Tapeña® Wine and Tapas House Party™

Last month, I was chosen to host a Tapeña® Wine and Tapas House Party™. For those of you unfamiliar with House Party I highly suggest you check out there website. Most of you know that this isn't my first House Party I've hosted, you can also view my other various House Parties I've hosted in the past year; Shutterfly, Bull's Eye Bold Sauce BBQ, Boboli, Thai Kitchen, and Tombstone Pizza! Needless to say, I was excited to throw a wine party, but a bit intimidated to throw a tapas party. I really did not know anything about tapas other than the word tapas means "small plates". I asked for all of my guest to bring a tapas dish to share with others. My husband and I provided the wine and a few tapas dishes as well!

We received a box a few weeks prior to the party that all the things you would need to throw a great tapas party! 

Everyone who came to the party got rubber fork wine charms, magnetic picture frames, coupons, and wine tasting cards. 

Prior to the party I went to my local Total Wine & Beer to purchase the Tapeña® wine. As people started coming in to our home we started opening up bottles of wine! 

 Above, I am pictured with two of my newly made food blog friends, Julius from Droolius the Blog and Terri from Love & Confections. I met them last month at the Food Blog Forum Seminar. 

Terri's husband, Matt, was our sommelier for the evening! He did a great job explaining the two wines to  everyone! We had the Garnacha and Tempranillo wines. Unfortunately, my Total Wine & Beer does not carry any of the white wines. Hopefully one of these days I'll get to try the whites! 

I received a small bag of Spanish spices and decided to toss some steamed cold shrimp in a little olive oil and spices. 

I made two different types of pork skewers! One tossed in the Spanish spices and the other tossed in an oregano mixture {recipe to come later this week}. 

Julius cooked up some Mushroom and Onion Quesadillas. He is not a cook he is a food photographer, but did an awesome job making these quesadillas! 

I made shrimp and parsley toast {recipe to come later this week}. 

My friend Lindsay made a quick and easy baked brie... really no baking involved, just a little microwave action! 

I made some sweet and savory pumpkin empanadas {recipe to come later this week}! The sweet were chocked full of brown sugar and cinnamon and the savory had bits of bacon, thyme, and black pepper! 

           Friends talking about food and wine! 

I made some mixed grilled vegetables {recipe to come later this week}!

I also put together a nice tapas sampler platter which included some quince paste. I searched high and low for this stuff. As I shopped store to store I kept getting looks like I was some sort of alien. If you are looking for it I found it at Whole Foods. It is also known as Membrillo. It's very sweet and pairs well with manchego cheese. 

Terri from Love & Confections made an amazing Spanish Almond Custard Tort. Keep your eyes peeled on her blog--she will be posting the recipe in the coming weeks! 

I made these delicious little white chocolate raspberry mouse phyllo cups. I wasn't happy with the picture so the next day I bought the ingredients again, made it, and rephotographed them! Of course it didn't hurt that they are amazing and super easy to make! I'll be posting the recipe later on this week!

We all had a wonderful time and we were past due for an awesome House Party get together. I hope you enjoyed my virtual House Party!