Uncle-Niece Cooking Day!

It has finally arrived! My Uncle Tom and I have been talking for MONTHS about cooking together. We both love food and trying new recipes, so we thought this would be a great way to share ideas and have the family over to taste-test the recipes.

I had such a great time cooking with my uncle! I learned a few really clever tricks (like actually using the olive oil that the sun-dried tomatoes are packed in) and was so happy to share this time with him. He's a great man and a great cook that makes me proud to call him Uncle. I hope he had as much fun sharing recipes and stories as I did.

Below you will find the list of dishes and recipes that we decided to cook. There really wasn't any rhyme or reason, just dishes that we enjoy and wanted to share.

Uncle Tom's Dishes:
Blue Cheese and Carmelized Onion Galette
Fajita Enchiladas
BBQ Chicken Pizza with Carmelized Onion
Pasta with Sausage, Artichokes, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

My Dishes:
Sweet 'N Spicy Asian Pulled Pork
Israeli Couscous with Apples, Cranberries, and Almonds
Honey Balsamic Chicken Satay

Spring Menu Options

With my first dinner party/ summer bbq coming up in about 10 days, I am throwing around some ideas for food. There's going to be about 15 people in and out, so I want to have a variety, but I'm also feeling a little ambitious. Here are some items that I am considering:

Salads
- Baby Arugula Salad with Lemon Dijon Dressing
- Taffy Apple Salad (Dad doesn't think this should be called a "salad" but it's SOO good!!)

Appetizers
- Mini baked brie in puff pastry with apricot or raspberry preserves and slivered almonds
- Bacon pastries or Spiced Chicken pastries
- green olive tapenade for bread
- Garlic Beer bread
- Buffalo Chicken Dip (you'd think this had CRACK in it...it's so good!)
- Chips and corn salsa
- Mushroom asparagus tarts
- Carmelized onion and blue cheese tart

Main Dishes
- Baked Mostaccioli
- Honey Balsamic Chicken skewers

Dessert
- Symphony Brownies
- Texas Sheet Cake
- Cupcakes (too many to choose from!)
- Summer berry pie (blackberry again?)
- Lemon Berry Tartlets
- Lemon or Raspberry squares

So I have a long way to go before I can narrow this down...and it's still feeling pretty random to me. I want food that will be somewhat easy to make but also keep for people to munch on throughout the night.