poolside happy hour

Here's a double-whammy for y'all. Two nights, captured in one post! Best of all? Actually qualifies as a real happy hour. Yes, folks. Alcohol is involved.

NIGHT 1: Poolside Phish...

(C is soooo clever.)

M invited "the gang" over for a housewarming/pool shindig which included Chefy M wearing a bathing suit getup while grillin' over charcoal.

These high falootin' fishies are gen-u-ine rainbow trouts that M gutted, cleaned, seasoned and stuffed. The belly cavity was chock-full of lemon slices and garlic cloves. After the grill spiced up, M popped a sheet of aluminum foil on and grilled those suckers to perfection for roughly 5 minutes on each side. We topped the pretty little swimmers with a fresh salsa. Pretty darn colorful, eh? Well, that's because it is full of cherry tomatoes, roasted jalapeño, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and red onion. Too make it over the top tasty--apple cider vinegar.

C heard through the grapevine that M's boyfriend really had a hankering for cornbread so she went for it. Plus, she had extra corn that needed to be used in a jiffy. C kept it simple with a mix of corn meal, all purpose flour, a little white sugar, salt, black pepper, baking powder and soda, an egg, milk and the kernels fresh off the cob. The cornbread got real nice on that for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

NIGHT 2- Moonshinin'

C also had a spiffy idea for divvying up the goods for the whiskey-gingers. By using a handy-dandy bulb baster, C measured a purty dose of hooch into the cute glasses compliments of roommie-S. The night's beverage hit the spot and the ginger-ale was perfect as all get out.

breakfast for happy hour

Once upon a time, there was a lady named M who scoffed at C's choice in fat free milk. While C did recognize that it is perhaps not the most flavorful gem of the dairy department, she reminded M to focus on the objective of that evening's happy hour... BLUEBERRY PANCAKES!

The recipe was written down in M's infamous pocketbook and the plump blueberries were washed and plopped into the batter with flair.

The two culinary inclined friends were happy to have set aside their milk-fat percentage preferences and successfully made an inexpensive happy hour feast. They utilized the beautiful Texas peaches that had been continuing to ripen in a brown bag in C's pantry, heated them in a simple syrup on the stove and served them over the enormous blueberry pancakes.

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C and M enjoyed their breakfast-for-happy-hour together

and look forward to eating happily ever after.

baller shrimp cocktail happy hour

When one is at a sporting event, it is important that one nourishes oneself in order to maintain high levels of peppiness and team spirit.

C and M decided to do just that for M's boyfriend's basketball game recently.

Shrimp cocktail and blanched edamame seemed to be the perfect accompaniment for the sporting evening and certainly provided C & M ample energy while also proving a good conversation starter with the surrounding basketball enthusiasts.

The happy hour tailgate was easy to prepare and only required a quick dip in boiling water and a shock in an ice bath followed by a light salting of the edamame. The shrimp was simple too and was prepared with a simple blanch-shock diddy as well.

Although C & M obviously cheered ferociously, and were certainly not distracted by the deliciously horseradish ladened sauce, their favorite basketball team didn't end up winning. Nonetheless, it's not whether you win or lose, it's what you eat that really counts.

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fresh pasta party happy hour

Tonight's Happy Hour idea was inspired mainly by C's obsession with everything Italian. M luckily owns a pasta machine aptly named "The Pasta Bike" which made the process of rolling out the dough much easier than using a rolling pin. Tortellini, fettuccini and ravioli also gave us a good excuse to practice our wine tasting skills.

Looked for inexpensive selections at Central Market and found a wonderful Chardonnay that M had read about a while ago. The 2009 Rayun Chardonnay is from Chile and was such a perfect compliment to our pasta because it was just the right balance of crisp taste with a buttery body.

So, enough about what we drank, you're probably wondering how we prepared the pasta... Well, after a lot of shuffling around in the produce section, C decided on swiss chard. Back in the kitchen, after blanching, shocking and chopping the swiss chard, we mixed it together with one pint of whole-milk ricotta, one egg, bleu cheese and a little s + p. We were very happy on the outcome and definitely recommend this filling or a similar variation.

We kept the sauce simple and just browned some butter and tossed in minced garlic. Delicious. The fettuccini was also simply adorned with butter and parsley.

"Very herbaceous" as M put it. C decided that herbaceous might just be the best compliment a man could ever give her...