having it here @ my home I felt there was a lot of emphasis on the "Eat" part, as that what I was providing...If you follow me on facebook you know I was struggling a little with the menu... 

However, believe it or not, my first passion is, and has always been, cooking and baking ( I'm sure I get this from my Grandmother)  Therefore, I just sat myself down determined to find out what 'universally friendly' foods I wanted to make so that all here were fed well and enjoyed the experience.

"A Brunch-themed dinner" seemed to be what kept coming to my mind.  Who doesn't love Brunch?  Plus, I knew I had created some pretty memorable Brunch meals in the past that had always been a hit.  So I wrote out my Menu.  It was a warm day, so the first thing that came to mind was ***Cucumber Water ( a new find for me ) and  I just Love it...such a simple thing as placing sliced cucumber in your water pitcher, makes your water so much more ...hmmm .. more watery(?) no...Refreshing! That's the way to put it! I can't get over how much difference this small step makes.

If you have the time, put some slices in the water the night before and just add ice for drinking. Another wonderful accompaniment to this is a few fresh raspberries. They just look so pretty! :)

So here's what I made:

A nice Fresh Vegetable Frittata, with spinach, onions, and yellow and orange peppers (Provides a great protein, without making a meat or poultry that might turn someone off)

Homemade Caesar salad(Light on the garlic!! Don't want to be offensive)

Watermelon, Strawberry and Green Grape Fruit Salad (It was hot out!! Nuff said!)

My Pasta Salad, served cold, with spinach, peppers, onions, and feta and my balsamic vinaigrette, (One of my favorite summer dinners) 

Little sidebar here, I must tell you that I won Cottage In the Oaks little tabletop Chalkboard Venue from Courtney at French Country Cottage and I was so excited (I never win anything)  to use it for this, it was the perfect  time and reason to do so...  Doesn't it look Grand?

The Group, the people, the prayer and food all went well!!  I thoroughly enjoyed the evening! So, I guess we can call it a success, I had very little leftovers so my menu was a hit.  Most importantly, was the wonderful fellowship I enjoyed that evening!! What a wonderful group of people that I look forward to seeing again next month! I hope you are all as Blessed as I have been to have people like this in your life!!

The recipes are my own, tried and true, as My Grandmother put it!  If you are interested in one of them shoot me an e-mail. (I'm hoping to find a way to post them here, but not in the actual post). I hope you all have a wonderful week, full of bounty and blessings!! Thank you for taking a few minutes to share with me.

Many Blessings,

Theresa