The Soiree Archives - Page 2 of 2

I’m so excited about today guys! Things are changing around this part of the blog! J and I have decided to make a shift in the Celebrate Southern World. Yes, the Monday linkup will still exist but it is going to be fashion focused. You will find that linkup live on Monday mornings at 6AM on J’s fashion blog Bless Her Heart Y’all. I will also continue to post our Celebrate Southern Podcast episodes on Mondays too.

But on Thursdays… y’all, we are having a party! Actually, it’s more than a party, it is a Soiree! Welcome to the first ever Celebrate Southern Soiree! This is a linky party about the party! We want y’all to share recipes, home decor and projects, DIY, home entertaining and party posts! I’m so excited to see what everyone has to share!

We are also doing this linkup a little bit differently than the original Celebrate Southern linkup… for the Celebrate Southern Soiree, each week we will be looking for two other blogs that would like to be party hostesses with us! The more the merrier right? All we ask is that your blog fits the niche of this linkup. Interested? Fill out this form and we will reach out to you with the date you will be a hostess!

Now on with the show!

Today I wanted to share a light and easy, Whole30 compliant Summer Salad that is perfect for any shindig or soiree! It is also perfect to make at the beginning of the week and then munch on as part of your healthy lunch!

2 cats & chloe: Whole30, Healthy Tomato Cucumber Salad The back story behind this salad: My godmother Lou loves her summer, home grown tomatoes. Often times when we are all together at the river, everyone brings a bunch of their garden tomatoes along. We had to get creative in how to eat all these delicious tomatoes. This is her go-to dish. My only problem? I can’t eat the mayo that my fam does. It’s full of crap, sometimes gluten, and it makes me feel bad. So! Let’s make it our own!

The recipe I used for my homemade mayo is straight from the Whole30 site. It always amazes me because it take so few, clean ingredients and just a couple minutes to make your own homemade mayo. Really makes me ponder why I have spent years and years buying Hellman’s…

2 cats & chloe: Homemade Mayo + Lemon 2 cats & chloe: Summer Homegrown Tomato Salad

This post really doesn’t need this many pictures, as it is so easy even a caveman could make it (paleo humor anyone?) but I was having a great time playing with my camera so you just have to deal.

2 cats & chloe: Tomato, Cucumber, Onion Salad

Tomato Cucumber Summer Salad

Prep time

15 mins

Total time

15 mins

Author: Susan {2 cats & chloe.}

Recipe type: Paleo // Gluten Free // Sugar Free // Whole30 // Soy Free // Dairy Free

Ingredients

1-1/4 cup of Light Olive Oil
1 Organic Egg
½ Teaspoon of Mustard Powder
½ Teaspoon of Salt
1 Lemon, Juiced
2 Medium - Large Tomatoes
1 English Cucumber
⅓ of a Large Onion
Salt & Pepper

Instructions

Make your Mayo first: (this is straight from the Whole30 Site) Place the egg, ¼ cup of olive oil, mustard powder and salt in a mixing bowl, blender or food processor. Mix thoroughly. While the blender is running SLOWLY drizzle in the remaining cup of olive oil. After you've added all the oil and the mixture has emulsified, add lemon juice to taste, stirring gently with a spoon to incorporate.
Cut up your tomato and cucumber into bite size pieces.
Chop up your onion.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a small dollop of Mayo. A little goes a long way!
Salt and Pepper to taste.

2 cats & chloe: Whole30 Paleo Salad with Homemade Mayo

Use just a “dollop” of mayo. It goes a long way, I promise! The amount of mayo that the Whole30 recipe yields is much more than you will need for this dish. So use the remaining homemade (clean) mayo for chicken salad tomorrow!

2 cats & chloe: Cucumber Tomato Salad 2 cats & chloe: Whole30 Party Dish

So there ya have it! It’s easy peasy! If you have to go to a potluck or picnic, folks will love this dish! I’m in such a summer mood that I’m just pretending it’s June while I munch on this Whole30 Tomato Salad!

Have you ever made your own Mayo? (I am still amazed at how easy it is!) Do you have a favorite salad that you like to take to parties?

http://goo.gl/U46Um7

Gooooood Thursday morning to ya! J and I are really excited to announce that we are teaming up to throw yet another party in Blogland! Welcome to Celebrate Southern: The Soiree! You see, our Monday linkup “Celebrate Southern” seemed to evolve into more of a southern inspired fashion linkup. We didn’t want everyone else who was celebrating all-things-southern to feel intimidated or out of place. So we are throwing two parties!

Celebrate Southern: The Soiree will be all about the party! We are hosting this linkup for bloggers to share their southern-inspired entertaining posts every single Thursday. (And you don’t actually have to be a southerner! We love everyone!) We want to see your home decor, your parties, your recipes and your DIYs. We are going to officially start this linkup NEXT WEEK on 4/23. And we are going to also be looking for a weekly blogger who wants to open up their homes (i.e. your blog!) and be another party hostess!

Since no southern party (or any party for that matter) is complete without a little bit of “bubbly” I thought it would be fun to show you some pictures from the Mother/Daughter Roadtrip I took this past weekend… when we went Moonshine tasting!

After we picked up Jellybean in Knoxville, Tennessee, we drove towards the mountains and camped in Gatlinburg, TN for the night. Since we have NOTHING in our sweet little camper yet, we decided to go into town for dinner. Little did I know that we would end up spending the evening doing a little Moonshine Tasting!

We found ourselves at the Sugarland Distillery right on the main road in Downtown Gatlinburg. These guys were a hoot. They had the crowd going and made sure everyone was enjoying every last drop of our free moonshine samples. Despite the fact that I actually was drinking with my mother, they really made us all feel like we were “drinking with family!”

My mom and I ended up spending our hard earned cash on two jars of Sugarland Moonshine: A jar Butterscotch and a jar of the Apple Pie. I’ve had some great apple pie moonshine in the past… but this stuff is magical! At first sip it tastes like apple, but after you gulp it down and breathe out, you taste the caramel.

Now, before any of you jump all over me… I know that this is real moonshine but it’s not REAL moonshine. While this is delicious and great to sip on, the “real stuff” burns a bit more going down. (Let’s just say that the real stuff is what caused my bachelorette party to come to a quick end. Note to self: never ever drink moonshine from a stranger’s flask ever again. Especially when said stranger looks like a lumber jack and allowed you to cut his hair with a pocket knife.)

So there ya have it! While moonshine may not scream “soiree” it does scream southern shin-dig! If only I wasn’t on Day One of a Whole30, I’d be sipping on this party-in-a-mason-jar right now. Because you know… moonshine + blogging HAS to equal a winning post or two. Am I right?

PS. The deets you need to know about Celebrate Southern: The Soiree! The new linkup will go live Thursdays at 6AM EST. Feel free to dust off older posts but please make sure they some how encompass Southern Entertainment: think lifestyle, foodie, home decor or DIY. If you want to do more than just linkup - we are looking for folks who want to be hostesses! Send me an email if that interests you!