It was a weekend of parties! We had some people over on Friday night for a little housewarming party, and I think it’s safe to say our apartment is pretty hot right now. (I live with a perennial pun-er, it rubs off!) It was so nice to gather our friends together for an evening.
I made a few things for the party: baked artichoke squares (my second time making them; the recipe is really easy, and it seems to be a crowd pleaser), tahini-dressed chickpeas in cabbage wraps, parmesan and herb cheese straws… 
flourless coconut chocolate drops…
… and chocolate chunk blondies. (This recipe, by the way, is deadly. Imagine the gooiest, cakiest chocolate chip cookie- or a cookie cake- and amp that up 1000. Oh my.)
Frantically trying to cool the cookies before our guests arrived… totally normal.
On Sunday afternoon, we headed over to my parents’ place for their annual holiday brunch. You can read about brunches past:
The tree was up, and the decorations were out. It was so festive!
Per tradition, the cocktail of the night was a Manhattan.
Niki is in culinary school, and showed off all her knives!
Charley played it cool, but he was really interested in the manchego everyone was eating.
The famous caviar-topped potato cakes were passed… they’re warm little puffs, topped with crème fraîche and different flavors of fish roe. To die for.
Meanwhile, dinner was almost ready!
We started with my dad’s home-cured gravlax, with a blood orange and fennel salad.
The main course was short ribs (which cooked for 7 hours!) but I had plenty of sides to fill up on: roasted vegetables, broccoli rabe, tahini-dressed chickpeas, and kale salad (from this cookbook).
Happy people, happy bellies!
We also had an amazing spread of desserts: chocolate pot de crème, eggnog cake, flourless coconut drop cookies, and a lemon and raspberry tart.
It was a weekend filled (to the brim!) with good food and better company. ‘Tis the season!
Sounds fun! All of the food looks delicious, especially those blondes. Mmm.
I did lots of cooking this weekend – made bread, granola, and pizza, but all of it was for us to eat at home.
Yay for your first housewarming party! Looks and sounds delicious!
what a great weekend
way to kick off the holiday season girl! your parents party looks ultra chic and i love the touch of sparkling water on the table – so fun! give me those honkin blondies!
Can’t beat blondies!!! You know I love that baked good variety
So glad you had a nice housewarming!!!
What a great party! I like your cookie-cooling trick–definitely will remember for future reference
that looks like so much fun!!! and incredibly delicious.
blondies look unreal!- i’m a huge brownie/blondie person but don’t like nuts in them, do you think they’d be too gooey without that crunch if i leave them out?