Touchdown Deviled Eggs

My friends invited us over for a housewarming and Packer party. The game was against our border rivals, Da Bears (still suck), so I knew I needed to make something that was green and gold. I searched far and wide for the perfect snack to go along with my friend's menu and came across a great idea for Touchdown Deviled Eggs after seeing the idea on this blog.

I created my own recipe for Deviled Eggs instead of following the one on the blog. I have chives growing in my garden out front, so I was able to cut those fresh the morning of the party.

I followed a new protocol for getting perfectly boiled eggs. But I did find for my stove, I needed to let them sit for 12 minutes. The first batch at 10 minutes were still a little soft in the middle. This is fine for making deviled eggs, but I like my yolks completely cooked when eating a hard boiled egg.

After the eggs are cooked, cut them all in half, scoop out the yolks and add that to the other ingredients to make the egg filling. I used a pastry brush to mash all the yolks because I was making a party size batch. You can see I have a few whites in my bowl. They tore when scooping out the yolk so I added them to the yolks and filling for extra flavor.

Once everything is mixed together well, use a teaspoon scoop and fill the eggs with heaping scoops. Then cut 1 or 2-inch pieces of chives and then 1/2 inch pieces for the laces.

Placing the laces on the egg can get a little messy. I had a towel nearby to wipe my hands on to not mess up the laces with the egg. Lightly press each piece on top until you have the desired football you are wanting.

The eggs were well received, the rest of the food was amazing, I got to see friends I haven't see in a while, and the Packers won!

This was the second party that my guy's daughters attended. They aren't into football yet or the adult conversations so my guy always makes sure to bring movies and games for extra entertainment. Headbands, especially the Disney version, was quite the hit again. Almost everyone at the party got into it and had a blast trying to figure out who they were.

Deviled Eggs
6 hard boiled eggs
2 Tbsp. Mayo or Miracle Whip
2 Tbsp. Dill Pickle Relish
1 Tbsp. Yellow Mustard
1 tsp. Dill Weed
Paprika

Halve the eggs, scoop out the yolks, and place them in a small bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together well. Using a tsp. measure, scoop heaping amounts into each egg white. Top with paprika if not doing the football theme.

Party Eats & Treats!

Today the Packers played a nerve-wracking game against the "dirty-playing" Lions. Though Aaron Rodgers went out early with an injury, he came back for the second half and (despite getting stepped on) threw some great passes for a Packers NFC North Championship WIN!

I invited my friends over and together we made a great buffet of eats. 

I made a large crockpot of sloppy joes. I used 3 lbs of locally sourced meat. My parents bought half a cow from Salentine Farms in Big Bend. It was processed at Sorg's in Fort Atkinson.

I browned it off, drained off the grease and added sloppy joe mix, carrots, celery, onion, worchestershire sauce, garlic powder and a bit of sirracha for a kick.(I don't think I added enough, but I was worried about over spicing it and then no one would like it). I served it on King's Hawaiian rolls and it was well received. I had very little left at the end of the game.

I also made Hissy Fit Dip, a big hit at my Super Bowl party last year. This pic is of the mixing stage but it's gooey, creamy, deliciousness when warmed up. I served it with carrots, celery, pretzels and tortilla chips. This was almost completely gone at the end of the game and people even enjoyed it on the sandwiches. I even just grabbed some Sloppy Joes (not on a bun) and then drizzled some of this dip over it and ate it with tortilla chips. I did really like it with carrot slices.

Other dishes that were brought to share included Oreo ball truffles, salsa, spinach dip, party potatoes (similar recipe) roasted cauliflower and lots of drinks.

Did you know in some states Party Potatoes are called Funeral Potatoes?? How odd! Party Potatoes is a much nicer name!

I made a fire in my fireplace to increase the ambiance and it was a nice touch! I love my fireplace, even though I only burn Duraflame-type logs in it. 

