Buffalo Chicken Queso

  

I love anything with buffalo hot sauce in it. When we had this dip in Portsmouth, I knew I had to recreate it at home. I absolutely love cream cheese dips because they are so easy! This one is unique because it actually has shredded chicken it! 

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
• 1 cup shredded chicken 
• 1/2 cup buffalo sauce
• 1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
• Tortilla chips

Recipe:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix together cream cheese, chicken, buffalo sauce, and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.
• Spray a baking dish with non stick cooking spray. 
• Place cream cheese mixture in dish.
• Top cream cheese with remaining mozarella cheese.
• Bake for approx 15 minutes.
• Serve with tortilla chips.

21st Birthday Celebration

Well, its my brothers 21st birthday today! Happy Birthday Jonathan! It was easy figuring out what to get him this year. It just took a quick run to the liquor store!! I purchased a wide range of nips (21 in total) which included vodka, tequila, whiskey, etc. It is a sampler if you may haha. For a similar gift, see my liquor and lottery ticket bouquet here.

To make this, you need:

• Nips of alcohol
• Wooden skewers
• Strong tape
• A Foam block
• A Box
• Shredded paper
• Scrapbook decorations

First: Decorate the box with you favorite bubble letters, stickers, and scrapbook decorations.

Second: Place the foam block in the box.

Third: Tape each nip to a wooden skewer. I used packaging tape, which seems strong enough to hold even the glass bottles.

Fourth: Push each skewer into the foam block.

Fifth: Place shredded paper around the skewers to hide the foam block.

This is what the back looks like:

I'm sure anyone receiving this gift would love it! Not only is this a great birthday gift but the same technique can be used for any time of the year! Last Valentines Day, I made something similar for my boyfriend. My boyfriend always gives me roses for special occasions. To reciprocate, I decided to make a bouquet of things he loved: alcohol, scratch tickets, and cigars. He absolutely loved it and fondly named the bouquet a BROquet.

I'm sure any guy in your life would like a BROquet for their next birthday, anniversary, etc. Hope you have as much fun making it as I did!

For another 21st birthday gift see: Beer cake

Spicy Jalapeno Margarita

I have over 10,000 views!!!! In fact, I have 10,277 to be exact! I know that a lot of bloggers might think that its nothing, but I'm really proud that people are liking my blog and reading it! I remember the day I started my blog and being excited that 5 people had looked at it never mind 10,000. Thank you to all my subscribers and readers. To celebrate, I decided to post another margarita recipe. We all know that you can't have a true celebration without some margaritas!

This margarita has a little kick to it! It's made with jalapeno vodka!! I originally had this spicy margarita when we were in Las Vegas at Senor Frogs. You can see my Las Vegas post here. I loved it so much that I was planning on making my own jalapeno vodka by infusing it. Well, I didn't even have to! I was in the liquor store with my friend Sarah, and she pointed Stoli jalapeno vodka out to me. She knows I love my spicy stuff! I was SO excited that she found it! Its hard to describe, but it tastes a little peppery and spicy. Its delicious with margarita mix, orange juice, or tomato juice. I would even drink it on the rocks with seltzer and lime.

This recipe is really simple because I cheated slightly and used a margarita mix already premixed with tequila. I used Jose Cuervo Light Margarita mix. I tend to like the light mixers better because they are less sugary.

Ingredients:

• Jose Cuervo Light Margarita Mix
• Stoli Jalapeno Vodka
• Salt and Lime for garnish

Recipe:

• Rim a glass with salt, and fill with ice.
• Pour in two shots of vodka.
• Fill the rest of the glass with margarita mix.

Individual Sized Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Tonight I wanted to make something simple and healthy for dinner. Using pita bread is a great way to make an individual sized pizza and cut back on calories at the same time! All these ingredients came from my refrigerator so no prep was needed at all. It was super flavorful for a quick and last minute dinner! 

Ingredients:

• 1 large round pita 
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 3 oz chicken
• 1/8 cup buffalo hot sauce
• scallion onions

Recipe:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non stick cooking spray. Pull pita bread apart so that you are only using one half of the round pita. Spray pita with non stick cooking spray. This will help it crisp Place on cookie sheat and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. 
• Once pita is crispy, brush top with buffalo sauce. Place chicken, cheese, and scallions on top. Bake for an addition 5 to 7 minutes until cheese is melted.

Cherry Corona Rita

I am seriously hanging by the threads this week. I've been through a lot of stress at work and trying to finish up two finals. I could use one of these drinks right now!! Thankfully the summer semester is over this Thursday! I'll be having one of these drinks to celebrate.

