I have one last recipe to share from our Taco Date Night party, and of course I saved the cocktail recipe for Friday! These orange mango margaritas are going to be a summer staple, I just know it. I loosely chopped up 2 small ripe mangoes, and squeezed the juice of two giant oranges into a food processors, and blended the mixture until it was a smooth puree. Then I strained the remaining mango pieces out of the mixture, leaving just the juice behind in a measuring cup. Over ice in a cocktail shaker I mixed 2 ounces of tequila, 2 ounces of the mango-orange juice, a squeeze of a fresh lime, and a half an ounce of Grand Marnier. Shake it up, and strain it into a glass, and serve with a lime wedge. With all of that fruit in there, it’s basically like a healthy smoothie (with tequila), right?
To help you recreate this party look at home, Hattie Sparks has a special offer for my readers: 20% OFF your online purchase with the code DOMESTIKATE today through Monday 3/17 – happy shopping!
Please note: I was gifted some of the materials used in this post. All opinions and recipes are my own.
The main course for my Taco Date Night party was a pulled pork taco with a chipotle lime slaw. We were gifted a slow cooker for our wedding and it’s been such a nice addition to the kitchen this winter — I love how our house smells like savory comfort food all weekend when we get to use it. The pulled pork recipe was simple. I combined a teaspoon each of chili powder, cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder, plus a bit of salt and pepper to make a dry rub for a pork tenderloin. After coating the pork with dry rub, I seared all sides in a skillet before placing it in the slow cooker with a 1/4 cup of honey, 2 seeded chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, 1 cup of chicken broth, the juice of one lime, and a tablespoon of brown sugar. After that, I set the slow cooker on low for about 6 hours before coming back at the end to remove the peppers and shred the pork.
I served them on warm corn tortillas with a chipotle lime slaw (which was just a slaw mix and some of the leftover chipotle lime aioli from my Mexican Street Corn, combined with about a teaspoon of red wine vinegar). These came out delicious, a really nice combination of sweet from the honey and spicy from the chipotle peppers.
To help you recreate this party look at home, Hattie Sparks has a special offer for my readers: 20% OFF your online purchase with the code DOMESTIKATE today through Monday 3/17 – happy shopping!
Please note: I was gifted some of the materials used in this post. All opinions and recipes are my own.
I shared a Taco Date Night party on the blog yesterday and today I’m diving into the recipes. I’ve noticed Mexican street corn popping up on lots of restaurant menus near me lately (in particular, the street corn at Painted Burro makes me SO happy) and I wanted to try to recreate the idea at home. It was super.duper.simple. In warmer weather I would have grilled the corn on the porch, but in these wintry cold temperatures, I just charred the corn in a lightly oiled cast iron skillet. While the corn is cooking, I made a chipotle lime aioli. Whisk together in a small bowl 1/4 cup of sour cream, 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, 1 to 2 teaspoons of chipotle adobe sauce (depending on your affinity for spice!) and the juice of one lime. When it comes off the pan, sprinkle the corn with chili powder, a little sea salt, drizzle it with the aioli, and then top it with cotija cheese. YUM!
To help you recreate this party look at home, Hattie Sparks has a special offer for my readers: 20% OFF your online purchase with the code DOMESTIKATE today through Monday 3/17 – happy shopping!
Please note: I was gifted some of the materials used in this post. All opinions and recipes are my own.
When people ask me, ‘why do you like blogging?’ — it’s posts like these that make me unequivocally be able to say it’s getting to ‘meet’ and collaborate with so many awesome people. The darling Hattie, owner of Hattie Sparks, reached out to me with the idea of collaborating on a table-styling project using some of the beautifully curated products from her shop. I of course jumped at the chance and when I saw the bright Jonathan Adler pieces she pulled together, I knew they were begging for a little taco party (I guess that makes this Taco Tuesday!). My husband absolutely loves tacos, they’re his favorite food, so I made a plan over the weekend to cook up some gourmet tacos for a Mexican-inspired date night at home.
For the menu I made a spin on pulled pork tacos that were slow-cooked with chipotle peppers and honey and topped with a lime-chipotle slaw. I plated up some Mexican street corn on a bright green and white geometric patterned tray (those colors together were perfectly appetizing!), and of scooped lots of fresh guacamole and all the toppings into playful bird dishes and bowls! Of course we needed a sweet libation to wash down our tacos, so I mixed up a batch of orange mango margaritas in mod white rocks glasses.
