My studly husband and I started Sunday Family Dinners last May. It’s pretty much just an excuse to cook all day and then have our friends / chosen family over to eat and drink and hang out. After the holidays (we hosted Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, AND New Years), we were burnt out of having people over, so Sunday Family Dinners were put on hold. But, with my mom’s visit, Spring, and the fact that our backyard is now growing grass and we’ll soon have a real backyard (!), we felt it was time to re-initiate the Sunday get-together.
The theme this time was Family Pot Luck and so everyone brought some type of dish and / or beer or wine. We had about 20 pieces of Cornell Chicken marinading and I also made a bunch of apps. First, some pretzel bites with a hot honey mustard, then some Corn Avocado Salsa , plus some crudites with a homemade dill / ranch dipping sauce, and finally, a bruschetta, which was the only thing I’d remembered to get shots of. Did I mention how busy I was getting ready for dinner for 16??
This little guy was totally just a combination of what I had in the fridge. In the morning I made a couple of baguettes because I knew I wanted some type of bruchetta and was going to just go with a standard tomato and basil, but then I saw the left over chimichurri sauce from the steaks we’d had a couple of weeks ago! Being that the chimichurri was just parsley, garlic, and oil, I knew it was still good and realized it’d be the perfect base for ricotta I’d made the night before, (we made mozzarella cheese for from scratch pizzas a couple of nights before, and I always make ricotta from the whey, because it’s so easy!) and I happened to have a few little grape tomatoes as well, so I gave those a quick slice and topped the ricotta with them.
From scratch leftovers made into a beautiful and super flavorful little bruschetta! The Chimichurri was super garlicy and salty, perfect for the light, soft ricotta and then a tiny bit of acidity and texture from the grape tomatoes. Yum! This, along with many many many many other dishes brought by our friends, and we had ourselves a wonderful Sunday Family Dinner of lots of eating, and drinking with my mom and 13 of our closest friends 🙂
Scratch It 
Sorry to miss this!!!
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Me too!! It’s ok though, now we have family in AZ to go visit! 🙂
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Looks delicious! 🙂
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Thank you! 🙂
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You’ve just described my idea of a perfect Sunday. We used to do the same thing and put it “on hold” long ago. Thanks for the nudge to bring back Sunday dinner at our home. 🙂 These little bites sound wonderful!
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The break definitely did us (and our wallets) some good, but my Sundays definitely didn’t feel quite complete without them! I hope they start back up in your house! 🙂
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You’re SOOOO talented and these looks RIDICULOUS, I realllllyyyyy want one! I give you credit for being able to entertain so many people, I am SO not there yet, I freak out over four people! GO YOU!!!!
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Awww thank you! And luckily I have to do little entertaining, our friends bring it with them; we just provide the space and some food 😉
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Cleaning out the fridge does indeed result in tasty dishes! Looks extremely wonderful.
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Thank you! These types of dishes often feel the most rewarding, don’t they?
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These look so good Tracy! And Sunday Family Dinners sound great!
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Great combination!! I will definitely try this over the summer 🙂
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It looks great! 😉
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Thank you! It was a pleasant surprise! 🙂
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Found you via Dimple! Lovely blog!
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Thank you so much! I’m so honored she said such nice things and that I’m now able to check out yours! 🙂
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I’ve found your blog via Dimple’s post, it’s lovely, congratulation!
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Thank you!! I’m so glad you came by; I’m headed to check yours out now, too! 🙂
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