Holiday Party Menu and Money Saving Tips

For the 3rd year, we opened our doors last night to 45 of our friends and loved ones in New York City for a fun night of merry making, delicious food, mingling, and dancing in our holiday tackiest. Oh, the Diamond Tacky Holiday Party never disappoints, that’s for sure.

Last night people donned their tackiest and raised the bar for next year. Holiday Party 2IMG_6473IMG_6475IMG_6485IMG_6503

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Yes, once Frank, Melissa’s fiance arrived in his holiday best, I may or may not have screamed, “Santa, I know him!” a few times!

The costumes and great turnout weren’t the only wonderful things about last night. Our food and alcohol selections this year really worked out perfectly! We made some key changes which allowed us to spend less money this year but still have a great presentation and party overall.

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Tonight’s post will share our actual menu that we finalized on and the links to recipes.

Perfect Hors Dourves Menu for A Crowd

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Money Saving Party Tips

  • Don’t spend too much money on alcohol. This year we relied on Trader Joes and friends for our alcohol. Instead of purchasing $15-$20 bottles of wine like we did last year, this year we bought 6 bottles of Trestle Chardonnay from Trader Joe’s wine after many Twitter folks recommended it to us. For liquor we used what we had in our cabinet already versus buying new, in addition to the egg nog. In addition, when friends asked what they could bring we gave them specific requests such as red wine, champagne, or Pinot Grigio since we weren’t offering that! Bo also altered this year’s egg nog recipe after hearing that last year’s was too strong. The new recipe called for half the liquor, which made it cheaper too!
  • Get a bar tender! We have never had a bar tender before and therefore many parties, find ourselves near the wine rack serving drinks most of the night instead of socializing with guests. Last night we were able to chat and enjoy everyone while one of our friend’s younger brother tended the bar for us. He made some extra weekend cash and we enjoyed our party more which made it a win win!
  • Don’t cook too much food! Last year we had enough food to pack our fridge even after the party was over! This year we asked our guests for a final RSVP the week of to ensure the number of people attending. Once we knew that our number was around 45 people we assesed the guest list and calculated that in reality only 3/4 of the people would eat heavily. Normally 1/4 of the people are either party hopping, going to another dinner, or focus more on drinking than eating. Today we have only a few pieces of cheese and some sugar cookies left from last night’s event.

Hope you guys have a great week! This week is going to be a busy one because I have PADI Scuba lessons Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8-11pm each night. Someone bring be a glass of wine when it’s done because I’m super nervous!

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Hitting the Reset Button

After running a marathon (see recap Part 1 and Part 2) and spending the week following those 26.2 miles eating, drinking, relaxing, and ringing in the holiday season with friends and family it is definitely time for a reset.

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There has been a great deal of wine, rich foods and carbohydrate loading in my life lately.

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In fact, due to the marathon I think I forgot what it felt like to enjoy a day of clean eating and a really tough workout. So, instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a multi-day cleanse from one of the many New York City cleanse boutiques, I’m saving my money and instead just getting back to basics with clean eating, reduced caffeine, more water, more sleep, and more intense total body workouts.

I kicked off the day around 7:30 with warm lemon water to aid in digestion.

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At 9am I enjoyed a new version of oatmeal at my desk, thanks to inspiration from Tosca Reno. Her recipe for apple pie oatmeal was easy, delicious, and included healthy fats that kept me full all morning. It was also fun to change up the flavors since I’m so accustomed to my daily banana oatmeal. I made sure to remember my daily vitamins and supplements this morning as well. I find that taking the in the morning with breakfast gives me a little boost of energy all day long.

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For lunch, I reduced the processed carbs, caffeine and cheese from my meal by focusing on nutrient rich vegetables and clean protein sources in my salad and cut out the normal side items. I found that increasing the size of my salad filled me enough that I didn’t need anything else for a couple of hours. Today’s combination (romaine, salmon, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, broccoli, peppers, egg whites, salt, pepper, dash of olive oil, and a squirt of lemon juice) was a new one and I really liked the lemon juice kick paired with the crisp vegetables!

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Around 4pm I had a mid afternoon snack which was supposed to be a banana and a handful of almonds. Unfortunately, the banana didn’t fare to well during the morning commute. Instead, I munched on a pear and almonds along with 2 cups of herbal tea.

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I met Melissa for Work It Circuit at Uplift Studios after work since we were both craving a workout and some quality time together.