And we were even visited by two puppies - my friend Chris brought them over and the youngest is a lover of all things lap related. They were both very well behaved and helped bring that Packer win.

The next time the Packers play is on January 11 at noon. I'm not sure I'll be hosting as I have a work obligation that morning. But you better believe I will be watching it somewhere and eating some great tasting food!

Football Party on a Budget

My friends and I love to get together to support our teams (Brewers, Packers & Badgers) with tailgates and parties. Its easy to tailgate before a Brewer game because tickets are reasonable and the team plays locally. Badger & Packer tickets are not as easy to come by because all games are sold out (Packers are sold out for my entire lifetime!) so you have to buy online at inflated prices and the stadiums are hours away.

For the first Packers game of the season, my friends hosted a get-together at their house and did a taco night and asked everyone to bring something to go with the tacos.  I decided to make my friend's salsa that I had had the weekend prior. I toned down the spice quite a bit in my version but everyone really liked it because it's so fresh! (Find the recipe at the bottom of this posting.)

Other sides included this cucumber tomato salad and puppy chow!

Recipe at the bottom of this post

Leinenkugel's came out with a new fall variety pack of shandy beers and I decided to give it a try. The Old Fashioned Shandy doesn't taste like a beer at all, more of a Southern Comfort Old Fashioned. It took me two tries to decide that this was ok.

The other flavors are a Cranberry Ginger Shandy that reminds me a little of a Moscow Mule and a Harvest Patch Shandy that resembled a pumpkin beer but more sweet.

We ate and and drank and watched the Green & Gold do their best against the World Champion Seattle Seahawks. They put in a valiant effort but didn't come out the winner.

Every year, our favorite wine sales rep from Fox Run Sentry Liquor (RIP!) invites us to a tailgate at Miller Park. He supplies the meat and tickets and just asks us to come with a side and enjoy the game with him. This gigantic taco salad hit the spot for us and kept us busy while the brats were cooking away.

I made a new recipe of Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treat cups. They were such a hit, most ate these before they ate the rest of the tailgate goodies.

The seats were on the 2nd level of Miller Park and gave us a great view of all the action, including the famous Racing Sausage Race (congrats Chorizo!). The Brewers put in a valiant effort but couldn't hold on to bring us a win in the end. The team really crumbled in September this year and didn't even make the playoffs when they were the best team in baseball for the majority of the season. That's ok - I'll still cheer on my Brew Crew boys!

Ok - now onto the party that I threw for the Thursday night Packers game against our forever rivals - the Minnesota Vikings. These are always well debated games so I thought I would get everyone together at my place and cheer our boys on.

I'm on a tighter budget so I thought long and hard about a way to throw a party with great food, for a low price.

Drum roll please.......Baked Potato Bar.

I shopped for almost everything at Woodman's and put out the whole smorgasbord for under $20 and had leftovers.

10 lb. Bag of Potatoes - 1.69
Chives - cut from my garden
Stadium Cheese - $2.50
Fresh Broccoli - $1.00
Green Onion - $.69
Ranch - $2.00
Sour Cream - $1.29
Bacon Bits - $2.39
Shredded Cheese - $2.09
Butter - $1.50
Cheese & Sausage - $3.00

The chili was provided by a friend that came to the party - Wendy's chili - a perfect addition for the tater bar.

I had never done a mass quantity of potatoes in the oven before and most recipes said 45 mins - 1 hour for the potatoes. NOTE:When you are cooking 10 decent sized potatoes at the same time, they will take almost double that time. I just kept setting the timer for another 15 minutes and then would give them a poke until I felt they were done. They turned out perfectly!

I put a little olive oil on each piece of foil, then sprinkled a little salt on it, wrapped the foil around each one tightly and put them on a pan.

The tater bar was a huge success and I have a few potatoes and toppings leftover to enjoy this week. This definitely helped me save money and provide my friends a great dinner they could customize to their own taste. My friend also brought some cookies that I didn't take a picture of (FAIL) but they were pumpkin spice and delicious (WIN). They tasted like FALL - YUMMY! 