I hope I have made you thoroughly crave a taco night — I’ll be posting my recipes later this week so you can recreate the whole meal.
And to help you recreate the look at home, Hattie Sparks has a special offer for my readers: 20% OFF your online purchase with the code DOMESTIKATE today through Monday 3/17 – shop away my dears, you know need a guacamole bird bowl!
Please note: I was gifted some of the materials used in this post. All opinions, recipes, and taco jokes are my own.
I was searching for some appetizer inspiration recently and came across this amazing recipe from Kinfolk magazine — I wanted to try it but it wasn’t exactly fitting my bite-sized criteria for serving snacks when I had friends over. I loved the idea of having something a little heartier to serve though, so I used the recipe for inspiration and made my own mac and chili mixture and baked in a mini-muffin tin for bite-sized tastes. They flew off the plate when my friends tested them over the weekend! Full recipe below. Ingredients:
Red bell pepper – 1/4 cup minced
Yellow onion – 1/4 cup minced
1 Clove of garlic
1 small tomato- 1/4 cup minced
Scallions or chives – about 3 tablespoons chopped
Lean ground beef – about 1/4-pound
Kidney beans
One bag of orichette pasta
2 cups of grated sharp cheddar cheese, plus extra for topping
Milk – 1 cup
Flour
Butter
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
In a skillet, heat a small amount of oil or butter and cook red pepper, yellow onion, garlic, and tomato for about 3-4 minutes, until they begin to get soft. Next, add in ground beef, and brown in mixture. When meat is browned, add in about a half a can of red kidney beans and the chives, heat through and then remove pan and set aside.
While making the chili mixture, cook pasta to al dente. Next, melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a pan, and add 3 tablespoons of flour, whisk together. Next, add milk, and continue to whisk together over the heat until it begins to thicken. Next, slowly add in grated sharp cheddar cheese and continue to mix sauce until smooth. When all of the sauce is incorporated and smooth, pour it over the orichette in a large pot or bowl. Fold in all of the sauce and pasta, and then add in the chili mixture.
Scoop mac and chili mixture into a mini-muffin tin. Using the back of a spoon, pack the mixture into the tin so that the ingredients are compressed together. When the muffin tin is full, sprinkle more grated cheese over the top (I used some Parmesan here for extra flavor), and bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let them rest and cool slightly before removing from the pan (this is important, they may not hold their shape if you remove them when they first come out of the oven). I served them in mini-muffin liners for a festive touch!
Did you hear? This little ‘ol blog turned 5 and we’re celebrating! To share the celebratory spirit, I decided we need to host a little giveaway and have rounded up some of my favorite things, including lots of little festive details to have a party yourself! To enter to win, visit my new Domestikatedlife Facebook page and give it a ‘like’ — then leave a comment below telling me your favorite item from the giveaway! More entry details below:
A few weeks ago, someone asked me how long I had been blogging. I had to think about it for a second, part of me thought “gosh, forever?” — I can barely remember a time when this site wasn’t part of my daily routine. At the same time, there are days when I open up a new blog post and I feel like it’s the first time I’ve ever started writing. So when I got home after that conversation I looked up my very first blog post and realized it was actually 5 years ago on that very day that I had started writing. Five years! That’s half a decade! I’ve been thinking about this ol’ blog quite a bit after that realization, and like any good blogger, thought I’d share a few of those thoughts with my readers. In those past 5 years I’ve written over 1,000 posts, and those posts all grouped together have given me more than I could have ever bargained for.
One of the very best parts of this blog has been the people I’ve met along the way. I’ve gotten to be part of a rich community of creatives online; people I’ve only known through blog comments and tweets have become friends in real life that I meet up with when traveling to other cities. I’ve been so lucky to have developed relationships with tons of sweet, supportive local bloggers through the Boston Bloggers group that I run with Alison, and feel like I’m always exploring my city and doing fun new things with these inspiring women. In fact, I’ve become such good friends with some of them that I don’t even call them my “blogger friends” any more!
