The Neighbor and I caught an episode of Oprah last week where Rachael Ray was on, giving all sorts of time-saving tips on throwing a party. Oprah played bartender for the party and revealed her newest favorite cocktail, Oprah’s Pomegranate Martinis, and in Rachael Ray-speak – Yum-O! I think I have found our cocktail for the upcoming Christmas Eve festivities, and the drink for our December Supper Club.
I’ve gotten The Neighbor hooked on paninis and she invited us over tonight for dinner. She made Turkey, Prosciutto and Cheddar Paninis (delish) and Nachos.
I added some leftover Cranberry Broccoli Salad, leftover dessert (hey, the leftovers have to be eaten sometime and we can’t get through them all ourselves!) and we kicked off the evening with Oprah’s Pomegranate Martinis. I was expecting them to be on the tart side, but they’re not at all, sliding down real easily, almost like a light fruit punch. Read: you have to watch carefully otherwise the alcohol might sneak up on you! All in all, a nice evening.
We’ve already planned the menu for tomorrow night’s The Neighbors Dine Over Sunday, and even better than that, I’ve already planned 3 dinners for the week, the treats for Treats to the Office Monday AND ordered all my groceries for delivery tomorrow. Not too shabby.
And not to be outdone in the “getting ahead of ourselves” game, The Husband spent a lot of time today getting our Christmas decorations out and put up. Just a few more things, including buying the tree, and we’re actually ready ahead of time … for once.
Tune in tomorrow to find out what hits the table for dinner. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the recipe for the Potatoes Au Gratin that we had for Thanksgiving, Oprah’s recipe and a picture from last night’s Friday Night Date Night. Don’t forget to send in your pup pics. Until then…
OK, a seriously mixed-up pair. Nicholas is wearing a pair of my shoes, albeit on the wrong feet, and The Girlfriend is wearing a pair of Nicholas’ flip-flops (perfect for 25 degree weather), but although they’re on the right feet, they’re from 2 different pairs. These two were definitely made for each other. :)
Potatoes Au Gratin
2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
salt to taste
Wash potatoes and slice very thin or cut into small cubes. Whisk together cream, garlic, white pepper and salt. Add potatoes and stir, making sure each one is coated. Generously grease a casserole dish. Using a slotted spoon, lift the potatoes out of the cream mixture into the casserole dish. Pour the cream over the potatoes. Bake at 350 for an hour, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Serve steaming hot.
Oprah’s Pomegranate Martini
Serves 2
1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
2 oz. Absolute Citron vodka OR white tequila
1 oz. Cointreau liquor
Cup of ice
Optional: Splash of sparkling water
Optional: Squeeze of lemon
Shake ingredients in a shaker and put in chilled martini glasses. Put pomegranate fruit into glass as garnish.
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Well, shoot. Now look, it opens! (see my comment on post below this one). But this gives me a clue. Your site just finally finished downloading everything (I’m on dial up). Maybe the comments boxes won’t open until everything is downloaded?
Or maybe people who ‘know’ me have blocked my ability to leave comments. Wouldn’t blame them! : )
Oh, I just remembered one more thing. (Now are you starting to get why I think there might be blocks against me making comments? : )
You mentioned problems with hello. Oh yeah. So many that I’ve started uploading photos directly through blogger. Seems they got most of the bugs out of that system. If you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. Anything to get those photos up! Okay, I promise no more comments. : )