At the end of every 'semester' for our small group we have some sort of party.  This semester we had a wine tasting party.  So every couple had to bring an appetizer and a bottle of wine that was less than 15 dollars to share.  One couple also had to bring a bottle of wine that was less than 5 dollars to see how good our taste buds were. (All bottles were wrapped so we couldn't see the label.. not that this would have made a difference to me.) Then we graded all bottles 0-100.  I rated every single bottle of wine from 81-89.  Because I don't like wine and by bottle 2 it was already tasting the same. 

Novice taste buds, I tell you what. 


Anyways, some very important people in Cale's life happen to be part of our small group.  They may or may not be his boss and his boss's boss. Maybe.  I feel extra pressure to make something special as to not embarrass him.. or me. Just in case these people are his bosses.  So stressful.  I secretly hope that Cale has to work on these nights.  Cale thinks we could just go to the grocery store and bring a bag of chips.  Oh to have the brain of a guy. 

I digress.  So after work yesterday it was a mad scramble to assembly the appetizers and get out the door on time.  I made these and these.  No, you're right. I totally copied those pictures from the links posted.  Did I mention we were running late?  Seriously though.  Mostly easy and completely gone.  Plus I wanted something that didn't need to be served hot because it's easier that way.
 
For the caprese salad kabobs I cut a cherry tomato into halves (or fourths) and used mozzarella pearls.  I threaded on a pearl, a portion of basil leaf, another pearl, and finally on the bottom the tomato piece.  With the tomato on the bottom I was able to stand them upright.  I drizzled balsamic vinaigrette on them and then transferred them to the serving platter.  Gone in seconds and no cooking required

For the cheesecake stuffed strawberries I didn't measure the powdered sugar, I just slowly added it until it seemed appropriately sweet.  I attempted to use a cake decorator piping thing to get the filling in but there were no instructions with my set!  What!?!  Yes, it was a disaster but they did get filled.  I also drizzled them with dark chocolate because the grocery store didn't have the prettiest strawberries available.

One more party done. Whew!  We have so much fun with everyone in our small group so after the anxiety of bringing the right thing to the party we spend the rest of the night laughing and pretending to be sommeliers... or not.

In other news, I work at a job where I videotape myself doing most of my work because it's kind of important.  I caught myself singing today.  On camera.  I do not have the world's greatest voice.  I would be willing to bet I don't even have the second best voice. Oops.