Category: Seasonal Sips

Location: Hosting your friends at your home

Recommended time: An evening a week or two before Christmas

The Perfect Pair: A pitcher of bourbon apple cider and a table full of snacks

For the past three years, I’ve thrown a Christmas party and invited quite a few of our friends. For us, hosting is a way where we can bring all the people we love together and spend quality time together. The holidays are a great time to do this, especially before everyone goes and spends time with family. Our friends are family and we love to celebrate our friendships with them this time of year. We also consider hosting to be the sweetest of Christmas gifts. As someone who loves to host, I definitely feel like I get better at the planning, cooking, and setting up every time I do something like this. That’s why we’re doing this today. We would like to give our tips and tricks and menu advice, so that it is easier for you to host a party of your own!

The first thing I do is send out the invites and start thinking of the menu. We like to use Paperless Post for the invite because online invitations are so easy and people are more likely to RSVP. You can totally use Evite or Facebook, or really anything you want. Paperless Post has just been my preference. As people RSVP, I’ll adjust the menu or even consider allergies and preferences for the food and drinks. I’m not saying go crazy, use discretion and maybe let what you know about people help guide what you were already going to provide anyways.

After I make the menu and do all the wonderful shopping, (does anyone love grocery shopping as much as us?!) I make a schedule for when the heck I am going to get it all done. As a Type A person in disguise, this is necessary. I figure out what prepwork I can do earlier in the week or even the day before. Anything to help lessen the the busyness of the day of. The day before, I lay out my table and serving dishes. That way the serving dishes that need it can be cleaned and I can make sure there is a place for everything. Once I have it like I like it, I add in little pieces of paper that say what will go in it. It helps keep me organized day of and not forget something in the fridge. It also makes it so easy if you have someone helping you put it all out.

I tend to go super overboard with food but, oh well! We can eat on the leftovers the next couple of days and I usually send the last people to leave home with a few things as well.

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This year I made:

• A cheese and charcuterie board- a must have for sure!

• Bacon blue cheese puffs
• Buffalo chicken sliders
• A green chile cheese ball
• A veggie tray and humus
• Carmelized onion brie phyllo cups
• Bruschetta
• Spicy Chipotle Honey Meatballs

• Dark chocolate cupcakes with peppermint cream cheese frosting
  Peanut butter blossom cookies
• Dark chocolate cupcakes with peppermint cream cheese frosting
• Peanut butter blossom cookies

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As for drinks we usually have beer, wine, sangria, and a fun cocktail (this year we had two cocktails because we couldn’t decide). As for the beer selection, this year we went Shiner and Miller Light. Shiner because ‘Texas forever’ and it is always good to have a dark and a light beer. If we would have bought more, we would have gone with something Christmasy like St. Arnold’s Christmas Ale. We always make a holiday sangria because it is fun and festive and the fruit always looks so beautiful. As for the wine selection, I buy more red wine than white wine. We typically go with these varieties: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec. There are obviously a million options on what to serve, but those are all of our friends’ favorites, so those are what work for us. If you’re buying multiple bottles of one type, it is totally not necessary to buy different bottles. Find what you like and stick with it. Cocktails. Yummy. We like to pre mix cocktails before the party in pretty pitchers, that way we know exactly how much liquor is going into it. Also we don’t make too much to start, because unlike beer and wine, you’re stuck with what you make and you can always make more. This year we made two bourbon drinks, a bourbon apple cider sour and a whiskey sour with cranberry. We also jazzed up our ice cubes because it makes it look a little nicer.

As far as activities, we always have a white elephant at the end of the night. Completely optional, but always a blast. We do a max of $10 for gifts and people are so creative. It gets a little intense when the stealing is in full force. Also, my perfectly paired pal surprised us with a snapchat filter for the party! It was so exciting to see!

Can’t wait to see all of the wonderful parties y’all host for your friends this holiday season or what tips or ideas you use to help you host a shower or housewarming. The opportunities for hosting are limitless. We’ll be hosting any chance we get and building community one cheese board at a time.

Peace & Pinot,

The Perfectly Paired Pals

Location: Home, preferably a patio

Recommended time of choice: evening

The Perfect Pair: Fall Sangria and Baked Brie

Fall is such a wonderful time to host. Well, anytime is a great time to host. What we specifically love about fall are the colors, the smells, the spices, and the cozy that comes with it. (Here in Houston, we have to pretend it feels like fall outside, so we tend to go overboard with reminding ourselves that it is) For today’s post, we are going to share a couple recipes that are go-tos for any occasion. Of course we went with a sangria that is not so typical and it is a great combination of spice and sweetness. Secondly, we have a fantastic recipe for baked brie that is warm, delicious, and covered in caramelized onions. Swoon.

 

First up is the sangria.

Fall Sangria

Ingredients:

One bottle red wine (We prefer Tempranillo or Cabs for this)

1 cups apple cider (not pictured- Oops!)

½ cup Brandy

¼ cup triple sec

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 apple (color of your choice)

1 pear (color of your choice)

1 orange or blood orange

Top with sparkling water or ginger ale

This is best if you let it chill for at least an hour before serving and preferably a lot longer. It is best if you make it right before you go to bed before serving the next day or even first thing in the morning the day you host. That way all the flavors have time to mix together and create the best experience.

One of our most favorite things about fall are the spices, which is why the cinnamon sticks are my favorite part of this recipe. If I know a day or so in advance that I’ll be making this, I measure out the brandy and let the cinnamon sticks soak in it until I add both into the wine along with the triple sec, fruit, apple cider, and ginger ale.

First thing I add to the brandy and cinnamon sticks is the chopped fruit. Following that, just add the rest in and stir. That’s our kind of recipe!! Just make sure to stir well and pour over a little bit of Ice. Top with your prefered sparkling water or ginger ale and serve!

 

Now for the Brie.

 

We’re going to top this bad boy with caramelized onions, which take lots of time and love. You can’t just snap your fingers for caramelized onions. Wow.. wouldn’t that be great. If you know you are having people over in a couple of days or less, go ahead and do the prep work early, that way you don’t have to rush the process. Make sure when caramelizing your onions, you don’t let them dry out and keep the temp low and slow. You don’t want them to burn, so stir them often. Butttttt don’t stir them so much that they don’t brown. Depending on how much you make, these could take about 30 minutes to an hour. We won’t put a specific time on it because it really depends on your preference. Really, it depends on your patience level as well… I would have kept mine going longer last time I made this, but I couldn’t wait any longer! As a final touch and a personal preference, throw in a splash of balsamic vinegar. You’ll be amazed at the depth of flavor this adds– yummm!

 

Preheat the oven to 350℉

 

Place your Brie in an oven-safe serving platter. You won’t want to try and move it after you bake it, it will get a little messy. A mini cast iron skillet makes for a cutie little aesthetic and it helps the Brie stay warm as you are serving it, so that’s our pick.

 

Cover the top with a couple of tablespoons of jam. Our pick for today is Fig jam, because we love it oh so much and all the flavors go very well together. There are so many other tasty options that we considered, one being blackberry jam. On top of the jam add the carmelized onions. I add the amount that I make with one large yellow onion, but I love this stuff. Add as much or as little as you like.

The next and last step is baking it! Throw it in the oven for about 15 minutes and serve warm.   

These are such simple recipes that will please any guest. That’s the key. Find things that are simple and that you love to make. They will inspire you to have friends over to host and serve. You know our philosophy, the best conversations are had when good friends are gathered around a table of good food. It’s even better when it’s wine and cheese.

 

Peace and Pinot,

 

The Perfectly Paired Pals