It’s back to reality for me, after an amazing, yet exhausting weekend in the desert at Coachella. I got to see some of my favorite bands/artists perform for the first time–Radiohead, Bon Iver, Miike Snow, The Shins, etc. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Though I’m still catching up on sleep and work, the weekend was completely worth it. One thing is for sure–it’s time to get back to healthier eating, so this quinoa salad should do the trick.

Here’s some photos from the weekend:

La Quinta Villas

Swedish House Mafia

Coachella sunset

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Ever since my friend, Heidi, introduced me to Moscow mule at one of our favorite bars in LA, The Hudson, I’ve been hooked. It only seemed fitting that my roommate and I recreate the drink for her sister’s birthday party. But before finalizing our beverage choice, we had to hunt down the essential ingredient–mason jars. We were finally successful at Cost Plus World Market.

The tartness of the lime and sweetness of the ginger beer (which doesn’t contain alcohol) mask the flavor of the vodka–almost completely. So beware and don’t gulp these down too quickly!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend…oh, it’s not Friday yet?

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Though this isn’t a ground breaking recipe, it’d consider it a worthy staple. I never get around to making homemade margaritas, primarily because I always find it much easier to buy margarita mix for large parties.

However, my apartment was overflowing with limes, so I thought it the perfect opportunity to whip up a margarita (instead of using the limes to bake something fattening, which I would normally do).

For the non-drinkers out there, I would still enjoy this drink without the tequila, as it was sweet and refreshing. I added a bit of lime zest to give the drink an extra burst of flavor.

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This marks my 100th post on Sweet Caroline’s Cooking. Can’t believe it!

Ever since my family and I dined at The Hali’imaile General Store in 2000, located in Maui, we’ve been making recipes from its Hawaiian-style cookbook.

This is by far our favorite and most visited recipe in the book. The moist and flaky halibut coated with the chile mayonnaise and sweet, mango-lime butter sauce is absolutely divine. Conveniently, for the non-fish eaters in our family, the ingredients also work wonderfully with chicken.

I guarantee your guests will be impressed and eternally grateful if you serve them this dish at a dinner party.

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Happy belated Mother’s Day to the much appreciated mothers out there. My family and I celebrated my mom yesterday with a delicious brunch at Opah, followed by a relaxing day at home. Our original plan was to have my brother and I cook a gourmet dinner, but unfortunately, my other brother had to work. However, I was still able to bake a little something for my mom.

Since she loves citrus desserts, and didn’t want to eat anything too heavy, I decided on this strawberry and blueberry-topped lime mousse tart. I found the recipe on Epicurious, and made a few minor alterations.

The slightly salty shell from the crushed, toasted almonds worked perfectly with the refreshing tart filling from the lime juice and zest. The variation of textures was also pleasant–a buttery and crumbly crust, silky mousse layer and succulent and tender strawberries and blueberries.

My mom approved. :)

Other tart recipes you might enjoy here, here and here.

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Happy Cinco de Mayo! In honor of the holiday, I baked margarita cupcakes topped with a tequila-lime meringue buttercream frosting. Initially, I wanted to feature tequila in a gourmet margarita drink, but decided to get a bit more creative with the liquor.

These cupcakes turned out moist and delicious with loads of flavor. The lime juice and zest in the cake worked brilliantly with the tequila and lime infused frosting. I think these will be a hit with my friends tonight!

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Last night, I hosted a dinner party at my house with some close friends. Like my parents’ party last weekend, I had a tapas style dinner accompanied by a plethora of white and red wine. We had a fabulous variety of foods—baked brie with jam, maple syrup and brown sugar, stuffed jalepeños, cheese crostinis, caesar salad with homemade dressing and pesto sandwiches.

I made mini pesto sandwiches, sausage and cheese stuffed jalepeños, a fruit tart and a peanut butter pie.

My neighbor often makes this fruit tart when my parents have dinner parties. She always expresses how simple it is to make the tart and doesn’t understand my family’s obsession with the dessert. However, my guests last night seemed to understand the tart addiction and cleared the platter in no time. This dessert might actually be my favorite Paula Deen recipe—her knack of creating dessert recipes never ceases to amaze me.

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My parents hosted a dinner party this weekend, so I helped cook, bake and decorate all day before the party. I made two kinds of hummus—regular and sun-dried tomato—as well as a dessert. I wanted to make something bite-size, since I figured people would be stuffed after munching on the plethora of appetizers all evening.

I browsed the Food Network website and came across Paula Deen’s key lime tarts. The recipe received five stars and positive comments, so I decided to try it out. After all, dessert and Paula Deen go hand in hand.

Making these desserts turned into a much more tedious process than expected. The recipe calls for Key Lime Cooler cookies, however, I was not able to find these at the market. I imagine I might have found them at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, but did not have time to visit a different store. Therefore, I took one of the suggestions and made a homemade graham cracker crust for the bottom of the tarts.

The desserts had the perfect amount of tart flavor—enough to make your lips pucker, but not enough to make you contort your face in discomfort.

The tarts won me over in flavor, but were way too delicate in texture after only chilling for an hour. The recipe calls to bake the tarts in mini muffin liners (sprayed before filling), and to then remove them after baking. Removing the liners was a difficult process since the tarts were so fragile, causing a few of the desserts to break in half.

To try to remedy the situation, I chilled some of the tarts for a few more hours. After refrigerating, I was finally able to remove the rest of the liners. Although the desserts did not look as presentable as I’d hoped, they were still gobbled up at the party.

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Sorry SpongeBob, but this crab appetizer will put your renowned krabby patties to shame. Its got all the delicious flavor with a gourmet twist. The variety of colors and textures in this dish really make it stand out. Your guests will get the impression that you slaved over this recipe, when in reality, it will only take you about 20 minutes.

Now I wouldn’t say I’m a seafood fanatic in the least bit, but the crab in this appetizer is so subtle that I can barely tell I’m eating it. However, I’m sure the avocado, lime juice and garlic helps mask the fishy flavor that I typically despise.

This is the type of recipe that you can alter to your liking. If you aren’t a big tomato fan, don’t put as much in the mixture. If you love avocado (like me), feel free to add more. After all, this appetizer is basically an elevated version of guacamole. Since I doubled the recipe, be sure to add more of the other ingredients accordingly.

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After the first time I made my lemon bars, I knew they would be my go-to dessert for any party or get-together. I almost feel guilty when I get multiple compliments on the bars, since they are so easy to make.

There’s no doubt that my friend has been their biggest fan from the beginning. She will often ask me if I can bake them for her just because they sound good at the time—I’ve gotten pleads via text and phone call…and definitely in person.  She made a request the other day, but suggested that I make lime bars instead of lemon. I figured that lime would be just as tasty, so I gave it a shot.

When I tried the lime filling, I almost couldn’t tell that it wasn’t lemon, but still decided to bake the bars. After 40 minutes of curious anticipation, I took the bars out of the oven to let them cool. Although the bars didn’t have as strong of a lime taste as I had hoped, they were still delicious and had the citrus flavor. Next time, I would add more lime juice and add lime zest to give them that tart pop.

Apparently the dessert bars were still a hit, though, since the batches I gave to my friend and left for my brother last night are almost gone!

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