My Tapas Birthday Party: Simple Sangria

Today is the day I turn 31 years old! To celebrate this joyous occasion I invited some friends and family over last Saturday evening for a Tapas Birthday Party. Considering the lovely (hot!!) weather we enjoyed last week I was hoping on having the party outside. Unfortunately at the same time the first guests arrived, the rain also started! We still had a great evening inside though, with the tv on so the guys could follow the quarter final of World Cup Soccer between Paraguay and Spain.

After browsing the Internet I finally decided on these drinks/bites:

Simple Sangria

Tortilla Espanola

Marinated Mushrooms

Gazpacho Shots

4-Minute Spicy Garlic Shrimp

Pollo al Ajillo

Albondigas en Salsa de Tomate

I will be sharing the recipes and pictures with you over the next couple of days, starting with the Simple Sangria I found over at Real Simple. I followed the recipe almost as written and really enjoyed it! As the name indicates it's very simple to make, but it's still quite tasty!

Simple Sangria

Serves 8

1 bottle medium-bodied red wine (such as Rioja)

3 cups apple juice

2 thinly sliced oranges
(I used one orange and one lemon and quartered the slices)

Ice

In a large pitcher combine red wine, apple juice and oranges.

Serve over ice.

My big 30th Birthday High Tea Party

This was it, Sunday I finally turned 30 and had a wonderfull party outside my apartmentbuilding with lots of my friends and family.

Hours of preparation went into this party searching the Internet for great recipes to make just for this occasion, I even had a give-away back in April to inquire what other bloggers thought I should serve. Some of the suggestions made it and some didn't....

These strawberry cupcakes were made by me earlier this month for Taste & Create, only without the original topping, recipe to be found here. I had run out of butter so I had to come up with my own version, here's what I did:

Creamcheese frosting

200 grams cream cheese at room temperature

2 tablespoons raspberry-flavoured liqueur
1 cup powdered sugar

17 strawberries

Place cream cheese, liqueur in a medium bowl and powdered sugar in a bowl and beat just until blended. Cut thestrawberries in half. Top each cupcake with a dollop of creamcheese frosting and garnish cake with strawberry halves.

The miniature tiramisu cupcakes were such a huge succes at work back in May, that I instantly knew I had to make them again.

Shelby of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch suggested that I make Cucumber Sandwiches. Instead of going for the traditional sandwiches I opted for these cuties, here's what I did:

Open-faced Cucumber Sandwiches

2 packs of party bread (I found these presliced at my supermarket, of course you could use rolls or baguette)

200 grams cream cheese at room temperature

1 clove of garlic, very finely chopped

1 tbsp Rosa Maria Dipper (herb mixture from Oil & Vinegar, also available in U.S.A. and other countries!!)

salt and pepper to taste

1 cucumber

dill, chopped

Mix the cream cheese with the garlic and Rosa Maria Dipper, add salt and pepper to taste. Slice the cucumber into thin slices. Divide the cream cheese mixture over the slices of bread, put one slice of cucumber on each sandwich and sprinkle some dill on top.

Chicken and Salmon wraps, easily made and gone in 60 seconds.

From left to right: Dorie's Cinnamon Squares, Ina's Lemon Cake and Ina's Outreagous Brownies.

These Cranberry Scones were amazing, my mom actually made them after the recipe suggested by Steph from Obsessed with Baking. They were quite easily put together, we left out the orange glaze and served them with orange marmalade, strawberry jam and Clotted Cream from Devonshire. Delicious!!

I also served two fruit salads: one with red fruits and one with green/yellow fruits, but I forgot to take pictures!!!
As the following pictures show we had a lovely afternoon with great weather!

I hope all my birthdays to come will be equally wonderful!!