This ultimate Mediterranean hummus board has your favorite cheese board elements with the best ever hummus with spiced meat, grape leaves, pickles, olives, and pita. It's mostly no-cook and make-ahead for the perfect party meal!
IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMAS MORNING. I just love this so much.
...OMG OMG OMG. 
In a real world we probably can't have all of these things for one meal. Or shouldn't, at the very least. ButIwanttosobadseriously.
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The best Thanksgiving alternative, I love just cooking a roasted turkey breast bone in for perfect Thanksgiving nostalgia in about half the time. This recipe includes my favorite easy homemade gravy recipe that comes out perfectly every time. Roast turkey breast is the best!
HAPPY NOVEMBER. How. Is. It. Here.
Since Thanksgiving is just three weeks away (how.is.it.here.), we have to start prepping our menu ASAP! Our plans are pretty up in the air this year due to newborn status (basically, if anyone has so much as a sniffle we aren't going), but our tentative plan is to have a day with Jay's family and a day with mine and the rest of the weekend for Jay to parent HARD because he has to travel for work the following Monday. At five seconds postpartum, almost identical to when Beck was born.
Luckily I'm super tough and not ever overwhelmed or weepy so I'll be fiiiine. Translation: Beck loves movies and we have lots of family in town.
......because otherwise tbh football is a waste of damn time. 
So! Let's make a party on Sunday. I love a theme sometimes, like tacos, pasta, or chili with a ton of toppings, but I also love making a few really good snacky foods that don't necessarily go together. Buffalo anything shows up often, and here are a few other ideas for Sunday!
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I know that I'm such a broken record, but I can't believe the days are shortening and summer is over halfway over. We still have plenty of long hot days ahead, sure, and I basically feel like I have summer FOMO. Now that it's mid-July I want to be sure I do all of the fun summer things before we move into all the fun fall things. 
By 10am on Monday we had our entire weekend planned with summery things. Working for the weekend doesn't begin to describe the amount of vacation-mode that is going on here even though we don't have any more vacations planned. ...
I threw my first baby shower last week! For Scott and Belen! And then we went on vacation and THEY HAD THEIR BABY IN THEIR HOUSE by accident which I will tell you about in more detail at a later time. 
But first we need to talk about this shower. I was a little nervous because it came on a really really busy week and Jay had been out of town and also Belen is always doing really cute things and my MO is kind of "give them booze and meatballs and maybe they'll like you?" Not so much with the cuteness.
But then I Pinterested "winter baby shower" because I had it in my head that I wanted to do a winter/Christmas thing, and I saw a chalkboard that said Baby It's Cold Outside and I just kind of ran with that. So! Here is what the non-Pinteresty boozehound did.
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So. You know how there's a thing in karma and life where REALLY AND TRULY the most ridiculous things only happen when 1. you're sober or 2. tons of other people are watching?
I've noticed a pattern in my life and have determined that this is the truth.
Example: I only spill beer (or anything) after I've had 1. After 6? I'm allllllll careful. The first drink, though, sometimes BEFORE THE FIRST SIP, is when I'm really confident in my sober motor skills and end up dumping gallons of expensive drink all over myself, cell phones, carpet, you name it.
We had a similar situation last week when we hosted a party for FIFTY PEOPLE IN OUR HOUSE. The party itself was absolutely wonderful; we did it for an out-of-town friend who came in for a surprise for his dad, and it was crowded but lovely and I think everyone had a nice time.
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This here is some real-time blogging, friends.
So, SO. Tomorrow is my friend Emily's birthday! She's one of the ones we went camping with last weekend, and is one of my absolute favorites. Her mom is in town and her boyfriend's parents live here, so tomorrow night we're throwing a little partayyy at our place.
Which of course means that we're cleaning our house the same time I'm submitting final paperwork for school and prepping for a week away at the beach. 
BUT! That's what this is all about. The ability to make stuff ahead, take help from the store, and not be super frazzled when hosting things, even on a Wednesday in the middle of the week.
Here's the plan.
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Guys. It's a short week!
Thank GEE, amirite? We're having an insane 4 days until then, and Thursday evening can't come soon enough. Our major plans for the weekend include MAKING NO PLANS, so that probably means that we'll end up cooking a lot at home and finding some friends and family to hang out with. Fun! Fun?
Fun.
Whether or not you're doing anything official this weekend, it's still fun to have some flag-colored food, don't you think? I do. Nothing wrong with a white sheet cake decorated like a flag, of course, but here are some other, slightly more creative ways to incorporate Old Glory into your menu this weekend.
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Guys, TIS THE SEASON, amirite? I feel like we're inundated with grill-out options, potluck invitations, and let's not forget that THE FOURTH is coming up! If you aren't American, that means that we get a day off work to daydrink and cookout and hang out near bodies of water.
