136.4 yesterday; 137.2 today

Last night's Bunco was a "great success" (Borat voice). It was a ton of work but the results were worth all the effort. Bear with me...I have a ton of pictures! But first let's rewind to yesterday's breakfast.

I incorporated the Tomato Feta Salad that I made the other day into some egg whites and ate it with a slice of wheat toast:



I took the kids to camp and then went to spin class. After I got my sweat on, I came and changed and started prepping for Bunco. Lunch time rolled around so I used the rest of the tuna salad I made the day before and grilled it in a whole wheat tortilla with some shredded cheese. I put some watermelon on the side:



After this picture was taken, I realized my tuna melt needed a little zip....I put the rest of the guacamole on my plate and ate it with that. Yum! I was too full to eat the watermelon so I put that back.

My theme for the Bunco menu was Greek. I was inspired by an episode of Barefoot Contessa where she made an entire Greek meal. Ina Garten never steers me in the wrong direction. Even thought I had never made any of the recipes, I trusted that they would be excellent. I made everything except for the dessert. I decided to roll with Baklava instead. After a little research, I decided to go with this recipe. After tons of layering phyllo dough, butter and walnuts, my pan looked like this:



Ok, time to cut it....I was scared!



So far so good. Into the oven it went. I made the honey syrup that goes over it. Once it came out of the oven, I poured the syrup over it and voila!



Looks good right? After letting it cool, I tried one. OMG. I could normally care less about Baklava. This one....blew my mind. At that point, the hubby comes home. He doesn't like baklava but I make him take a bite. He ate the entire piece. Fabulous. It was labor intensive for sure but worth it. Wow.
Next it was time to marinate the lamb and chicken. I used the recipe for the Marinated Lamb Kebabs and used the same recipe for the chicken. Here's the lamb all done:


After everything was prepped, I began plating everything. The Baklava:



I made brownies with layers of brownie, toasted pecans, caramel, white and milk chocolate chips:



Greek Tomato Feta Salsa in the awesome "Martini Glass" I bought at World Market a few weeks ago:



I love this "salsa"! I served it with pita chips like I did the last time I made it.


This salad was so delicious!!!!! To die for. I love you Ina Garten!

I then set up the backyard for the party. The desserts:



The table with a candle centerpiece:



Water Dispenser and an array of glasses:



More tables and candles.....check out the cool kid's cars in the background:



Awhile back, Ryan from POM Wonderful sent me a case of pomegranate juice. I had a couple of bottles left so I decided to mix a cup of it with a bottle of Prosecco. Thanks Alicia for the idea!



It was delicious! Not too sweet at all (I don't like sweet beverages of any kind).

Everyone started to arrive. I got the grill fired up and turned on the oven for the Spanakopitas. My friend Nora helped me grill all the meat. Check out these beauties:



Kebabs and Greek Salad:


The FREAKING Delicious Dinner Size Spanakopitas:



I was a little worried about them since I had made them ahead and frozen them. I defrosted them, brushed them with butter, sprinkled with salt and put them in the oven. They were perfect....absolutely perfect.

I took a picture of my plate but I don't know what happened to it. I had a lamb kebab, pita bread (that I brushed with olive oil and threw on the grill), Greek Salad and Tzatziki Sauce. I guess I didn't get a picture of the tzatziki either but it was delicious! Have I mentioned that I love Ina Garten?

Here we all are:


I'm the one in the brown dress on the left in case you didn't know. :) Lisa was fabulous enough to take the picture. She took a ton of other pictures during the evening so hopefully I can share those with you soon! What a fabulous evening! I'm really getting the hang of prepping and doing things early. Less stress that way. :)
Thank you to all my friends who helped clean up last night. Bringing all that stuff into the house takes forever but not when you have that many hands. :)

After less sleep than I'd like, I got up and got on with my day. :) Breakfast was an English muffin with Barney Butter and a side of watermelon:


I took the kids to camp and then went to Zumba. I came home and cleaned up, did some more clean up and other random stuff. Hubby is leaving today for a trip for a few days and decided to take me to lunch. We tried a restaurant near us that recently changed it's name and menu: Miguel's Cocina. We decided to sit on their outdoor patio. It was a beautiful day!

Because I didn't have enough wine last night (Not!):



I ordered the tostada with shredded chicken:



I ate everything except the tortilla shell. It was pretty good! I will go back for sure.

Afterwards, I got my nails done. :) I am going to grab a coffee with Lisa soon for a little bit. I'm excited to heat up some of last night's leftovers for dinner! YUM!!

Who's your favorite celebrity chef? I bet you can guess mine. :)

Comments

  1. That lamb looks amazing. My favorite celebrity chef- I love Giada, Emeril and Mario Batali.

    ReplyDelete
  2. YOU are my favorite celebrity chef!!! You need your own show, hottie! Bunko was INSANE! SOOO yummy! You have set the bar way too high. Good thing my "bar" is the vertical one in the garage, and my bunko attendees can get "spinny" in more ways than one!

    If anyone wants to see more photos, here's a link to my post about your event:
    http://crosbyotches.blogspot.com/2010/08/opa-its-melissas-greek-bunko.html

    Love you, and thanks for feeding me such delicious dishes! Oooh, I am going to claim that phrase as my invention right here and now:

    "Melissa's Delicious Dishes!" Books, TV shows, action figures...

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a delicious Greek feast you made! I bet the food was a big hit. Your baklava looks heavenly!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment