A few weeks ago, I volunteered to have some of our friends over for dinner on the same day that I planned to participate in a bottomless mimosa brunch with friends who were in town visiting. After making the plans, I realized that this was going to make things interesting. I’m not used to preparing a full dinner and dessert after a day of drinking. So when picking out my menu, it was all about finding something that could be done the day before and/or required very little last minute preparation. To find inspiration, I turned to one of my favorite blogs – Smitten Kitchen. I’d been eyeing a couple of her recipes and decided to use several of them for this dinner.

Here is what I pulled together:

1) Blood Orange Margaritas (recipe here)

2) Veggies and Hummus & Crackers and Cheese (all from Trader Joes)

3) Flank Steak and Bloody Mary Salad (recipe here)

4) Dark Chocolate Tart with Gingersnap Crust (recipe on this blog here)

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