Posts about Food and Entertaining

Tasty Recipes for a Memorial Day BBQ

Memorial Day is coming up on May 27th, and this month the Autumn Creek Apartments Blog is featuring a few of our favorite barbecue recipes to help you get through the day. Invite a few friends and neighbors and head to our picnic area — complete with charcoal grills — or your favorite park in East Amherst, NY, and have a blast on Memorial Day! Memorial Day Friendly Recipes Grilled Cilantro-Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa from Cooking Classy™ Marinate your chicken in fresh lime juice, lime zest, olive oil, honey, chopped cilantro, garlic, salt, and black pepper. Grill the chicken and then top with an avocado salsa made with avocados, tomatoes, red onion, garlic, and lime juice. Summer Corn, Avocado & Black Bean Salad from Produce on Parade Toss together sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, black beans, avocados, red onion, and cilantro for a delicious summer salad. Dress this salad with olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, kosher salt, and ground black pepper. This dish can be served on its own or with your favorite brand of tortilla chips. Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans Recipe from Food, Folks, and Fun These slow cooker Boston baked beans take a lot of work, but they’re worth it! Soak a pound of navy beans in water for eight hours before mixing the rest of the ingredients (baking soda, bay leaves, thick sliced bacon, onion, molasses, dark brown sugar, boiling water, maple syrup, dijon mustard, cider vinegar, salt, and pepper) in the slow cooker. You’ll need to cook these beans on low for about ten hours. Plan on starting on these beans at least a day ahead of time. No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Pie from Art and the Kitchen This no-bake strawberry cheesecake pie is a creamy and delicious treat. Combine jello, sugar, and cream cheese to make the sugary filling. You can make the crust with graham crackers and fresh strawberries from the local farmer’s market here in Lowell, MA. What are your favorite Memorial Day recipes? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Meal Planning Made Easy

Meal Planning can be a difficult habit to keep. Whether you’ve tried meal planning or not, we suggest giving it a shot or getting back in the habit. It can make a big difference in creating healthy eating habits, saving time, and adding variety to your meals. The Autumn Creek Apartments Blog brings you some of our ideas on how to have an effective meal plan. Use a few of our suggestions and find what’s right for you. Make mealtime your favorite time! Plan Shopping Trips For some people, taking a trip to the grocery store is the hardest part of meal planning. To make it an easier experience, plan out what days you will go shopping and make it a habit. Always remember to write out a shopping list before you go shopping! This will make your trip go much quicker and it will make it easier to skip over the snack and candy aisles. Find Your Format You can find all sorts of apps, printable sheets, or spreadsheet formats to help you with meal planning. Some people like using apps , but maybe you like to have a plan written or printed out. Use a word document, a spreadsheet, or a printable sheet to write out your plan. Try out something new and decide what is easiest for you. Stick to a Time Frame Determine how far out you want to meal plan. A week is a good way to go because it will allow for a shopping trip once a week and it’s a manageable amount of planning. Maybe you prefer meal planning a month in advance or the night before. Whatever you like, stick with your plan and create a habit out of it. Use Daily Themes Have you heard of using daily themes while meal planning? This is a great way to make meal planning easy. Choose themes for each day of the week, then pick a meal based on that theme. For example, Mondays you always make seafood, Tuesday-tacos, Wednesday-breakfast-for-dinner, Thursday-sheet pan dinner, Friday-soup, Saturday-Italian night, and Sunday-vegetarian. Choose your own themes and enjoy a super simple meal plan. Freezer Meals Freezer meals can be lifesavers when you have a busy week. Even making 2 or 3 meals on Sunday before the chaos of the work week begins can make all the difference for you down the road. Freezer meals can also be put in a slow cooker before you head off to work. We hope your meal planning efforts go well this spring. With your extra time, get out and enjoy springtime weather here in East Amherst, NY! Thanks for reading!

