Party Snacks

My friends are having a New Year's party tonight and I offered to make a few treats for the event. I love to cook and it helps take pressure off the hosts to make sure there is enough food.

I offered up meatballs, chicken enchilada dip and breafast, because we will all need something to absorb the booze :). And of course I can't attend a party without bringing jello shots.

I shopped at Woodman's (my new favorite store) and figured out that I can make homemade meatballs for less than buying a few bags of the premade kind. Plus, with homemade, you know what you are eating. I sometimes question what frozen prepackaged foods really have in them.

A few years back, my former boss' wife had us all over and made these to-die-for meatballs and cherry jalepeno sauce. I have made those a few times since, but I couldn't find the ground veal, so I decided to live on the edge and figure out a new recipe for meatballs.

I know the basics that go in - bread crumbs, milk, eggs, onion, meat and seasonings. So I had a little fun and added some new flavors. I bought a blue cheese dip mix a few months back and decided to add some of that mix to the meatballs.

Then I threw in some fresh parsley, pepper, salt, paprika, chili powder (for a kick) and a few other things. These meatballs won't be replicated because I just sort of did a dash of this and a pinch of that. And for meat, I used a combo of ground beef and ground pork and about 2.5 lbs. of it.

When you roll the meatballs yoruself, you really get to control the size and shape of them. I typically go for smaller ones so you can have a few more and not feel so guilty.

I cook my meatballs in the oven at 400 degrees for 10, then flip them all and cook for another 10 or until they are browned on both sides.

They turned out great, but I wish I added a bit more of the blue cheese mix as you taste it, but I wish the flavor was a little stronger. Next time :)

Then it was time for the sauce. Sure you can grab grape jelly and chili sauce and make an easy sauce, but I can't leave things simple. Here again is where I won't be able to repeat the sauce. I minced some onion up in my processor and then sauteed it in a pan with a little salt and pepper.

I then added some WildTree FraDiavola mix, chili pepper, raspberry vinagrette dressing, garlic powder, paprika, chili sauce and a scoop of grape jelly. That wasn't enough so I added a 1/3 cup of zinfandel wine to cut the sweet. I think after it will now sit for almost 24 hours before being added to the meatballs, it will be marvelous.

The other items I made for the party is my chicken enchilada dip and my breakfast casserole from Halloween.

And for the jello shots, Woodman's has a spectacular selection of gelatin and I picked Jolly Rancher Green Apple to mix with Apple Pucker, Fruit Punch with citrus vodka and peach with Champagne for a bellini. I can't wait to try all of these.

Here is my ratio for jello shots.

1 small box gelatin
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup cold booze
1/4 cup cold white soda or water

Mix hot water and gelatin for 2 minutes or until thoroughly mixed and no chunks. Then add the booze and water and mix for 30 seconds. Pour into shot cups and leave uncovered until chilled and hardened. Then add lids. I use the Diamond condiment cups because they are the perfect size, aren't too expensive and have nice lids. 

Hope these treats spark your creativity in the kitchen. These definitely did it for me and I hope to experiment more in the kitchen in 2014! Cheers and Happy Eating!

Halloween Treat Round-Up

We had another spook-tacular Halloween party at my friends house this year. The theme was Villains but everyone was welcome to dress in whatever they wanted.

I spent a good portion of Saturday making my many treats for the day, but unfortunately I failed on taking pictures of any of the food. And there were some really great treats. There was an actual litter box (new of course) filled with a dessert and it looked so real. I thought it was a prank at first!

Other treats included - zombie flesh dip (bagel dip), graveyard taco dip, celery mummies & spiders on a log (celery & cream cheese) really drunken gummies (99 apples & peach schnapps soaked gummies), spooky pasta salad, human fingers (lil smokies), spooky eye balls (ham and pickle rolls), spiced pear cider, meatballs, cupcakes, veggies & dip, brats and JELL-O shots (even in syringes!) I have been one-upped on the Jell-O shots but I'm totally ok with it. All the items were big hits.

Jell-O shot syringes - 3 at a time!

I made breakfast last year and I knew that it would be a needed this year as well so I created two options.

I'll share a few more of the recipes from that night in some upcoming posts but for now, check out the breakfast options below - good for a hangover, or really anytime :)

Ham & Potato Casserole that I adapted from this recipe on Yummly.com that then directs to Food.com.

Here are my changes:
1. I didn't read that it was a 9 inch round and only had a 9 X 13 available, so I did 1.5 times the recipe. 
2. I didn't put in green onion and subbed 1 tsp. onion powder
3. I half a green pepper and diced it.
4. I added double the ham - might have been too much, but no one complained. 
5. Because my recipe was larger, I let the potatoes cook the first round for 17 minutes. Then the entire casserole cooked for 45 in my oven.

Everyone had a piece and said it hit the spot after a night of debauchery!


And 

French Toast Muffins from TwoPeasAndTheirPod via her Pinterest Page. 

Although these were messy to make, I think the end product was amazing. My only alterations to the recipe (and I guess it's based on the size of your muffin pan) are I only needed about 11 cups of bread (3/4 of my loaf and maybe 2 cups of milk. I ran out of room to pour more milk except to have the pan overflow down the counter and onto the floor a few times.

