Home Sweet Home in CornerBrook

Home Sweet Home

Housewarming Party Goals by Hungry Couple YYC

As a welcome to the community, we hosted a small housewarming party for friends and family to help them show off their insta-worthy Trico Front Lane Home in the neighborhood of CornerBrook a WestCreek Development community.

We are noticing that a lot of our friends are moving outside downtown, into the 'burbs’, to start a family and there are new communities to consider. CornerBrook is a brand new community in North East Calgary designed for families, large and small, and offers a lifestyle for nature lovers with nearby amenities. It also has excellent access to Country Hills Blvd, Stoney Trail and Deerfoot Trail, Cross Iron Mills Mall, the Calgary Airport and the newly opened New Horizon Mall.

Check out our tips below for transforming this beautiful kitchen into a a Housewarming party to remember!

Choose a theme

Our focus was obviously on the on the food and cocktails, introducing pops of color, to highlight the event. You don't have to spend an ton on decor but you can introduce your themes through fun napkins, floral arrangements etc. For our housewarming we went with a spring theme with a refreshing cocktail, grazing board, fresh salad rolls, and berry panna cotta (created and designed by Urbane Culinary Catering)

Welcome your guests

We always pop some champagne at parties because it’s fun and versatile. You can have it by itself or turn it into a cocktail. For this housewarming, we made some Sparkling Rose Cotton Candy cocktails as a welcome for all of our guests. The best part is when the cotton candy hits the sparkling Rose, it dissolves creating a sweet nostalgic flavor. We loved using the Anyday Rose and LaMarca Prosecco and the guests enjoyed this interactive welcome cocktail.

Select your Sips

We enjoy creating our own unique cocktails using local distilleries. For this housewarming we created a twist on a traditional cocktail, the Tom Collins. Our version used Eau Claire Craft's special Cherry Gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, maraschino cherry, and a splash of club soda for a Cherry Tom Collins.

Recipe:

1 1/2 oz. Cherry gin

3/4 oz. lemon juice

1/2 oz. maraschino cherry syrup

2 dashes of ginger beer or tonic water (instead of simple syrup)

Serve with sliced lemon and maraschino cherry

We also remembered to have non-alcoholic alternatives as well and set up a fun mini bar for our guests; all you need are beverages, glasses, and some lemon and lime slices in small bowls

Housewarming Eats

Spring calls for new beginnings and lots of wining and dining, and incorporating a grazing board is the ultimate party goal. Grazing Boards are hardly a new concept. In the 1st century, the Romans and Greeks had them as part of their feasts when celebrating. Our housewarming grazing board was definitely something to Feast your eyes on!

Grazing boards are so on-trend right now because they are a crowd-pleaser and edible centerpiece all in one. Guest Chef Melissa Mountain, from Urbane Culinary Catering, created a stunning grazing board for us with all the condiments and fixings you can imagine.

Using fresh, local and seasonal ingredients, Chef Mountain started with the spring veggies and then added condiments and cheeses to accentuate the board and filled in the gaps with an assortment of deli meats.

We used the quartz counter top for our grazing board but you can always incorporate wooden cutting boards or fancy platters to give a "wow" factor. The quartz kept things cool and contemporary and clean up was a breeze!

Chef Mountain continued to add all types of fresh and local cheeses to build up our grazing board. When it comes to garnishes, a wide assortment is once again the way to go. We loved how Chef Mountain added fruit preserves and jams to add color and sweetness. Don’t forget the sauces. Mustard, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and honey are great to drizzle all over the board.

To finish off, Chef Mountain added "crunch" factors like crackers, roasted chickpeas, cookie thins, and raincoast crisps. Pro tip: Try and separate crackers from cut fruit/veggies so they remain crisp.

The grazing table has such a variety of textures and flavors and was definitely the main attraction!

This was a great edible centerpiece that encouraged our guests to mingle, try a variety of tastes and was a great conversation starter. We chatted about our friends home features and how its been living in the CornerBrook Community.

And don't forget everyone will be so excited to check out your new place, so make sure to give them a Grand tour! Friends will definitely want to see all the different rooms and how you’ve made them your own.

We had a great time throwing a housewarming party in CornerBrook, Calgary. The open concept main floor layout made it easy to host with a large kitchen island and walk-in corner pantry. Best of all we loved the stainless steel appliances and fireplace in the living room.

While we were there we noticed that some other layouts had a secondary spice kitchen option, which is a smaller enclosed secondary kitchen to the main to any cooking or hosting space to allow guests to be in the kitchen without it feeling too congested.