Let me show you, first of all, what happens when my friends who cook and I have “just a simple game night!”

B and K came over with their spouses and our friend S, also came and there was so much food!

B made tortilla wraps and these little bruschetta toasts with a creamy cheese spread. Both were fantastic and the Husband has requested tortilla wraps for lunches soon.

K made Southwestern wontons, which were spicy and yummy! Her husband did the frying and he did an excellent job.

I made Hot Buttered Rum cupcakes from The Prohibition Bakery book and they were definitely alcoholic. Delicious, but not for kids! The cake part didn’t have booze in it, but the caramel filling was rum based and the frosting wasn’t cooked and had 1/3 of a cup of spiced rum. Man, they were delicious! I was kind and left the frosting off some of them, so that J and the Husband could eat them. They wouldn’t have liked the rum hit from the frosting.

There were also pickle wraps, which I was a little doubtful of, but were pretty good from K.

I didn’t realize that it might be intimidating for people who aren’t fond of cooking, or don’t do a lot of it to show up and be presented with an entire table full of homemade food. I honestly don’t care what people bring, or even if they bring anything, but I’ll have to work on being less intimidating, I guess.

We’ve had some other fun meals lately. Nachos were kind of like a party, but just for us.

We had these after the previous party to use up the Pico. It was a good idea!

Also, kebabs for the Labor Day canning day. I used the Galena Street rub on them, I believe.

Also, to use up a party leftover a while ago, we had pigs in blankets. I used all beef mini sausages from Costco and puff pastry. They were delicious, even if I did feel about 5 years old while eating them. 🙂 For the record, I did have more veggies and fruit, but had started eating before taking the picture.

I made up a few recipes for chicken and steak. For the chicken, I baked breasts in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and fresh herbs. We had roasted potatoes with it. The Husband always forgets that he likes balsamic vinegar, but he did enjoy it.

I was super proud of myself for the steak, because, not only did I season it (Montreal Steak Seasoning) and cook it without using a recipe; I also made a mushroom red wine pan sauce! Take a minute. I know it’s shocking. I’ll wait… 😉

We had it with garlic mashed potatoes and I cooked up red peppers and swiss chard with some garlic and Sandwich Sprinkle. It was a tiny bit overdone, but not chewy or anything.

Another meal I made up lately was this burger, which we grilled a few weekends ago. We also grilled portobello mushrooms and I cooked bacon. I used an Applewood Smoked salt from The Salt Cellar at the Ren Fest. There was garlic and other spices as well. It added a nice smoky kick to the meat. My burger was topped with garden tomatoes and I had seasoned waffle fries (Sandwich Sprinkle!) and homemade spicy pickles with it.

I did use a recipe for the Carbonara from the Bacon 24/7 cookbook. I don’t generally have good luck with it, so wasn’t sure enough to wing it. It turned out pretty well, I think.

After my canning experiment, I had half a pint of jam left over, so I gleefully ate it on lemon poppyseed muffins for the last couple of mornings. I had chicken sage sausages and a hard boiled egg too.

I am still working on a cookbook review. I only made three of the recipes from it that I wanted to highlight, so maybe by the end of the week, I will have that done. I hope your day is going well and your food is as delicious as these recipes were!