Party Ideas :: Leslie Durso

Archive for Party Ideas

Ultimate Spinach Dip

By Leslie · Comments (10) · February 1st, 2013

Who needs those spice packets to make the ultimate spinach dip?? Did you know a lot of those packets contain monosodium glutamate? Yes, they contain MSG! Who needs that? This Superbowl, let’s ditch the packets and elevate this party staple to a new healthier level!

PS I served this to a bunch of meat eaters and no one realized it was vegan

Ultimate Spinach Dip

10 oz. frozen spinach, defrosted and drained

1 cup of vegenaise

1 1/2 cup plain soy yogurt

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced

1 can of water chestnuts, diced

3 green onions, chopped

1 tsp. paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and serve cold or room temp in a bowl or bread bowl

Enjoy!

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Comments (10)

Categories : featured, Party Ideas, recipes, Vegan

Apple Cranberry Chutney

By Leslie · Comments (3) · December 5th, 2012

This is a perfect spread for a Holiday party! It’s simple to make and can stay in your fridge for a week. Your house will smell amazing when this is cooking!

Apple Cranberry Chutney

What you’ll need:

1/2 cup water

1 1/4 cup sugar

12 oz. fresh cranberries

2 granny smith apples, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/8 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. allspice

What you’ll do:

Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a sauce pot. Boil for 2-3 minutes or until sugar is fully dissolved. Add cranberries, apples, onion, raisins, brown sugar, vinegar, and spices. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until super thick, stirring every few minutes. Chill and keep up to a week. (I actually prefer the taste after it’s sat a day or two)

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Categories : Dips, featured, Party Ideas, recipes

A Festive Antipasti Wreath

By Leslie · Comments (0) · November 30th, 2012

What’s more festive for the Holidays than a wreath and what’s more enjoyable than a fragrant edible one??

Arrange rosemary and sage sprigs in a round wreath shape on your favorite platter. Then decorate with your favorite antipasti items like olives, tomatoes, nuts, figs, dried apricots, dried any fruit for that matter. This wreath will make your house smell amazing and your table look fab!

Comments (0)

Categories : Christmas, featured, gluten free, Party Ideas, recipes

Homemade Italian Caponata

By Leslie · Comments (3) · November 29th, 2012

Holy cow! We’re two days away from December! This time of year always make me think of the amazing Holidays I’ve spent with my family on the East Coast. I thought I’d share one of my favorite recipes from my Great Aunt Rose. This is her recipe for Caponata a delicious vegetable spread that’s perfect for Holiday parties and family dinners!

Aunt Rose’s Caponata

What you’ll need:

3 medium eggplants, diced into 1/2 inch pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup tomato puree

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

3 stalks celery, diced

1/4 cup sliced black olives

3 tbsp. chopped parsley

2 tbsp. capers

salt and pepper to taste

What you’ll do:

Saute the eggplant in a large frying pan with a little olive oil and salt until it’s soft. Set aside.

In another large frying pan, saute the onion with a drizzle of olive oil. Saute 2 minutes. Add the tomato puree and sugar and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and saute another 2 minutes. Add in the eggplant, celery, olives, and capers. Saute another couple minutes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight. Serve at room temp.

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Comments (3)

Categories : Dips, Ethnic: Mediterranean, featured, gluten free, Party Ideas, recipes, Vegan

Cause Baby You’re a Fiiiirework!

By Leslie · Comments (1) · July 3rd, 2012

Are you ready for the 4th of July?! These are the holiday recipes I’m craving right now!

Mango Pomegranate Pico de Gallo

Avocado Stuffed Tomatoes

Summer Corn Salad

Spiked Watermelonade

Red White and Blue Potato Salad

Veggie Burgers

Comments (1)

Categories : celebrations, featured, Party Ideas

Independence Day Veggie Burgers

By Leslie · Comments (2) · June 28th, 2012

What better way to celebrate the land that you love than protecting it? That’s what I thought when Dasani asked me to create an all-natural, plant-based cookout for their ECOmmunity Web Series. Check out the full menu in this video and stay tuned, I’ll be posting the recipes the rest of the week!

