Spring Pinterest Partying + Karaoke

I took a short break from blogging this past week to enjoy a visit to a city you may have read about once or twice on this blog…Chicago! Officially, I was in town for a work conference, which was very interesting with a lot of great speakers. Unofficially, I arrived a few days early in order to see a few friends, try out some new restaurants – and bring back the Pinterest partying!

You may recall our Winter Pinterest Party, during which Lauren, Monica, Kelli and I prepared a feast of epic proportions that was as delicious as it was fun to make. After the success of our initial party, the idea of which was concocted in a coffee shop last October, we decided that it would be necessary to have a Pinterest-themed gathering for every season. It guarantees more trips to Chicago from me – though I am also hoping that in the near future a Pinterest party can be hosted at my house in Arizona – and is a great way for us to try out new recipes at all levels of difficulty.

(Photo courtesy of Monica)

Once again, we found it was very easy to finalize our springy menu:

{Come Soon} Spring Pinterest Party Menu

Beverage: Roasted Blueberry Basil Margaritas (pinned here)

First Course: Hummus Cups with Cucumber and Tomato (pinned here)

Second Course: Caprese Pasta (pinned here)

Side Dish: Black Bean Sliders (pinned here)

Dessert: Pie Pops with Peach-Blueberry filling (pinned here and here)

Bonus Dessert: Mini S’mores Hand Pies (pinned here)

We always seem to find ourselves with a bonus dessert. Funny how that works. Our first stop on Saturday morning was the grocery store, in order to pick up all necessary supplies. We then came back to Monica’s apartment and got straight to work snapping pictures of us at work.

As you may have deduced by the giant container o’ fluff in my hands in the photo above, I started out by working on the filling for the Mini S’mores Hand Pies. It tasted as yummy as it looks.

Note: The majority of the food pictures below are courtesy of Monica’s amazing photography. You can check out her Pinterest party recap here. Thank you for letting me use your gorgeous photos, Monica.

I also worked beside Lauren to put together the Peach-Blueberry filling for our Pie Pops.

Meanwhile, Kelli rolled out our crust and began cutting the shapes for our pies. We decided that both the s’mores and the peach-blueberry fillings should be used in a mixture of both hand pies and pops in heart and circle shapes.

For the s’mores recipe, we brushed each side of the crust with melted butter before dipping it in the graham cracker crumb and sugar mixture. We then topped every other crust with a bit of filling.

The unfilled crusts were then placed on top of those with the filling to create the completed pie look. For about half of them, we also added the lollipop sticks.

The end result was pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.

The Peach-Blueberry pies were a bit more challenging to put together only because we used such large chunks of fruit. But we made it through, coating each one with egg whites per the pie pop recipe to help seal them.

We were very proud of how these turned out, too – gooey with an ultra sweet fragrance.

You might be able to guess which culinary school grad made the authentic, latticed mini pie (cough, Monica, cough). It was really too pretty to eat, but we somehow managed to find a way.

Lest you believe we lost our focus with all of this dessert making, there was plenty more going on behind the scenes while the pies were in process. Lauren was reprising her role as expert chopper…

…while Monica put together the cups for which the Hummus Cups recipe is named. We decided to do both a regular and whole wheat version with the pizza dough.

Once the cups had baked in Monica’s awesome new mini-muffin tray, the ladies filled them with hummus – Sabra, to be more specific – and topped them with the veggies. The result was nothing short of pocket-sized perfection.

Kelli was also hard at work on the Black Bean Sliders. Tears of onion joy were spilled in the process.

I’d say they all came together quite nicely, wouldn’t you? I should add that this was a real labor of love because Kelli ended up burning her hand in her determination to save these burgers from a terrible floor fate. She deserves an extra round of applause.

And while we’re at it, let’s give a cheer for yummy burger toppings: sour cream, guacamole, salsa and shredded cheddar cheese!

While I was excited to try everything on our menu, I was most intrigued by and thrilled that the girls wanted to make Ari’s Caprese Pasta. I’m always on the lookout for new pasta variations since we make it at least once or twice a week. This recipe was so easy to follow, and the ingredients make it feel extra classy. What more could you ask for at a dinner party?

Check out the beautiful colors, too! I will definitely be making this with Bobby again soon.

Let’s see…what do we have left? Oh right. The cocktails!

The Roasted Blueberry Basil Margaritas were a blast to make. It’s not often (read: never) that I have a chance to roast blueberries. We stuck them in the oven and watched the transformation.

Before:

After:

Once the blueberries were roasted and the simple syrup cooled, we combined them in a blender.

Add a bit of salt to the rim and you have one very refreshing springtime sip.

Before we knew it – this menu took a lot less time than our previous one – the spread was complete!

Monica’s husband Patrick – who also happens to be Susan’s brother – snapped a photo of the Pinterest party planning committee once we had all filled up our plates with our creations. Simply ignore Lauren’s miscellaneous can of Dr. Pepper and paper towel napkin to complete the masterpiece. Just kidding, Lauren…kind of. 😉

Everything turned out beautiful and tasted like – dare I say it? – spring!

We had such a wonderful time dining and dishing, but the fun didn’t end there. We played a competitive game of Mario Party before making our way to a new experience that will forevermore be a part of the Pinterest party tradition. Thanks to Monica, we now know about Lincoln Karaoke, and our lives have been changed for the better.

Lincoln Karaoke is a private-room karaoke club. Parties of all sizes – from four like us to as many as 30 if you have a big group of professional karaoke singers in training – can rent out a room for a certain period of time, complete with flat screen televisions, tambourines and flashing disco lights – not to mention a song list that features anything you could possibly imagine.

After warming up with some classics like Ace of Base and Aqua, we let ourselves get lost in the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Olivia Newton-John and Blackstreet, among others. It was an absolute BLAST.

No diggity, no doubt.

I had video evidence of these shenanigans, but I seem to have conveniently misplaced it…

Hanging with these ladies never fails to be a (P)interesting overload of fun. I can’t wait to see what our summer pins will look like. If the past two parties are any indication, we’re in for a treat.

Have you had a Pinterest party yet?!

I can’t recommend them enough. Especially with such great company.

Thanks again to Monica for hosting and for supplying the amazing food photos!

Abrazos,