We had a dinner party on Wednesday. It was so much fun! I was thinking about what to post this week, and I realized I could share about the food we ate! Two birds, one stone. Everything in the above picture is from Aldi - I love that store. They are not only cheap, they have really good appetizer food! They have a LOT of organic food, as well as a whole line of gluten free products. I'm not being paid by them to say this - I just love them, enjoy what they do, and hope their prices don't go up!
I was hoping to get all the food ready before our guests came, but I was working as they came in the door, so I had literally 45 seconds to take the pics of the appetizers. Not bad, huh? These are tomato, mozzarella and basil bites - the basil is not from Aldi - I got a plant from Harris Teeter.
This one is so easy. Watermelon cubes with feta and mint.
The photo on the left shows the best appetizer of the night. Goat's cheese, pear, walnut and cranberry on an herb cracker. So easy, and so delicious. The pic on the right is the spinach artichoke dip from Costco with smoked salmon.
If you know my family, you know our favorite dessert is my father in law's pound cake. He makes the most amazingly moist, rich, decadant desserts ever. This was an almond cranberry poundcake. Ridiculous...
Ritter and I are vegetarians, but our kids are big meat eaters. They were super excited that we had meat at home, so they ate all the salami really quickly. Also, the cake was beautiful for a minute and then it looked like rats had taken chunks out of it. Kids and appetizer buffets don't mix... Anyway, after a while I told them we were having dinner, and Nuelie said, "this wasn't dinner?" I guess it was a good thing cause he didn't eat any of the spring rolls.
I have to thank my friend Heather Lim for introducing me to this meal. She had us over for a meal many years ago - she had probably spent hours chopping everything! Thank you Heather!
Again, we had shrimp and salmon for our guests, but it tasted delicious without it too!
I think half the fun of eating Vietnamese rolls is rolling them yourself. We had lots of fun dipping the rice paper, finding holes in them, getting better as we kept at it. We had three sauces - a siracha mayo, a "Vietnamese Rice Paper Sauce" that I bought, and a peanut sauce that I made. The peanut sauce was the best... It had hoisin sauce, peanut butter, rice vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and siracha sauce. I don't remember how much of everything because I don't measure when I cook... I know, it's annoying, but thats how my mom cooks, and thats how I learned...
Or you can eat it as a salad.
Success!
This is my favorite pic of the night - drained wine glass, leftover food, crumpled napkin.
I found that a live plant was cheaper than buying the same basil and mint wilting on the shelf. It was fun clipping these off and throwing them into our rolls.
All the guests got to take home lunch for the next day too! Ritter and I have had it for another two meals after that, and we still have more... I guess I chopped a bit too much? Anyone want to come over?