Just like our founding fathers would have liked it.
ANYWAY ANYWAY. Ignore me.
Tomorrow night I'm doing a cooking class for my getting-healthy clients (I work at an obesity clinic), and we're doing cookout food! Cookouts can be SUPER hard for our families to navigate, so I'm trying to give them some tools to use that will make them feel confident when cooking or attending cookouts in the coming weeks.
Here are some ideas for you, too!
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Guys I have a favor.
First, though, thanks for your lovely response to the words yesterday about the meanies in Texas.
That's right, meanies.
Anyway, my little catering company is growing! We're doing lots more small events and it's just FUN this time of year to be offering folks tasty fresh foods.
I made a Facebook page for it, where we're posting weekly specials, sales, cooking tips...you name it! So, if you're in the Greenville, SC area and ever might like some event help, check out the page and follow along for the latest updates!
The end.
Wednesday means that we can go ahead and start planning for next weekend, yes?
YES.
I love weekends.
I love having people over on weekends, especially. It's so much more low key than going out, and it's WAY cheaper to do something at someone's house than go out, that's fo shiz. But, people are all antsy about cooking for big crowds, getting it all done in time, all that good stuff.
So today I thought I'd tell you how I go about entertaining for a gang - it's a lot of the same tricks I use when I cater to be sure that I can get everything done, everything will be delicious, and I don't lose my ever loving mind. It's happened before.
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Nothing like a really informative article title, is there?
Happy Friday, kids. FINALLY. What a week it's been! I have a gazillion fun things planned for this weekend while Jay is at the beach, and cooking has already commenced.
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Guys it's finally Friday.
I have my final yoga test this afternoon but then tomorrow my sister and I are going to a yard sale and a farmers market so....just gotta get through today?
Anyway.
Food.
I made this meal last weekend, and it was super easy-peasy, and REALLY delicious. Lots of the components can be made ahead or aren't even really recipes so...let's get to it!
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I didn't know what to call this.
If I liked long post titles, I would have called this Mexican-style Grilled Tuna, Tofu, Chicken, and Veggies with Green Cilantro Rice, Tons of Taco Toppings, and The Sauce I make for Fish Tacos.
But that seemed kind of long, so I didn't do that.
Anyway, this meal is one that I made last weekend for my pretty sister Emily's birthday. Our family doesn't really do restaurants on birthdays - there are a gazillion of us and we like to cook, so that's what we do!
It involved champagne at 11:30am, which is never a bad thing.
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I know. Dumb title.
But it's FRIDAY, y'all.
Two days until the Super Bowl! AKA the time football players are going to intrude on the Beyonce concert.
Whatever.
The other day we talked about some GREAT appetizers/snacks that you can make this weekend that are totally meat-free. Check out the post - there are some great ideas!
Now, you may not want to only serve vegetarian options on Sunday. I'm with you - I'm doing a mix. Here are my favorite options for meat-inclusive appetizers. All easy, all scrumptious.
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As a friend on Facebook says, someone appears to be planning to play football at the Beyonce concert this Sunday.
I love it.
I don't love Football, BUT, this season especially I've had a blast learning a TINY bit more about it thanks to Jay and some of our BFF's. Apparently when you buy a house with someone you don't get to ALWAYS sneer at what they like to watch on TV.
Whatever, I'm over it.
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Happy Friday!
Fridays are just so wonderful and hopeful, don't you think? I have lots of fun plans this weekend, and I'm itching for them to start!
I also ordered something online that turned out to not be in stock, so that's kind of a bummer.
What I'm saying is, I'm super emotionally conflicted right now.
I love Christmas decorations. Everything's so pretty this time of year, and using silly Christmas serving pieces at parties totally makes my life better.
So, I thought we could wrap up this week by talking about some super cute and dorky ways to make some delicious foods red and green, so that everything in the world can be Christmasy just for a little bit longer. Let's do it!
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Was your Thanksgiving good?
Mine was, and I'm, like, totally bummed that the day after tomorrow everyone has to go back to work for 4 weeks and pretend like we aren't counting down the days until Christmas.
I'm not the only one doing that, right? Please say no.
We're Clemson people, like I told you about last year.
Well, I'm no one's people, but Jay went to Clemson and graduated from Clemson, so today we're Clemson people.
Today, Clemson's football team is playing USC - their fiercest rival. The therapist in me doesn't understand why it's, like, not so GREAT that we have two good schools in our state and why can't we just cheer for EVERYONE and be happy?!?! but, shockingly sadly, I'm outnumbered 1 - everyoneelse in that regard.
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Thanksgiving is tomorrow!
Finally.
How annoyed are you of me telling you how to cook?
Hopefully not too much - this is the last day I'll be dictating what you eat until the next time I feel compelled to share with you my thoughts on what I think you should eat.
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