My most popular drink on my blog so far has been the corona rita. You can see my original corona rita post here. Because I know my readers love their liquor I couldn't pass this drink up. I got the drink recipe from here and here. This drink has the same ingredients and taste as the original corona rita but has some cherry in there too! It's also extremely easy! You basically use the concentrate can as your measuring cup so there is no way to mess it up, and it eliminates dishes!! That's a win win!

I think this has a more sophisticated look than the glass with the corona bottle turned upside down into it. If you want that look though, you can just omit pouring the corona in the pitcher, and instead dump a corona right into the glass with the margarita. If you don't know what I'm talking about check out my original corona rita post!

Ingredients:
12 oz can limeade concentrate
12 oz cherry flavored 7up
12 oz tequila
12 oz corona bottle
lime, cherries, sugar/salt for garnish

Recipe: 
Pour out the corona bottle and limeade concentrate into a pitcher. Using the empty concentrate can measure out the 7up and tequila. Pour both into the pitcher as well. Garnish your glasses with lime, cherries, salt or sugar!

Fourth of July in Portsmouth NH

I hope everyone enjoyed their day off yesterday for the holiday! I was slightly sad that Fourth of July was in the middle of the week this year, but it broke up the week perfectly. Its kinda nice knowing that tomorrow is the weekend already!!

Usually Dan and I end of going away for the fourth and make a long weekend out of it. Since we only had a day off this year, we decided to take a day trip instead. We met a couple of our friends up in Portsmouth New Hampshire for the day. Portsmouth is beautiful! It is right on the harbour and has tons of fun shops and resturants.

We started the day off by having lunch at a Mexican resturant called Poco's right on the harbour. We were able to sit on the roof deck so we had a perfect view of the water and the tug boats (which Dan was pretty excited about...I was more focused on the food but don't tell him that).

To drink I tried the Pink Lady Mojito...a mojito with grapefruit vodka..delicious!

 

For an appetizer we had the buffalo chicken queso. This was definitely a hit. It tasted like it was made with cream cheese, chicken, mozzarella cheese, and buffalo sauce. It was so creamy and delicious that I've decided to try to recreate it this weekend. Fingers crossed that it comes out just as good!!

For my lunch I had scallop tacos. The scallops were fresh and delicious. They were served with a mango salsa and rice and beans. YUM! 

We spent the rest of the day walking around, going into shops, and checking out the harbour. It was such a beautiful day! We lucked out with gorgeous weather.

And of course we stopped for ice cream. I tried the salted caramel chocolate pretzel icecream. It was a caramel based ice cream with actual pretzels in it. While I think this has the potential to be an awesome flavor, I wasn't that impressed with this particular ice cream. It was more caramel flavor than anything. 

We also went to the redhook brewery for a tour. While the tour was pretty short, the free samples made it worth it! My favorite was the pilsner and wit.

I thought some of their beer tap handles were pretty cool. My favorites were the garden house and grill tongs. 

We ended our day on a boat tour around the harbor. It was the perfect ending to our day!

Gin Mojito

Two drink posts after a row? Don't judge! Its 4th of July week! Even though I have to work, I can at least pretend I'm on vacation like the rest of the country. This summer I have been obsessed with gin and tonics. I decided to put a spin on it by making a gin mojito instead! Mojitos are delicious in every form...I fell in love with them when Dan and I went to cancun a couple years ago. Since then, they have become a summer staple.

Serving Size: 1 drink

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Gin
• Mint leaves
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp sugar
• club soda or sprite

Recipe:

• On the bottom of a glass, place sugar and mint leaves. Crush together.
• Place ice, gin, and lime juice in glass.
• Top glass with sprite or club soda.
  

Raspberry Lemonade Sangria

SANGRIA SUNDAY!!! I just totally made that up but how ingenious is that?  Note to self: start have regular sangria sundays...

This drink is so perfect for girls night in...or a summer cookout...or really any time! Its sweet, light, colorful, and delicious. I'm a little bias because pink is my favorite color and raspberries may be my favorite fruit. Either way, trying this sangria is a must!

Ingredients:

• 1.75L moscato wine (cheap wine is fine for sangria!)
• 2 cups sprite
• 1 can pink lemonade concentrate
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 1/2 triple sec
• raspberries

Recipe:

• Its easy! Just mix all ingredients together in a pitcher. If possible, let stand for a couple hours before serving.