Party Food: Day 2

Another great and easy party food is a hearty dip.  I always feel a "hot" dip is a little more substantial and more appropriate for the winter time.  I decided to make a hot artichoke dip and found this Paula Dean recipe on the Food Network website.  Here it is reprinted for you with a few suggestions...

Ingredients
1 (8 ounces) block cream cheese, softened

1 cup mayonnaise, I like Helmann's

1 (14 ounces) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped, make sure you use the kind packed in water, not oil!

2 green onions, sliced thin

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1 cup shredded mozzarella

Dash hot sauce

 Dash Worcestershire sauce

 Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand held electric mixer until smooth. Add the mayonnaise and blend with the cream cheese until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and stir together until combined. Transfer the dip to a shallow dish.  I used a glass pie plate. Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the top is golden brown and the dip is bubbling. I served this dip with Wheat Thins which have just enough sweetness to be the perfect compliment to this salty and savory dip.

And, for fun, I hope you caught this year's Top Ten Youtube Videos.  If you missed it, here is an article giving a brief synopsis of all the videos.  The number one video this year is the "Bed Intruder Song," which is an audio remix of a newscast profiling a family after an attempted sexual assault in a housing project in Alabama.  The star of the video, Antoine Dodson, has achieved quite a bit of fame from becoming a Youtube celebrity and Wikipedia reports he has been able to make enough money to move his family out of the projects.

Check out the video if you haven't seen it already...

Looking forward to a wonderful Wednesday!

Party Food: Day 1

This weekend Tim and I hosted a holiday party at our place.  It was really great to see everyone and I had a lot of fun planning and prepping!  I made all the party food, and this week I will share the recipes I relied on to make some delicious holiday party foods.

I'll start off the week with one of the easy recipes in case you are in need of a quick nosh to make or bring to a work potluck.  Here is the recipe for Olive-Cheese Balls from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.

Ingredients
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (don't use self-rising flour for this recipe)
1/2 cup melted butter
About 36 small pimento stuffed olives, drained

Drain the olives.  I made sure they were dry by setting them out on a tray with paper towels.

Make sure the olives are nice and dried so they don't make the dough soggy

Next mix the cheese and the flour, and then mix in the margarine.  You may need to use your hands to mix the dough if it seems dry.  Mold 1 teaspoon of the cheese dough around each olive and shape into a ball.  Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour prior to baking.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees.  Bake the cheeseballs until set, approximately 15-20 minutes.  This recipe makes about 3-4 dozen cheeseballs.

One cheese-olive ball

Many cheese-olive balls

 This recipe was so easy, and makes a decent amount of food without too much work.  What is your go-to recipe for bountiful savory finger food?

-Looking forward to a productive Tuesday

Liven Up Your Holiday Spirits

My mom has a knack for finding useful tips and interesting information in just about everything she reads.  Last week she called me to tell me about another interesting tidbit she had picked up from reading the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal.  

The WSJ article, all about the traditions of Christmas punch, mentioned the importance of keeping a cold punch cold.  For those of you who have made a bowl of Christmas cheer, you know ice cubes melt too quickly to keep the punch cold and often add too much water to your perfectly proportioned mixture.

So what's a hostess (or host) to do with a giant bowl of punch you ask? The answer is to make an ice ring.  You might have seen some fancy ice rings made by caterers at those events where there is punch, or you may have no idea what I am talking about... 

But fear not.  I found some advice online and made my own ice ring! (I am actually making punch this weekend for a Christmas get-together, so don't worry, I'm not just making ice rings for entertainment.) 

Here's how to get your ice ring started:

Step One:  You need something to make the ring in.  If you don't have an ice ring mold, or ring shaped jello mold there is no need to head out to the store.  A bundt pan will work just fine.  If you don't have a bundt pan check with a friend and see if you can borrow theirs (thanks Mike!).

                                  

Step Two:  You will want to put some fruit in your ice ring to make it look festive.  I used lemons and limes because I think those flavors will best complement my punch recipe.  But don't limit yourself, be creative!  This site suggests using fruit like oranges, maraschino cherries, raspberries, mint and watermelon.

Step Three:  Cut up the fruit and layer it into the bottom of the bundt pan.

  

Step Four:  Add water over the fruit, but try not to let the fruit float.  You won't need to add much water.

I decided to splurge and use delicious filtered water from the Brita Pitcher

Step Five:  Place in the freezer and let everything set.  When the ice has formed over the fruit, remove your pan from the freezer, fill to the top with more water.  Return to freezer.

Fruit is still on the bottom just as planned

Step Six:  When everything is frozen and you are ready to remove the ice ring from the pan, place it in a shallow pan of warm water and the ice should loosen right up.

Step Seven:  Place the ice ring in the punch bowl and enjoy!

What are your feelings on Christmas punch?  Tacky or a necessary holiday staple?

-Almost TGIF!

Pumpkin Wednesday!

