Weekend Cooking: A Visit Back Home

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food. 

 Every year we go back home to the Finger Lakes region and rent a house on Owasco Lake. We spend the week with family and friends and share good food and fun.

The view  of the house from the lake

Our first stop is always Wegmans grocery store, which is one thing I miss about living in Manhattan. We stock up on our favorites, including salt potatoes which are difficult to find in NYC,
and always grab a big package of hamburgers and Hoffman hot dogs (white and red) for the grill. We really miss being able to grill outside every night in the summer!

I always try to combine favorite foods with a new recipe to try out on everyone. This year, I made Mary Alice's Hoagie Dip, which is always a crowd favorite. (Actually, I made two batches this year and they both disappeared.) We also had SoCal Fajita Dip and my son's girlfriend put together a beautiful Antipasti Platter.

Antipasti platter

Cook's Illustrated's Baked Ziti was a popular entree, and we had enough for two days worth, plus some leftovers. I paired that with Balsamic Roasted Potato Salad, and some friends brought a delicious homemade pizza and a huge pan of roasted vegetables that we fought over the next day.

For dessert, we had Pretzel Jello Dessert, Peanut Butter Crack Brownies, and a friend made delicious chocolate chips cookies with her secret ingredient (a package of vanilla pudding).

The biggest hit of the week though was a new recipe- Chicken Spiedies served on a roll. I found this recipe on Pinterest from Mel's Kitchen Cafe , and everyone went crazy over it. People were clamoring for it so much, I had to make it again two days later.

I've made spiedies with the bottled marinade several times, but making it with your own marinade made a huge difference. Several people who had them asked for the recipe and made it themselves already.

I marinated the chicken, but left the boneless chicken breasts whole to grill, instead of threading cubes of them them on skewers. (The purists will not like this, but it worked well for our crowd.)  When they came off the grill, I sliced them and put it in a bowl. People grabbed a roll, piled on the sliced chicken and topped it with the homemade sauce.

As usual, I put together a Pinterest Board with all the week's recipes for everyone who asked for them and I am sharing the board here.

We had a wonderful time and look forward to returning again next year. if you have any summer recipes you like to share with me, send them along in the comments section. I'm always looking for new ones to add to the collection.

Weekend Cooking- Two Parties, One Week

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Every summer we go back to central New York to visit my family. This year we rented a home on Skaneateles Lake with a pool and everyone had a great time splashing around. We invite our friends over for a party and it's always good to see everyone and catch up.

The beautiful pool area

This year we also celebrated my nephew's high school graduation with a small party. I decided to try some new Pinterest recipes, even though I generally don't make new recipes for the first time at a party, I felt confident that the ones I chose would work well.

As our appetizers, I made two sweet dips- Creamsicle Fruit Dip and Monster Cookie Dough Dip. My brother loved the Fruit Dip (it really did taste like a creamsicle) and the Monster Dip was a huge hit.

We served the Creamsicle Fruit Dip with strawberries, grapes, cantaloupe and pineapple, and I found the pin on SixSistersStuff.com


The Monster Cookie Dough Dip is served with mini pretzels, graham crackers and apple slices and everyone was digging in. The recipe came from TheGirlWhoAteEverything.com. 

The savory dips started with Seven Layer Individual Dips, which just looks so darn cute.


It aslo came from SixSistersStuff and everyone loved them.

I also made Mary Alice's Hoagie Dip, which my sister-in-law Brigette has made for several occasions and is always a fan favorite. She found it on FoodNetwork.com


My sister brought pulled pork from her pig roast, so we made sliders. I also added Walking Tacos, which became the talk of the party, much to my surprise. You cook the ground beef, add taco seasoning, simmer and place in a crockpot. Then you set out individual bags of Fritos and Doritos, along with your taco bar toppings- shredded cheese and lettuce, chopped tomatoes, sliced black olives and green onions, sour cream and taco sauce.

