Getting back to entertaining

After two years here, I finally held a little dinner party last night. I pulled out all of the colorful Talavera pottery that I've been collecting since Tucson became my home and planned a menu full of color. Fun! The big platter held a composed salad with grilled chicken, colorful veggies, olives and cheese over a bed of mixed greens. I made a honey mustard marinade for the chicken and for the dressing.

Colorful mini peppers stuffed with garden veggie cheese were the appetizers.

Fruit kebabs are my go-to item for parties 

because they're so cheerful.

 

The pasta pesto salad was a hit. I simply mixed Costco pesto with some light mayo and tossed it with bowtie pasta, roasted red, orange and yellow pepper strips, spinach, marinated artichoke hearts and parmesan. Delicious! (It's also very good made with tortellini.) The pasta salad and fruit kebabs are on sunflower pottery that I found in Hood River, OR, at a local pottery studio. I love them!

It was all topped off with a Key lime meringue pie, which I polished off after everyone left. I think I left it in the oven a little too long because it got too brown. Gee, I'll have to make another one to improve on the technique!

 

The incentive for the party was so that my old friend Nancy, who just moved here from Gig Harbor, could get to know my new Tucson friends. Here's Nancy at the door to her new home and looking out over her back yard view. Can you believe we're in the desert with all those trees?

And to make this post sewing related, here's a top that I made 15-20 years ago and just rediscovered. It was too big for me back then but I loved the fabric, so I stashed it with my other batik fabric in case I ever wanted to cut it up for a quilt. Luckily I didn't, because now it fits me.

Have a colorful day