Hello, Hello and Welcome to a Late Night Edition of Pumpkin Wednesday.  With all the snow in Cleveland today, Pumpkin is feeling particularly lazy.  Please enjoy her laziness and I hope you were able to take a break and relax today!

Pumpkin's New Bed

Pumpkin Stretching Acting Like She Will Get Out of the Box

Pumpkin Deciding She is Not Leaving the Box

How was your Wednesday?  Anyone in the greater Cleveland area have any good tales about getting home during the blizzard today?

One step closer to the weekend!

Quick and Easy Dessert

The other night our friends invited us over for dinner and asked me to bring a dessert.  I didn't have many ingredients on hand and didn't have a ton of time to prep anything too fancy....but not to worry, I did remember I purchased some miniature pre-made Graham Cracker pie crusts on an impulse buy earlier in the week...

Now that I had a graham cracker crust, I was pretty sure I would be trying to craft a no-bake dessert.  After deciding I was not in the mood for something with pudding, I scoured the internet and settled on a recipe for a no-bake cheesecake.

Following a super-easy recipe, I ended up with a few mini no-bake cheesecakes that turned out to be a perfect bite of dessert after our main meal.

Ingredients:
1-8 ounce package Cream Cheese, softened
1-14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Premade graham cracker crusts in tin foil pans

Directions:
Combine softened cream cheese and can of condensed milk.  Blend these two together using an electric handmixer, and beat until all the lumps are gone.  Add vanilla, then add the lemon juice slowly while blending all the ingredients together.  Spoon the mixture into the graham cracker crust cups and place in the refrigerator for about three hours to firm up.  My mixture made about 9 mini cheesecakes.  If you are short on time you can always put them, covered, into the freezer for about 45 minutes.  Because I live in the Midwest and it is freezing outside, I just covered the cheesecakes and set them out on the backporch.

I served these with some homemade whipped cream, and they were quite delicious.

Pic=not so good, Mini Cheesecakes=very good

If you are feeling adventurous you can add any type of fruit, or even chocolate or caramel sauce for more flavor/fun :)


What is the quick dessert you bring to an informal get together when you don't feel like picking up something at the grocery store?

-Looking forward to a wonderful Wednesday!

Miscellaneous Monday

It's official....welcome to winter....  Today the greater Cleveland area got quite a bit of snow, so I have now had to drag out all my winter gear.  In today's Miscellaneous Monday, here are a few fun snow facts and some tips for keeping your winter gear in good condition!

• Lake Effect Snow.  This term gets thrown around a lot in the midwest and upstate New York, but most people don't know the science behind the weather.  The major snow that gets dumped inland occurs when a cold front of air moves across a warmer lake.  The lake/bay/ocean never completely freezes over, so even when it is cold, the massive body of water will be warmer than the outside air.  When the cold air passes over warm lake, the warm air from the lake hits the cold arctic air and precipitation forms.

• Boots.  I love winter boots, but the salt can really wreak havoc on any leather, suede or cloth product.  My strategy for keeping my boots from getting demolished is a can of Scotchguard or sneaker protector.  I'm sure you have been talked into buying shoe/leather protector spray at some point, but if not, buy yourself a can of Scotchguard.  Make sure your boots are totally clean by using a leather cleaning brush, or if they are fabric, make sure they are dirt free.  Follow the directions on the can, but make sure you don't spray too closely to the leather/fabric.  If you are nervous about the impact on your fabric, test a small patch.  After spraying two coats on in a well ventilated area and letting them dry, you should have somewhat water repellent boots.

• Driving.  Once it starts snowing, people seem to forget important rules of driving.  There is no sense bashing all motorists, so here are a few things you can do to help keep yourself and fellow travelers accident free!  Start by slowing down and leaving enough room between you and the car traveling ahead of you.  Get used to feeling out how your car reacts when you break on snow while you are driving at slow speeds on side streets.  Also remember when you are traveling on the highway, bridges and overpasses tend to ice over more quickly than the regular stretches of road, so use caution!

•  Car Kit.  Make sure to throw a few essentials in the trunk of your car in case you do get stranded on the highway.  A few people got stuck near buffalo last week on I-90 for over 12 hours! Bah!  Your emergency kit should contain a blanket, a shovel, kitty litter or sand for traction, a few granola bars and bottles of water.  You should also invest in a small first aid kit, they aren't too expensive and something that is worthwhile to have in your car for all seasons.  

• Salt Stains.  Despite the huge pain in the butt that rock salt is for clothes, it shouldn't cause stains to the back of your pants/skirts.  Just wash regularly or dry clean and you should avoid too many problems.  If you wear your nice leather shoes out, instead of your boots that you Scotchguarded, you can clean those salt stains with a tablespoon of vinegar mixed in a cup of water (or so says GQ style guy).  

Are you ready for the winter and all the snow?!?!

-Looking forward to a great Tuesday!

Good Morning Pumpkin Wednesday!

Good Morning!  Open your eyes and get moving!

So Sleepy!

Time to get out of bed/your box and get to work!

Get out of bed, or your box...

Have a wonderful Wednesday!