A sign with directions- grab a bag of Fritos or Doritos, crunch the bag a little, open the bag, add ground beef and then your favorite toppings, grab a fork and eat. There's no taco mess and it's so easy. Everyone was talking about it, how they are going to use this at their next party and we even ran out of taco meat, which shocked me. I got this recipe from my sister-in-law Kay, who served them at three graduation parties to much acclaim.

The mad rush for Walking Tacos

For our friends' party, I made another batch of Individual Seven Layer Dips, and So Cal Fajita Dip with leftover steak from dinner the previous night. This is always a big hit.

This one came from ohsweetbasil.com

We made a few batches of Raspberry Mango Sangria, which has quickly become our favorite summer party drink of choice.

This is from MarthaStewart.com

Maria brought her world famous Pumpkin Cookies, (which my family demolished the next day) and Barbara made Summer Pizza Squares, which also mysteriously disappeared the next day. I so love when people share their best dishes with friends.

Both parties were wonderful, we played corn hole and ping pong at the graduation party, and we all laughed so hard at our friends' gathering that we had headaches and stomachaches. One of our friends, Rick, really hit then nail on the head. He said that we could not see each other for ten years, and when we did get together, it was like no time had passed; we just pick up where left off. That is so true.

My favorite food from the week was this Creamsicle Cake, which came from Reese's, a local family owned restaurant that makes their own ice cream. This has been a favorite of mine for years, and  it brought back all kinds of great memories.

Creamsicle Cake- yum

What are your favorite party recipes to share? Tell me about them in comments.

Weekend Cooking- Our Annual Summer Party

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.


For the past few years, we rent a home on Owasco Lake where we lived before moving to NYC. We spend the week with my family and on one night we have a big party inviting our friends. It's always a good time, with lots of laughter, fun and good food and drink.

Our menu consisted of some things I made; our appetizers included
Pepperoni Dip- which I also made for our Super Bowl party and
Mary Alice's Hoagie Dip- a recipe my sister-in-law found on FoodNetwork.com, and which tastes like a Wegmans' Joey Sub.

My friend Barbara made her famous Summer Pizza, which I love so much, with cream cheese and veggies, and her husband brought the most delicious tomatoes and jalapeno peppers from his garden; my sons could not stop raving about them.

For the main course, we ordered Cornell Chicken from Lascas Restaurant and I made a few trays of Rachael Ray's Italian Macaroni and Cheese, which is a perfect dish for a big group. By the end of the week I had made three trays of it and there was not a noodle left. (Sorry Rick!)

We also ordered Cheese Souffle from The Springside Inn, which is an Auburn institution, and everyone loves the dish. I also made a tray of roasted vegetables of mushrooms, green and red peppers, red onions, and zucchini. And no gathering is complete without Jello; I made Pretzel Jello.

There were lots of fabulous desserts, including Paula Deen's Frozen Banana Split, which is another one that is good for a crowd and easy to make. I made it last year for the first time, and it got so many compliments, it made a return appearance this year.

Paula Deen's Frozen Banana Split

Lots of people brought yummy desserts too; a light and lovely Lemon Cake from The Patisserie in Skaneateles from Tony and Kristi (they also brought bread and a tomato dipping sauce that was out-of-this-world from there), homemade Pumpkin Spice Cake with chocolate chips (thanks Di!), and the most gorgeous Red Velvet Cupcakes from The Chocolate Mill in Glens Falls, courtesy of Rick and Kelly. I always ask Maria to bring her amazing Pumpkin Cookies, and I still say she should sell them, they are that good.

My dear friend Trish knows me so well and always brings the perfect hostess gift. This time she gave me Philippa Gregory's new book, The Kingmaker's Daughter, and she got my husband Chad Harbach's incredible novel, The Art of Fielding, and even better, she bought them from Downtown Books & Coffee, a local independent bookstore. Yay Trish!

It was such a great party and so good to see all our friends; I only wish it could have lasted longer!