Also, after I let the pan sit in the fridge for 2 hours, I should have allowed time for the pan to come back up to room temperature or close to it before putting it in the oven. My cooking time was closer to 40 because I didn't think of this.

They still turned out amazing and there were a few leftover for me to enjoy!

Pin-It Tuesday: Halloween Treat Roundup

This past weekend, I attended a "Once Upon A Time" Halloween party at my friend's house. The majority of my friends are really into the TV show that began last season, and instead of the He-Man/She-Ra theme we were going with, it was decided in August to go with Once Upon A Time characters. We had Snow, Prince, Blue Fairy, Jiminy Cricket, Rumpelstiltskin, Emma, Alice, Mad Hatter, Rabbit, Grumpy, Maleficent and the Evil Queen.

Front Row: Grumpy, Jiminy Cricket. Middle Row: Alice, Snow, Emma, Blue Fairy, Maleficent. Back Row: Rabbit, Evil Queen, Prince, Rumpelstiltskin, Mad Hatter

 I was the Evil Queen and my aunt with her amazing seamstress skills helped me complete my costume by altering my Goodwill Coat. Here are the elements of my costume - long black hair extension, curled up and attached to my head, lace head wrap, head band with lace triangles, corset top, black leather pants, black leather boots, evil makeup, a black rose and my coat with feathers, lace and glitter.

Left: Me, Right: Regina, the Evil Queen

Anyways, I am a total geek for Halloween and jumped onto the interwebs and found some great food ideas for the party. Once I found what I was going to make, I posted the recipes on my Pinterest page.

I spent a good portion of Thursday night prepping the food for the party with my interpretations of the recipes.

Pumpkin Cheese Ball
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens
I bought a package of Badger spreadable cheddar cheese and had my dad help me form it into a pumpkin. Then right before I set out to eat, I put crumbled nacho chips all over the outside, olives for the face and a pickle for the stem, to resemble a pumpkin.

RIP Taco Dip
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens
I made my regular taco dip recipe and found some black glitter piping gel and piped gravestone markers out of tortilla strip chips. I served the chips to scoop the dip up with in a trick or treat pumpkin.  (My taco dip: Equal parts 8 oz. cream cheese, 8 oz. sour cream & 1 pkg taco seasoning - blended together and smeared in pan. Topped with diced green chilis, lettuce, cheese & black olives

Halloween Puppy Chow
Adapted from YourCupofCake.com

I had this the weekend prior at my cousin's Fall Beerfest party (blog to come soon on that). My friend has Celiac's disease and so I chose to make this snack with Rice Chex cereal. Unfortunately for my frined with a peanut allergy, there was no way to make this recipe without the peanut butter, so he just avoided this treat. Instead of Reese's Pieces, I used regular M&Ms and candy corn and pumpkins. I made both white and milk chocolate varieties.

Hocus Pocus Punch
Adapted from TheLittleKitchen.net
Although I did find coconut extract at the store, I completely forgot to add it to the drink. I made it on a larger scale so I used an entire can of pineapple juice, an entire bottle of champagne, 1/3 bottle of white rum and food coloring to make it a bright orange color. I served it out of my "vintage" trick or treat pumpkin. (Yep it was the one that used to get the loot each year for me as a child)

Jello/Pudding shot buffet

Jello/Pudding Shots
Peach Bellini - peach jello and champagne
Lime Bellini Surprise - lime jello, champagne, citrus vodka and a green cherry (surprise!)
Orange Dreamsicle - orange jello and whipped vodka
Strawberries 'n Cream - Strawberries 'n Cream pudding, whipped vodka & whipped topping
Chocolate Mint - chocolate pudding, creme de menthe & whipped topping
(NOTE: pudding shots are really strong - or I followed recipe ideas from alcoholics. I wish I would have used even less alcohol than I did and maybe a lot more whipped topping).

Prepping the pudding shots - each pkg makes a ton

Other treats my friends made:

Naughty Cider
Apparently Everclear alcohol had to reduce it's "proof" due to lawsuits, so my friend Shauna found a Polish Vodka to make the cider with but it's made with apple cider, vodka and cinnamon. As you can see, the boys enjoyed it.

Meaty Weinies
Smoked lil' weiners with grape jelly and chili sauce and then whatever herbs & spices my friend Shauna had available to her that sounded good with them.

Pumpkin-licious Fruit Salad
I can't take credit for this one, but my friend Sam scooped out oranges, carved them and then filled them with fruit salad. They turned out so adorable and were the perfect touch. 

Mummy Wraps
My friend Caroline makes the most amazing little sandwich wraps. I don't even know what was exactly in them but it was lettuce, cheese, meat and tortilla and they are just soooo good.

Dirt Cake
My friend went out of her way to make a vanilla and a chocolate version to please everyone but they never made it out of the fridge that night :(

There was also plenty of beer, rootbeer/cake UV shots, X-Rated shots to keep us warm on the chilly night. Heated games of Survivor Flip Cup ensued and brought great laughs and good memories.

Survivor Flip Cup

I can't wait until next year as I'm already pinning new ideas onto my Pinterest Page and thinking of another group costume idea. He-Man/She-Ra is back on the table, but who really knows what we will be.