This site has also brought me amazing opportunities. If you told me 5 years ago, when I closed my eyes, terrified to hit publish on that very first post, that I would end up working with brands and bloggers I idolize, and would have my work featured in magazines and some of my favorite online publications, I would have laughed (and knowing me, probably rolled my eyes). I’ve also learned so much about social media from working in the blogging community and I honestly don’t think I’d be where I am in my career today if this blog hadn’t existed. And gosh this blog has brought me a lot of adventures too; from getting to visit Martha Stewart headquarters, to little weekend inspiration excursions, I’ve consistently used this site as an excuse to explore and have fun.
More than anything, this blog has been an amazing journey of finding my passions and getting to look back at how they’ve evolved. When I first started posting I was toying around with the idea of going back to school for interior design, I was design-crazy and remember reading blogs like Apartment Therapy and Making it Lovely and obsessing over fixing up my first post-college apartment. As my interests evolved, this blog evolved alongside with them. I love looking back at old posts now and seeing the trends and style and ideas I was drawn to at a particular moment in time. Five years, 3 apartments, 3 jobs, a wedding, and 1,000 posts later I feel like it’s a reflection of me more than ever before.
So! Thank you for reading along with me, whether it’s just been the last few weeks, or since the beginning (in the beginning it was pretty much just my family and my girlfriends– so an extra special thanks to you!). It’s been a lovely ride — and here’s to another 5 more years!
Now, I’m done with my mushy, emotional blubbering and onto the important stuff — check back tomorrow for a fun giveaway to keep the celebration going!)
I love watching the Oscars, tweeting about the gowns, making my guesses for each category — but somehow, me, the entertaining-addict, has never thrown an Oscars party. This year, I’m breaking that streak and having a few friends over for a casual little viewing gathering. As no party is complete without a signature cocktail, I thought I’d experiment with one to make this weekend for sipping during the show. I’m calling my creation the “Golden Statue” for it’s pretty color and a nod to Oscar himself. Here’s how you can make one of your own: In a small pitcher combine one cup of tangerine juice, one-quarter cup of Royal Rose apricot simple syrup, and one-quarter cup of vodka. Stir it together well and divide into four flutes. Then fill the remainder of the flute to the top with chilled prosecco and serve! I made Oscar straws for a festive touch too!
I got a few questions on the bourbon-soaked cherries that were featured in the Ladies Winter Whiskey Party over on Style Me Pretty this week, so I thought I’d share the recipe! Fill a mason jar with cherries, add in 3-4 tablespoons of brown sugar, fill 3/4 of the way with bourbon, and then top the rest off with some water. I let mine rest for about a week before using them, and they were a tasty garnish to our Ladies Manhattan cocktails and paired perfectly with the bourbon-caramel drizzled chocolate cake we had for dessert! Plus I picked up a few small corked jars (these cute ones from Target!) and made mini-versions that everyone could take home at the end of the event — I heard after that made a great topping at home on top of a bowl of vanilla ice cream, yum! Photos by Brian Samuels Photography
I have the delicious drink recipes from our Ladies Whiskey Party to share with you today! One of my favorite details from this day was the incorporation of the recipes into the event — I wrote the ingredients out on brown paper bags and tied them on whiskey bottles to match each drink so it was easy to identify each one. And because the idea of the party was all about sharing these whiskey drinks and making whiskey drinking a bit more approachable, we gave everyone a stack of recipe cards with the ingredients and instructions written out on them so they can recreate them at home. Now, onto those recipes!
Classic Whiskey Smash
Half a lemon, cut into wedges
6 mint leaves
.75 oz simple syrup
2 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon
In a shaker, muddle lemon wedges with mint leaves and simple syrup. Add ice and bourbon, shake vigorously. Strain over crushed ice and garnish with a tall mint leaf.
The Ladies Manhattan
2 oz Michter’s Rye
.75 oz Dolin sweet vermouth
.25 oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Regan’s orange bitters
Cherry garnish
Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, cherry garnish.
The Bee Keeper Punch
1.5 bottles Overholt Rye
16-18 oz fresh lemon juice
25 dashes bitters
2 cups honey spice simple syrup (go slowly to taste)
1 bottle inexpensive Prosecco
Combine first four ingredients and chill for several hours. Before serving add Prosecco. Serve over rocks with a twist of lemon. (To make simple syrup: 16 oz clover honey, 16 oz water, 1/4 cup mulling spices. Bring all ingredients to boil, turn off heat. Steep for 15-30 minutes. Strain the ingredients and cool the syrup.)
