Every summer, my family gathers 'round for a big seafood dinner at my parents' house on Smith Mountain Lake. We sit on the deck and drink wine and eat with our hands and watch the sun set. It's really good. I am so excited to be moving closer to home and making things like this just a quick three hour drive away.

The last time I was in Roanoke, I gathered my family and invited a couple of friends to come over for our annual seafood boil. It was a lovely evening and we all had a great time. I served La Crema Chardonnay--everyone's favorite--and we drank and ate and just enjoyed each other's company.

I was kind of surprised at how beautiful a table set with paper and covered with seafood ended up being, so I thought I'd share a few tips for throwing a great, shabby-chic seafood boil party:

• Use brown paper or newspaper as a table cloth--it looks festive and is super functional, since you'll be throwing it away after dinner. I cut up some brown grocery bags and topped it with a few sheets of newspaper. I think the combination looks really nice!
• White plates, crab claw crackers, and a couple rolls of paper towels are really all you need--unless you're serving a vegetable as well (we had steamed broccoli), you don't even need forks!
• Use a citronella candle to ward off mosquitos, and use some matching tea lights to fancy up the table a bit more if you wish.
• Finally, a simple vase of flowers (I cut some roses from our neighbor's yard...it's kind of an inside joke we have going) adds an extra pop of color to really make the table look put together.

One of my favorite things I've come to realize from working with La Crema over the past four months is this: details can often be really special, and nothing is so small that it isn't worth celebrating. Summer, friends, family, wine, and really huge shrimp all make life a little brighter. So get together with people you love and, for any or no reason at all, enjoy a fantastic meal together. Cheers!

This post is sponsored by La Crema. Thank you for your support as I continue to work with brands. Make sure to visit the La Crema Blog for the seafood boil recipe!

Photos by the lovely Sarah of Photo + Love.

I have to be honest and tell you that ground chicken is not something that I would normally buy. If I'm going to make burgers, you can bet that they're going to be made of beef; but the other day ground chicken was ridiculously cheap at the grocery store, so I bought two pounds and stuck it in the freezer. I said, "I'm going to make Buffalo chicken burgers out of this!" and that's exactly what I did last night.

Ingredients:

• One pound of ground chicken
• 1/4 cups Frank's Hot Sauce
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-2 tablespoons of butter
• Lettuce for wrapping the burger (Iceburg or Bibb works really well)
• Toppings: mayo, tomato, onion, chopped celery

Instructions:

1. Mix ground chicken together with hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Separate meat into four sections and make a patty out of each one with your hands.
2. In a medium to large pan, heat the butter over medium heat. Place burgers in pan.
3. Cook about eight minutes on each side, or until the chicken is cooked throughout.
4. Serve with lettuce, tomato, onion,  chopped celery, and a dollop of mayo if you're into it. Also, a sprinkle of celery seeds makes a nice touch. 

Rob and I visited Eat Street Social for happy hour a couple of weeks ago, and the cocktail list was amazing! Neither of us had ever been there before, so it was nice to try a new place and check out a new menu.

The dinner menu looked promising, but the happy hour snacks were not my favorite (mostly fried options) I did totally love my cocktail--I had the Summer Tea & T, a fantastic little drink with yerba mate-infused gin, Indian green coriander, honey, yuzu, and galangal--and I kind of want to go back to try a few others on the menu.

All in all it was a good place for a quick date, but next time I might actually have dinner, or make a stop just for drinks.

Eat Street Social

18 West 26th Street

Minneapolis, MN 55404

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Food 3/5 (Drink 5/5)

Service 4/5

Atmosphere 4/5

Prices & Specials 5/5

Paleo-Friendly 1/5