My friend brought McKenzie's Black Cherry Hard Cider for me to try and it was delicious! My cousin told me they have a pumpkin too that she loves so I will have to get some of that as well to enjoy this Fall. But definitely in moderation. Each bottle is 200 calories! Yikes!

The Green and Gold boys dominated the Vikings and brought in a huge win which makes a lot of us feel a lot better about the season, now that we have more wins than losses on our side.

 Recipes

Salsa -
3 Tomatoes, diced no seeds
1 Green Pepper, diced
1/2 White Onion, diced
4 Green Onions, diced
1 can Black Beans, rinsed
2 Tbsp. lime juice or to taste
1/4 cup fresh cilantro - chopped
Sprinkling of salt
1 Tbsp Crushed Garlic
Poblano Pepper, diced, no seeds (You can use any pepper if you want it hotter)


Creamy Cucumber Salad -
2 - 3 cucumbers - peeled and chopped
3 medium sized tomatoes - chopped
1 green pepper  - chopped
1/2 cup light Miracle Whip (could do 1/4 Miracle Whip & 1/4 Mayo too)
Stir all ingredients together and refrigerate for a few hours. Best served the day it's made.

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!

Holiday Party Foods

I had my first of many Christmas parties this past weekend and boy did we have a spread of food. My friends really know what they are doing in the kitchen and I ate and ate and ate my way through the party :)

I made two treats that I have wanted to make for quite some time and finally had the opportunity: Apple Pie bites and crescent cream cheese bites. Recipes are below. Here are a few snapshots of other great party snacks.

Brandon treated all of us to two homemade cheesecakes - Eggnog and Pumpkin - I didn't have any but everyone raved about them. My Apple Pie bites are behind the two cheesecakes.

Mo wraps up front and my crescent rolls are in the back of the picture. Mo wraps are just lunch meat, lettuce, cheese and sauce wrapped in a tortilla.

It's Wisconsin so what is a party without cheese and sausage. The pepper jack had a bit of a kick to it - definitely mellowed out my palette after all the sweets I consumed.

Caroline found a recipe called "Just Like Wendy's Chili" and she had cheese, sour cream, chives, pepper flakes and Fritos for us to dress it up with. It was delicious and it did resemble Wendy's chili.

Bagel Dip! Another Caroline specialty that is always loved by all.

 Meatballs - there were little smokies too but I didn't get a picture of that.

 Sweets! It's not a Christmas party (or any party) without them. Oreo balls and sugar cookies!

 

And of course libations and a roaring fire set the mood for the evening. This is one of my favorite holiday beers. I also tried the Cranberita from Budweiser and it has a wintery taste to it when you mellow it out over some ice. Straight from the can it's too sweet. And at 8% alcohol per 8-oz. can, it's good to water it down a bit.

Apple Pie Bites:
I found them on this blog. I had to cook mine a bit longer but my apple slices might have been larger. My mom sprinkled her's with powdered sugar and I think a powdered sugar and water glaze would be a nice addition and make it more like a turnover. But everyone loved them.

Crescent Wreath:
I made the wreath last year for a Christmas party but put veggies on it. This year I used the same concept, but went for a completely different flavor.
1 tubes of refrigerated crescent rolls
1- 7 oz tub of Honey Cream Cheese
1 tsp. cinnamon
12 grapes cut on quarters
1/4 cup Craisins
1/3 cup pistachios (I used Wonderful Roasted and Salted Shelled)

Open each tube of rolls and cut into 8 pieces and arrange on a cookie sheet in a wreath shape. Cook for the time on the package or until the crescents are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool. Mix  cream cheese and cinnamon together. Spread evenly over the crescent rolls. Top with Craisins, grapes and pistachios. That's it - nice and simple.

