Arabian Nights Dinner Party

It's been quite a while since I've thrown a dinner party. So, this year for my birthday I decided that throwing a dinner party was exactly what I wanted to do. I thought of a few different themes, but finally settled on an Arabian Nights theme -mostly because one of my friends thought that an Arabian Nights dinner party would be "a dream".

In order to do this on the cheap side, I borrowed a canopy tent from a friend who just happened to have one handy. Then I covered it in any fabric I could find (table clothes, bed sheets, comforters...) as long as it was gold, yellow or red. I had everyone sitting on the ground on cushions and I propped the table up on cinder blocks to give it a little bit of height.

I made some pretty cool looking Moroccan-style lanterns to hang inside the tent. I really liked the way these turned out and they were cheap to make and not very time consuming.

For the table setting, I had a brass tea set that I placed in the center of the table. I didn't use a lot of flowers for this table because I wanted the brass tea set to be the star of the table -and I didn't really feel like doing any fancy floral arrangements. 

We had some dahlias and marigolds growing in the garden so, I picked them and put the dahlias in a vase and scattered the marigolds around the table. 

I decided to have everyone eat with their hands for this meal. I thought it would be fun and add to the whole dining experience. So, I included finger bowls with water at each persons place setting. I put out lots and lots of candles and to complete the look I placed two candlestick holders with gold candlesticks at the ends of the table.

Now for the food...mmm...

 For the starters I made small plates of tabouli, samboosa, hummus, and baba ganoush and placed them around the table with some pita bread. For the main course I served kabsa. And for dessert, I made some baklava, which turned out amazing -totally worth making!

I had a lot of fun putting this party together. I always love seeing what the final product looks like. It is always so fun to throw a bit of an over-the-top dinner party. Give it a try, the planning is fun, the prep is fun and the dinner party itself is always fun and memorable. Phew -that's a lot of fun!

Triple-Chocolate Cheesecake

So, I've decided to start up with blogging again. We will see how long my resolution lasts. I have been sitting on this recipe for a long time and I am excited to share it with you guys because it is delicious. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate...I don't think this cheesecake needs any further explanation. 

The recipe for this cheesecake is pretty easy and straightforward. I really like that word: straightforward. What a great word and it's so nice to make straightforward recipes right?