Independence Day Veggie Burgers

Makes 6 patties

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

15 oz black beans

15 oz. white cannelini beans (those are white kidney beans

8 oz. chopped mushrooms

2 roma tomatoes, diced and de-seeded

1 cup oats

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

What you’ll do:

In a large bowl combine the beans, onion, and garlic. Using a potato masher or your hands, lightly smash the beans. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir well. Form the patties and cook in a lightly greased frying pan on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes on each side or until the sides are golden. Serve warm with all the fixins!

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Big shout out to Tog + Porter who dressed me for all these videos! Their services are unparalleled!

Comments (2)

Categories : celebrations, Dasani ECOmmunity, featured, Party Ideas, Vegan, Veggie Burgers

A Summer Beach Party

By Leslie · Comments (2) · June 20th, 2012

My lovely and generous friend Lynn invited some of the gals over for a relaxing beach day in Marina Del Rey. What a fabulous day with some powerhouse women! There was Taryn, Jenny, Coriann, Rachelle, Melanie, Jen, and Lynn. It always inspires me to be around such driven women!

And they were kind enough to be my ginny pigs while I develop a new veggie burger recipe!

I also made a raw kale salad with watermelon and candied walnuts.

And a vegan poundcake with strawberries and balsamic glaze:

Such a fun girls day! Do you do staycations like this? I highly recommend!

Thanks again Lynn for hosting and these great pics! For more details check out Lynn’s post on the day!

Comments (2)

Categories : celebrations, featured, Party Ideas

Breakfast At Tiffany’s Bridal Shower

By Leslie · Comments (5) · March 26th, 2012

Here is a blast from the past! I was going through some old photos and I can’t believe I never wrote about one of my best friend’s bridal shower! I looooved throwing this shower! You all know I love a good theme and Breakfast At Tiffany’s made the perfect one for a bridal shower. This darling shower was the brain child of myself and my girlfriends Tania and Carolina and here were are with the bride-to-be Miss Autumn Reeser (our very own Audrey Heburn!) You may recognize her from the fabulous Modern Organic Vintage Eclectic theme baby shower we threw her.

We requested all our girlie guests come in little black dresses. It was so fun to have everyone in cocktail attire!

The cocktail of choice was of course champagne and the spread included easy to eat finger foods.

The invitations were cute as a button:

The afternoon was lovely! We stuck to bright pinks and greens for the flowers because we didn’t want the entire party to be black, white, and blue. This is where you really have to balance the theme of the party with your taste level. We didn’t want to throw a party that was too on the nose, but the placed photo stills from the film and the accents of the sleeping masks were just the perfect touches.

Here’s bride-t0-be Autumn opening some of her gifts. Her favorite dessert is cheesecake, so I made these little petite cheesecake squares for dessert. Mini desserts are always a crowd pleaser and the perfect way to serve a party because they are very approachable. Besides, you can still look very lady-like and chic with a tiny dessert in your hand.

Gosh, looking back on this shower makes me realize just how much I love throwing showers! Now that I have the itch again I may just have to find a good reason to throw another one!

Anyone getting married or having a baby??

Comments (5)

Categories : celebrations, featured, Party Ideas, Party Ideas: Bridal Showers

A Vintage Carnival Birthday Party

By Leslie · Comments (3) · February 14th, 2012

I had the honor of contributing to this absolutely lovely birthday party for a darling little one-year-old in my life. Liat is the daughter of my uber-talented friend Tania. When Tania and I collaborated, we knew we needed something special. See, almost all of my friends have children (see me with kids and baby showers for proof!) and of all of them, Liat is one of the only girls! Wandering though Michael’s one day, as we often do, Tania and I spotted these vintage looking carnival masks that inspired the whole party.

