Last night was my quarterly Diva Night. If you don't know what Diva Night is, I'll quickly explain! It's a night for me to spoil, pamper, and FEED my top-performing demonstrators on my team. This month I had 10 demonstrators qualify. I'm thrilled that 9 of them could attend.
I spent all afternoon cooking up a storm. I promised them an Italian Feast. And, I think I delivered! As they arrived, they were greeted with Fresh (homemade) Bruschetta and beverages. I'd never made bruschetta before and I think I pulled it off! Next was just a plain ol' tossed salad. Ya gotta have a salad, right???
For the main course, I prepared not one, not two, but three entrees! First, I experimented with an Extra Cheesy Lasagna recipe I grabbed off of the Williams-Sonoma website. I mean seriously, how bad can Extra Cheesy Lasagna be? Now, because I was feeding 11 people, I cooked mine in a 9x13 baking dish instead of the suggested 9x9. So, I kinda doubled up on some ingredients and added others. For example, the recipe is technically a meatless lasagna. I wanted meat. So, I added a pound of lean ground turkey. I guess I was trying to be healthy - but why, it has 10 tons of cheese!!! I also increased the Ricotta to 5 cups and the Mozzarella to 1-1/4 pounds. Yes, I'm serious! I think those are the only changes I made. Oh, and apparently I got a bit heavy-handed on the garlic. I didn't notice (or even taste it) but some people made comments! I think it had 5 cloves. Is that a lot???
The next entree was Stuffed Shells. I used to have a spinach and chicken stuffed shell recipe from Weight Watchers but I couldn't find it. So, I altered another new recipe - Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells from Epicurious. This one I altered a lot. First, I only used 1 package of Spinach - 'cause I don't like a lot of spinach. Second, I added an entire package of Perdue Shortcuts Italian Chicken (cubed). Third, because I added chicken that was already seasoned, I skipped the fresh basil, fennel seeds, and garlic (I think). I wasn't sure how they would work with the seasoned chicken. I also threw in some fresh Mozzarella cheese for good measure (because I remember my old recipe including it). I'm not entirely sure how much I added. Maybe 1/2 cup? I grated it until I was bored of grating. I also used significantly more sauce than called for.
The final entree was my favorite - Penne with Vodka Sauce. This one I made as-is. No substitutions or anything. It's just plain unhealthy!!! I did double it and there was very little left. This seemed to be everyone's favorite.
After our bellies were full, we turned to stamping. You'll have to tune in tomorrow to see the cards because it's too late for me to get a good photo of them. Although, you may be able to catch a peek at them in the photos below. I'm sure you'll recognize one of them from my blog post from a few days ago.
BUT, there was more food!!! Dessert was up next. I didn't make any of the desserts. Instead, I picked up Cannoli from our local market, some bakery-style cookies, a peanut butter pie, and some fresh watermelon.
Let's see...how about some of the photos that I did take! The picture at the top of this post is of Judy dishing out the cheesy lasagna. To Judy's left are Hilary, Kristin v2, Darlene, and Hallie.
Here's a photo of the other side of the table (Hallie, Megan, Lynn, Tanya, and Gail).
The rest of the photos are of everyone stamping. HOWEVER, we were using ALL brand new Holiday Mini Products. AND, Stampin' Up! says that I cannot post photos of the products. So, I've whited them out! Don't laugh at them - I use a high-tech photo editing software package - Paint. Hey, it's keeping me compliant!







