Below are some simple and easy housewarming recipes ideas we’re sure your guests will love:

Savory Ideas:

Wild Mushroom Tartlets: Goat cheese and wild mushrooms pack a great savory punch. And, store-bought phyllo dough makes this recipe a sinch.

Sausage Wonton Appetizers: Pre-made wonton shells are a great appetizer tool. In this case, they’re filled with flavorful sausage, olives and pimentos.

Mozzarella Puffs: It’s like a mini cheese calzone in a popable form!

Bacon & Onion Pinwheels: Who doesn’t love bacon? Wrap it with onion in a crescent roll and you have a tasty and attractive app.

Chicken Satay Skewers: Think chicken wings that are slightly less messy for your hands… but you will still want to keep a napkin close at hand.

Sweet Ideas:

Brown Sugar Shortbread: Shortbread may be the comfort food of desserts, but add a little brown sugar and you’ll given an all-time favorite a new flavor twist.

Mocha Tartlets: This recipe blends a chocolaty-coffee filling with a buttery pastry dough. Yum!

Lemon Bars: A blend of lemon juice and zest make this a sweet and tangy treat.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries: This recipe is a classic, but it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

Baked Brie: So yes, baked brie is a blend of sweet and savory. But with a dish this good and crowd-pleasing, it had to go somewhere on this list.

Picture courtesy of BeInspiredDesigns (flkr)

Laura Troyani heads up Marketing and Business Development for Plummelo. Not content with just being another behind-the-scenes pencil pusher, Laura decided to give blogging a shot and writes practical, everyday tips for the home cook (or aspiring home cook). Laura’s favorite foods are ice cream, olive oil, ice cream, parmesan cheese, ice cream, and occasionally ice cream. Laura’s favorite recipe.

While I am never at a loss for inspiration, many of the recipes I lean toward rely a single ingredient that’s not common in most kitchens: simple syrup. Trader Joe’s now sells a very good, inexpensive version that is great in a pinch, but simple syrup is actually very easy to make and it keeps for a long time in the fridge. As an added bonus, simple syrup works so much better for sweetening iced tea and iced coffee than granulated or even superfine sugar. You can use it to have some fun making real lemonade with the kids, and bakers even use it to glaze cake layers in various desserts. Once you get the knack for it, you can start to flavor simple syrup with lemon, vanilla, or ginger depending on how you want to use it.

In the name of scientific research, I called on a willing group of friends to help me out with a dirty job: sampling and discussing cocktails made with simple syrup. The “tasting panel” comprised four men, including a retired bartender, and two ladies.

A Spiced Blueberry Mojito was the hands-down favorite. This is a little messy and laborious to make individually, so it is better suited to a small group. Everyone was surprised by the lemonade color of the Barbados Rum Punch. This drink tastes very exotic and is inexpensive to make; we agreed it would be great for summer entertaining. The next day I decided to throw the rest of this concoction into my ice cream maker and–voila!–instant rum slushies, which I daresay might actually be better than drinking the original mixture. We struggled with the Vanilla Pineapple Martini for the right ratio of lime juice: at first there was too much, so we eliminated it, and then we felt something was missing without it. In the end we decided on just a splash for the acidity to balance out the vanilla and pineapple. The Pink Gin Fizz is light and refreshing–perfect to serve at brunch or while sitting by the pool. You can increase or decrease the strength of the drink to your taste by adjusting the amount of club soda. In a completely opposite direction, while we all enjoyed the classic Sidecar, we felt it was something to revisit in the cooler months. Made with brandy, it is very different-tasting from the standard vodka, gin, and rum. But it warmed us up inside and made us feel like we should be inside by a roaring fire instead of battling mosquitoes on the deck.

Try making a signature cocktail at your next gathering!

Robin Horrigan is a stay at home mom to a 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. She is the cruise director for her busy family, keeping the calendar full of the stuff that makes life worth living, but leaves plenty of time to shop for shoes. When they’re all at home, you’ll find the Horrigans knee-deep in chocolate chips and cookie racks, baking treats together that celebrate the four seasons and even the silliest of holidays.

Photos courtesy of Kathleen Aker.

My friend Dave (who I have actually known since before birth–our parents were in the same Lamaze class!) has been pestering me about doing just such a tasting for two years now and I have continually found excuses to delay.

Finally, he just went out and sent invitations to his friends and told me that he would forge ahead without me if need be. Apparently, this was the kick in the butt I needed! Within the hour, I had put together a list of seven sakes that represented an interesting diversity of the myriad styles available.

I chose a sparkling sake, a junmai ginjo, a junmai daiginjo, honjyozo, kimoto style, nigori, and a fruit-infused style. If this all sounds like jibberish to you, don’t worry. The internet is full of great resources to give you a basic Sake 101–or talk to your local fine wine shop–many are carrying a selection of sakes. I will admit that I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but that’s how you learn, right?

So, sake taken care of, it was time to move on to the food. Dave is the king of dinner parties and smartly delegated shopping tasks to our motley crew so that no one would be overwhelmed. This was the perfect way to have everyone feel involved and dramatically reduced the amount of pressure on our shoulders. With strength in numbers, I knew we were ready to tackle the sushi hurdle!

When Saturday night rolled around, the kitchen was soon filled with people chopping, slicing, steaming, and sautéing. Just like with the shopping, everyone took up a task.

We snacked on pickled daikon, toasted seaweed, miso soup, and edamame, and before I knew it we had a sushi smorgasbord ready to go! There were platters of avocado, scallions, cucumbers, shitake mushrooms, tempura sweet potato, thin strips of omelette, salmon, tuna, and crispy salmon skin. To accent, there was a creamy spicy sauce, mango chutney, cream cheese, and wasabi.

We all teamed together to figure out how those simple looking rolling mats actually worked, and soon it was a maki assembly line! I was honestly amazed. It looked fantastic and tasted even better.

What exactly had I been worrying about all this time? As the sake and conversation flowed, all I could think was when could we do it again!