Take a look though the pictures and I hope you enjoy!

The Location: Downtown Los Angeles on this gorgeous terrace.

Guest List: 35 close friends and family

Activities: There was swimming, handmade pinwheels, an artist doing characachers, and a balloon artist as well.

Some of the adults getting in on the mask fun:

The Drinks: Sticking to the vintage theme, there was Mexican coke, orange soda, and sparkling water.

Oh yeah, and of course there was food too

Menu: popcorn:

We also served nutella and banana sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly. Of course there were a few desserts as well

The dessert table was covered with brown butcher paper and decorated with felt ric-rac trim. Here are a few dessert details:

These are yellow cupcakes with cream cheese frosting which I dyed. I was going for pink, but ended up with a more purple shade…

Here are chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with peanuts.

Chocolate dipped pretzels:

Tania and Liat getting a little help blowing out the candle:

For even more details, check out Tania’s site!

Comments (3)

Categories : celebrations, featured, Party Ideas, Party Ideas: Birthday Parties

Los Angeles Ladies Who Blog Cocktail Party

By Leslie · Comments (10) · August 29th, 2011

As promised here are the photos from the cocktail party I threw for some of my favorite bloggers in Los Angeles. Since it was such a beautiful warm Summer evening, I hosted it in my backyard. As the ladies entered I had them write name tags for themselves (since some of us had not met yet) and put their names in a bowl for the raffle

We had plenty of sips and nibbles. Sips provided by Veev Vodka and CalNaturale wines I chose to serve 2 cocktails, red wine, white wine, lemonade and water. The cocktails were Veev acai mojitos and super yummy sangria made with the Veev vodka and CalNaturale's cabernet sauvignon. The sangria was my personal favorite

I made some nibbles for the ladies to snack on. I made a big cheese board with cotswold cheese, stilton with dried apricots, white cheddar, double cream brie and swiss cheese. In the background are grilled zucchini roll-ups with goat cheese.

I made two kinds of tarts. (recipes coming this week!) Mushroom and leek with thyme:

And I wanted to make one more, so I reached in the garden and picked an eggplant, some tomatoes, and basil and made another one

I did a few sweets too. My secret rum cake, chocolate cupcakes, and salted chocolate chip cookies.

Some of the ladies exchanging cards.

Check out Autumn and Jenny sampling some of the treats in the gift bag:

Briana and I with the gorgeous Namaste bag she won!

So much fun Check out my sister with my adorable nephew Jack!

As you saw in the earlier post, I went with purple and yellow flowers. I tied all the vases with some purple ribbon I scored at costco on a shopping trip with my Mom. Who knew they had fabulous deals on ribbon?! I guess they have fabulous deals on everything.

I set out one table with all of the items that were in the gift bags so the ladies could check out the items. And I raffled off those beautiful Namaste bags and a gift bag from Scotch Naturals.

Speaking of gift bags, look how pretty the bags look!

Thank you again to all of our fabulous sponsors!! Thank you Planet Salon, Namaste, CalNaturale Wines, Veev Vodka, Svelte, Clearly Fresh Bags, Popsalot Popcorn, Bakluvit Baklava, Best Friends, Gluten Free Goddess, Volcanica Candles, and Metromint Water. And I have to thank the incredibly talented Adam Hendershott for photographing the party! You can see more of his work here on his website.

It was a great party! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! Have you had a blogger meet-up in your town? I'd love to hear about it!

Comments (10)

Categories : celebrations, Party Ideas, Party Ideas: Girls Night

Archive for Party Ideas

Ultimate Spinach Dip

Apple Cranberry Chutney

A Festive Antipasti Wreath

Homemade Italian Caponata

Cause Baby You’re a Fiiiirework!

Independence Day Veggie Burgers

A Summer Beach Party

Breakfast At Tiffany’s Bridal Shower

A Vintage Carnival Birthday Party

Los Angeles Ladies Who Blog Cocktail Party

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