Autumn Creek Apartments Celebrates National Honey Month

The month of September is National Honey Month. This month here on the Autumn Creek Apartments Blog we want to share some honey recipes, honey facts, and where to find the best local honey here in the East Amherst, NY area. We hope you enjoy this sweet month! Honey-Based Recipes Chocolate Chip Honey Cake Recipe This sweet and rich dessert is great for a get together with friends. The bonus with this recipe is that it has no added sugar, so you can feel good about eating it. The recipe comes from A Treats Affair. Vanilla Honey Caramels Give away these caramels to your friends or coworkers or keep the whole batch to yourself to enjoy over the month. Use sugar, honey, vanilla extract, heavy cream, butter, and coarse sea salt to make these. Salted Honey Pie We know your friends will come ask for the recipe after they try this delectable pie. The recipe comes from Life, Love, and Sugar. Enjoy this dessert this month! Honey Facts from Mental Floss Bees survive on honey. During the winter when food is scarce, honey bees feed on the honey in their hives. Beekeepers only take the extra honey that bees produce so the bees have enough of a food source to survive. Not all honey is made by bees. There’s a type of wasp (the Mexican wasp) that also produces honey. This honey, though, can sometimes be poisonous because of certain flowers that the wasps visit. Honey can be different colors and flavors. Depending on what nectar the bees take the honey can be darker or lighter shades of yellow or even dark purple at times. Local Honey The Empire State Honey Producers Association’s webpage has all kinds of information about honey, from where to find it in New York to how to become a beekeeper and contact information for New York honey clubs. Check it out to learn more about honey . Many WNY local businesses sell honey nearby our apartment community, typically via farmer’s markets. Plan a visit this weekend! What’s your favorite honey recipe? Where do you buy local honey? Comment below and share your thoughts with us. Thanks for visiting the Autumn Creek Apartments Blog!

Let's Barbecue!

With summer nearly upon us here in East Amherst, New York, it’s time to start thinking about summer BBQs and doing a few test runs before inviting the crew over for a Memorial Day gathering. We’re happy to provide picnic space with charcoal grills for our residents — just one of the many amenities we offer . Today, the Autumn Creek Apartments Blog has some tips planning a barbecue for friends and families. Keep it Simple You can’t go wrong with simplicity. Burgers and brats are an American staple that most people are sure to love. Shish kebabs and grilled veggies are also great choices. Planning a complicated yet delicious menu can be fun, but sometimes there’s not a whole lot of time for the preparation you need. BBQs are always about being on the go. Keeping everything simple will make sure that you get the food out in a timely manner. Be Prepared Nothing ruins a barbecue like forgetting something crucial like utensils or napkins. A good thing to do is to have a checklist for the night before. Once you’ve gotten everything, place all the necessary items in a box so you don’t forget! The weather is also something to take into consideration, as it can be fickle. Have a backup plan for if the weather turns sour. Activities Games and activities are fun ways to get everyone interacting with each other; they can also help you stave off the lethargy as the good food settles in. Bring along a frisbee and a few decks of cards for your guests to enjoy. For more grilling tips , take a look at our sister-property, Windsong Place, and their blog post from last summer. Next time we’ll share some recipes that are grill friendly, so stay tuned. What is your favorite dish to cook on the grill? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading.

Grill-Friendly Recipes for Your Barbecue

May is the month to get your grill on! Today, Autumn Creek Apartments is sharing some grill-friendly recipes to try out this summer. From main dishes to sides to desserts, we’ve got options. Whether you use our picnic area and charcoal grills or head to your favorite East Amherst, NY park or campground, we hope you enjoy spending some time eating in the great outdoors. Grilled Lemon Oregano Chicken & Shrimp Skewers : This is a delicious and simple recipe you can use with chicken or shrimp. It comes from Yummy Healthy Easy . You’ll need chicken breasts, large shrimp, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and wooden skewers. The Ultimate Burger : Everyone familiar with a barbecue knows that burgers are a staple. Enjoy this delicious recipe for the perfect burger by celebrity chef Bobby Flay. You’ll be surprised by how little you actually need for a mouth-watering delicious burger. Brazilian Grilled Pineapple : As an appetizer or a dessert, this blend of pineapple slices, brown sugar, and cinnamon is the perfect addition to a barbeque. This is the description from Allrecipes.com: "Favorite at a Brazilian steakhouse in Dallas. Not sure if this is the exact recipe they use but it tastes very close. Great side for kabobs and steak." Maple Glazed Bacon Wrapped Roasted Carrots : Every descriptor in the title of this recipe has us pulling out the grocery list! Any skeptic of carrots will fall for this savory side. You’ll get a journey of complementary and juxtaposing tastes and textures with the crispy bacon and tender carrots wrapped nicely together. With just three ingredients (and any seasoning you wish to top it with), this luxury side will look like it’s straight from a five-star restaurant. Grilled Peaches with Vanilla Ice Cream : For a delicious dessert, try out these soft and warm grilled peaches. This recipe comes from What’s Gaby Cooking . You’ll need ripe peaches and nectarines, canola oil, vanilla ice cream, honey, and sea salt. Grill the peaches face down, then top with the ice cream, honey, and sea salt. We hope you enjoy barbecuing this summer here at Autumn Creek Apartments in East Amherst, NY! Feel free to share your favorite grill-friendly recipes in the comments.