Workit Circuit: Total Body Cardio/Strength with Bodyweight
This class offers continuous cardio-arms-legs-core circuits to confuse your muscles and get an intense total body workout. Using only your body weight, you will work each major muscle group to fatigue – then do it all again. Shoes required.

This class kicked my butt and left me panting by the half way point! Michelle is not messing around with this class and you literally don’t stop for the entire 55 minutes! At one point my marathon legs were screaming, reminding me that I ran a marathon a week ago. By the 3rd set I focused on form more than speed as I wanted to make sure not too injure anything.

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I didn’t pick up dinner until 8:15 due to the class and all I knew was that I needed lots of protein and needed food quickly. Melissa and I stopped into Hale and Hearty where I was able to pick up a small soup and large spinach salad packed with protein to help quell my screaming hunger.

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Even after such an indulgent week, the past 12 hours of healthier eating and drinking are already having a positive affect on my body.

Since I have a half marathon to run on Saturday and a trip to St Croix coming up in exactly a month, you may see more of these food and workout posts as I find they definitely help me stay on track and motivated.

What are your favorite ways to eat clean? Is there a snack or salad ingredient I should try? Or, do you have a favorite decaf tea you rely on when trying to reduce caffeine?

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Thanksgiving 2012: On Our Own

Yesterday’s Thanksgiving celebration was a very unique one. For both Bo, Meg, and I it was our first Thanksgiving without our parents, or in my case my parents or brother. Due to the cost of flights going home didn’t make sense this year as neither of us were sure of our work schedule until just this month. In addition, we’ll be spending the holidays together as a large group as both the Diamond and Rudolph family are celebrating in Vermont this year.

I would be lying if I said that our first Thanksgiving on our own wasn’t a tremendous success and pretty low stress.

Bo and I spent the morning in the kitchen together preparing each of our dishes that we’d decided on ahead of time thanks to Bon Appetit’s amazing Thanksgiving micro site and other recipes I’d previously pinned on Pintrest.

IMG_6076IMG_6078IMG_6081IMG_6083IMG_6099Meg showed up around 12:30 with our turkey and an arm full of pies. The turkey was in a bucket since it had been brining in her refrigerator. We were very thankful to have both our small refrigerator and her larger, full size refrigerator to use during the busy Thanksgiving prep time!

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By 3pm, our table was set complete with our wedding china, silver, and crystal! It was such a treat to open everything and set the table using gifts that we haven’t enjoyed in 3 years! In retrospect, we have had many occasions when we could have used these and now realize that it’s well worth the effort!

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Since we were only hosting five people, including ourselves, we were able to fit the place settings at one small table, as long as we set up a buffet on the counter for the food.

We spent the next few hours basting the turkey and sequencing things through the oven while enjoying each of the Friends Thanksgiving episodes! Meg had a great idea as this was the perfect way to kick back and relax together while laughing and sipping on wine!

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By 6:30 it was time for appetizers, winter squash and onion confit with ricotta on toast and pears with Manchego cheese.

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Our guests and good friends, Brad and Margaret brought the pear appetizer and a few bottles of wine and beer with them and were ready for a delicious evening!

At 7pm, the turkey was unveiled and was absolutely breath taking! Bo outdid himself and the turkey was moist on the inside, flavorful, and crisp on the outside. Brining a turkey makes such a difference!

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After admiring the display of food we served ourselves and sat down for a meal filled with stories about each of our Thanksgiving memories and family traditions.

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I served myself a bit of everything but was most excited for the dressing which I made from scratch for the first time yesterday! The large bread chunks and rich flavor had me after just one bite! Brad and Margaret’s collard greens were a new touch for us as neither Bo nor I have ever had these as part of a Thanksgiving meal but loved them! I can’t wait to get the recipe.

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While our food settled, we chatted on the couch and sipped on cocktails, compliments of Brad and Margaret. Margaret has become known in our group of friends for her unique cocktails and last night didn’t disappoint! We sipped on pomegranate infused prosecco which was delicious!

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Last but not least, we enjoyed dessert compliments of Meg. She made a pecan pie and chocolate pumpkin pie from scratch, both of which were enjoyed with homemade whip cream!

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It was a wonderful evening which Bo and I will remember forever! We are so thankful for our friends and family, though last night was a special first for us.

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What was your favorite Thanksgiving dish last night?

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