video: anniversary party, round two

My last food post had a whopping four recipes in it, and I'm rounding things out by posting the last two today -- gorgeous tomato and mozzarella bites that you can see above and delicious zucchini and corn pastry cups!

I like to make sure that I serve some healthy options at parties -- but it's always a challenge to think of something healthy that will appeal to a wide group of people.  One of the things that New Balance suggested for their TrueBalance campaign was to consider how health and wellness can be a bigger part of our everyday lives.  And these tomato skewers were healthy *and* a complete success -- they were the first thing I ran out of once our guests started arriving!

Now, some of you might be wondering what Chad got me for our anniversary.

And...

The answer is...

Well, let me back up a minute. So, apparently, the traditional first anniversary gift is paper. And while I'm a fan of pretty stationary and a great book or two, I wanted something a little bigger for our very first anniversary. Fortunately, my fantastic in-laws offered an idea that Chad knew, in a heartbeat, was the perfect gift for me.

Tickets.

To the Emmy awards!

I can't wait -- we're going out to Los Angeles at the end of August! I'll be taking about a zillion photos, and *of course* posting them all here, but for now there is one really big question on my mind:

What to wear?!?

Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Skewer Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 pint pear tomatoes, cut in half

1/3 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into small wedges

24 small basil leaves, preferably large (some will be cut in half)

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tbsp good balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Fancy wooden toothpicks

DIRECTIONS

Thread a half of one tomato onto a skewer, add a wedge of mozzarella and a basil leaf and finish with the other half of the tomato. Repeat until the tomatoes are used up, and then set the completed skewers on a platter. Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and balsamic vinegar.

Corn and Zucchini Pastry Cup Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 large zucchini

2 ears of corn, cut off the cob

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 sheets frozen puff pastry

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup shaved parmesan

Sea salt

DIRECTIONS

Roll puff pastry until thin and cut each sheet into 16 squares. Place each square in a mini muffin tin and shape into a small cup. Bake the puff pastry in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, and set aside to cool.

Boil the corn in a pot of water for about 5 minutes, until golden and tender. Drain and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a small frying pan for a minute or two, until hot. Toss the zucchini in garlic powder, parmesan and sea salt and saute in small batches to keep the pan hot. Add the corn and mix until combined.

Spoon the corn mixture into the pastry cups and serve.