Playoff Party Recipes

This post ends Playoff week and hopefully I supplied you some ideas of what to make while you are watching the Packers cream the 49ers on Saturday (6:30 CST). I looked back thru some old posts and found out a few things.

1) I barely ever posted photos
2) I never linked anything
3) I didn't use any tags or labels

Man have I learned a lot in such a short time.

Anyways, what I did find in these old posts were some really great recipes that can be used for your party on Saturday! (Have I made it clear enough that I hope you are having a Packer party Saturday?)

Here is what I found:

Conky Wonks recipe - beef, velveeta and rye bread - soooo good!

Sliders from Superbowl XLV

Hungry Girl Hummus appetizer

Hummus

Veggie wreath - sub out the veggies for those of your team colors - for me - broccoli, green pepper and yellow pepper

My ooopsie Cheesy Garlic Bread - the best oopsie I ever made!

Southwest Egg Rolls - with salsa and sour cream!

Fiber One Chicken breasts  - served with BBQ sauce and potatoes

Ham Rollups or Pickle Rolls - a favorite at my company parties

Black Bean Dip - so good for you!

Spinach & Artichoke Dip - probably my most shared recipe

Mandarin Chicken Almond Bites - basically fancy chicken salad to serve on crackers

Creamy Bruschetta from Hungry Girl - perfect two bite treat

Creamy Bruschetta

Adult Caramel Apple Cider - warms you through and through for the game

Meatballs  - the spicy sauce will keep them coming back for more. Plus they looked good enough to be featured on Sweet Bella Roos blog!

One Bite Meatballs

Stuffed Mushrooms - fill with your favorite cheese and nuts and you have an easy, yummy treat

Guinness Beer Cheese Dip - beer, cheese, crackers - what else is there?

And if you are adventurous - try to make Miller Park's Poutine or Avocado Potato Skins from Cafe Manna


So which of these will I make - probably the beer dip and bruschetta, but I'll be watching my nephew so some kid-friendly treats will have to get made as well. Here is to hoping these appetizers can leave you plenty of time to watch the game and GO PACKERS GO!

From the Books Thursday: Stuffed Mushrooms

This week is Playoff week on my blog because the Packers are playing the 49ers on Saturday at 6:30 CST.  If you are looking for a good appetizer for your party, get-together, or game watching that is easy to whip up and can be eaten with your fingers, here is one for you!

As a child, I despised mushrooms and thought they were the grossest fungus ever! Fresh or sauteed, I couldn't stand the texture. It was either too slimy or too spongy and grossed me out.

Now, I can't seem to get enough of them. My friends are 50/50 about them and my boss is even horribly allergic. I think I'll keep my low tolerance to Vitamin C over a complete allergy to a food. You never know what those could end up in!

Anyways, my mom suggested that we make stuffed mushrooms to go alongside the Ribs on a Stick from Robert's Specialty Meats, that we cooked up a few weeks ago. We just needed a recipe for proportions as we had our own ideas for the filling. We found one in the Pillsbury Annual Recipes of 2011 cookbook, but online, you find it on BetterCrocker.com.

I didn't realize that I only had one container of mushrooms when I mixed up the stuffing, so we had tons extra with nothing else for them to go on. 

Mom taught me how to easily de-stem the mushrooms with a quick twist and pull. We chopped this up to add to the filling. 

I mixed up Panko breadcrumbs, shredded Swiss cheese, chopped mushroom stems, green onions and chopped pecans.  

Stuffing them wasn't as easy as I thought because there was nothing to glue it together and have it stick in the mushroom - more of a balancing act. 

We popped them in a 9 X 9 cake pan and into the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. (we waited to see the cheese get gooey and the mushrooms cook down just a little.)

The finished product: Stuffed Mushrooms

We served them immediately and I had 5 of the 9 I liked them so much. My mom thought they were dry and possibly blames the breadcrumbs. I'm am thinking some oil or pan would help glue it together, but I will definitely make them again.