Marzetti House Party and New Food

61. Dinner date with friends once a month (2/29)

Last night was my Marzetti Simply Dressed, Simply Delicious House Party. I want to start off by saying thank you to everyone that came over for the dinner party. I know your lives are busy and I truly appreciate that you chose to spend your time with us. I absolutely love hosting parties and coming up with ideas to make it great, and spent days over the past four weeks coming up with ideas, planning, and prepping for the party and hours in the kitchen yesterday putting my beautiful creations together for everyone to enjoy. I really appreciate you guys coming over to enjoy my efforts and I hope you all had a great time. I am blessed with some really great friends!

House Party is this fantastically wonderful company that teams up with different companies to get the word out about a particular product. The Keurig Vue party that I hosted a month or two ago was also courtesy of House Party. In this case, House Party teamed up with Marzetti for a Simply Dressed themed party. I received a box in the mail that included 13 reusable grocery bags, 26 coupons for my guests for dressing, 8 coupons for free dressing to be used at the party, 2 salad to go bowls (1 as a prize for a guest), and 13 packs of recipe cards. I didn't want to just have a salad bar so I hit Pinterest up for some ideas. Here are a few menu items inspired by Pinterest:

Seriously, how cute are these veggie cups?

83. Try a new recipe every month(6/33) "Italian" Skewers with tomatoes, artichoke hearts, mozzarella cheese, and salami marinated in Balsamic or Ginger Sesame dressing.

E also made the Asparagus Salad that was included in the recipe cards from Marzetti.

The main course included salad and Rotisserie Chicken Sandwiches. I made four different versions using Strawberry Poppy Seed, Caesar, Balsamic, and Ginger Sesame. The bread was homemade and brushed with a margarine/garlic mixture.

I think the party was a hit and can't wait for the next!


44. Try fish tacos

I have made fish tacos once before, but really wanted to try ordering some from a restaurant. I don't know why, I just did. We went out to Sushi Hai for our Mother/Daughter date night/mom's birthday belated celebration the other day and the fish tacos were on the happy hour menu so I figured what better day than today to try them?

The verdict? They were okay. A bit too salty for my preference and maybe just a bit too much fish for one dish for me. But now I know!

46. Try 10 new interesting foods

While we were at Sushi Hai I tried a new interesting food. I didn't take a picture because I didn't actually think of it as a new interesting food until this morning... but it certainly is both and I think I deserve credit for it. My sister did the ordering of sushi at dinner and she ordered the Sashimi Combo in addition to our sushi rolls. Not sure what sashimi is?

A big piece of raw fish.

Not something I wanted to ever try in my lifetime. I am definitely more adventurous now that I am a sushi addict, but I figured little pieces of raw fish masqueraded by the other ingredients in the rolls is adventurous enough. When they suggested I try the sashimi I thought to myself, "ah, what the hell...", and with a non-enthusiastic look on my face I gave it a try. It actually wasn't that bad at all. I suppose I was expecting a slimy texture or something, but that's not really what I found. Although it was not that bad, I still would not order it on my own. I will stick with my sushi rolls that are more in my comfort zone.

94. Buy flowers once a month for the house (6/33)

These are my favorite so far because they contain a few of my very favorite colors!