entertaining

When it comes to Summer entertaining, my go to beverage is sangria. It's easy to make a large batch and must be put together in advance. It's a wine-based punch, making it lower in alcohol than its spirit counterparts and it has a fruity profile, meaning that most people will enjoy a glass or two.

I believe a hostess can never have too many sangria recipes and this is my current fav. It's a mixture of berries, Rosé, and black currant liqueur. The recipe, which comes from Mariena Mercer of The Cosmopolitan in Vegas, calls for soda water to add effervescence. However, I used sparkling Rosé instead. This sangria is better the longer it steeps, so get started now!

While some people believe that dinner parties can only be thrown on a Friday or Saturday night, I happen to think that any evening is a great time to host a dinner! Annie, of TrèsSugar, agrees because she hosted one last night, on a Monday! Before she left work, I offered some of my suggestions for a successful weeknight dinner. To find out what they are and to share your own, keep reading.

While I've dappled in food and wine pairings, I don't know very much about the emerging trend of pairing food with beer — until now. It turns out that the two are somewhat similar. Like with wine, there are a couple general rules to consider when pairing food and beer.

You should match strength to strength (strong beers with strong foods, light beers with light foods), look for flavors that complement each other (a beer with citrus notes will be good with fish because fish and citrus complement each other), and find similarities (a nutty ale will go with a nutty cheese).

Another way to pair food and beer is to look towards classic beer-drinking regions, like Germany, and consider its cuisine. If you're interested in experimenting with beer and food pairings at home, I've got six easy foods to start with. To see what they are, keep reading.

Lots of pizzerias serve their pies piping fresh from the oven. Instead of placing them on a hot plate, they'll set them on top of a special serving platter. But at a recent eatery, I discovered a fun and affordable way to offer a hot pan of pizza at home: on a can of tomatoes! This ensures that the table won't get burnt and that the pizza is elevated above everything else, making it the focal point of the meal.

Do you have a fabulous serving tip? Share with us below.

Wedding season kicked off earlier this week, and once you've gotten engaged, it's time to start thinking about an engagement party. The first step is to decide whether or not you want to have one. Traditionally, an engagement party was thrown for the couple to announce their engagement to friends and family, but these days, most people already know about it. To see my suggestions for planning the perfect engagement shindig, keep reading.