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Archive for the ‘Entertaining at Home’ Category

Super Bowl Party

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Party Theme, tagged , , , , on January 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If any of you are hosting a gathering this weekend for the Super Bowl, here are some fun food and entertaining ideas.

Keeping in the football theme, here area few ideas for a Super-Duper Super Bowl Party!

Fun Football Burger from Hungry Happenings. If you don't want to freeze your buns off cooking burgers now, I found some great sliders in the freezer section at the grocery store.

Fun Football Burger from Hungry Happenings. If you don’t want to freeze your buns off cooking burgers now, I found some great sliders in the freezer section at the grocery store.

Try some spicy deviled eggs from Southern Living. They're sure to be a hit with your football fans!

Try some spicy deviled eggs from Southern Living. They’re sure to be a hit with your football fans!

Yummy Bacon Double Cheeseburger Dip from Too Stinkin' Cute.

Yummy Bacon Double Cheeseburger Dip from Too Stinkin’ Cute.

Taco Bites are always a crowd pleaser.

Taco Bites are always a crowd pleaser.

Porky Pie Pockets are super easy and good to make and can be eaten with one hand while the other is madly waving to cheer on the winning team.

Porky Pie Pockets are super easy and good to make and can be eaten with one hand while the other is madly waving to cheer on the winning team.

Tortilla Wrap Appetizers are also quite tasty and easy to make.

Tortilla Wrap Appetizers are also quite tasty and easy to make.

I love this idea for serving popcorn from Divine Party Concepts. You can also use canning jars for serving drinks, snack mix or candy.

I love this idea for serving popcorn from Divine Party Concepts. You can also use canning jars for serving drinks, snack mix or candy.

Football Whoopie Pies from The Finer ThingsFootball Whoopie Pies from The Finer Things

Rice Krispie Football from Life, Love, Beauty

Rice Krispie Football from Life, Love, Beauty

Truffle Cupcakes from Taste of Home

Truffle Cupcakes from Taste of Home

 

Chocolate Covered Strawberries by Calligraphy by Jennifer

Chocolate Covered Strawberries by Calligraphy by Jennifer

Football Brownies from Betty Crocker

Keep the decorations simple and to a minimum. Most likely the people coming to your house could care less about centerpieces and much more about the snacks and how well they can see the game. Use team colors for some streamers or balloons. If you want to do something fun, put prize slips inside balloons and let guests pop them at half-time. Prizes could be things from the dollar store or even a coupon for a free coffee. Nothing elaborate or that will break the bank.

You’ll have enough mess to clean up without spending hours taking down a bunch of decorations. Fill jars with candy in the favored teams colors and set them around.

Do light a few candles so your home smells inviting. Make sure your bathroom is spotless and be sure you are stocked up on the basics.

Plan to have plenty of seating, loads of extra napkins and put out a few garbage cans where people can see them. They are much more likely to pick up after themselves if you make it easy for them.

For the non-game watchers who get dragged along, set up a TV in another room with some fun movies. If kids will be attending, make sure they have a play area with plenty of activities. If the gathering is large, you may even want to hire a babysitter to keep an eye on the kiddos.

Most of all, remember to have fun and please, if any one drinks – make sure they don’t drive.

She Who Needs to Get Crackin’ on a Menu

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Winter Party Ideas

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, tagged , , , , on January 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

snowman

Wanting to get together with friends and family in a fun, relaxed way? Here are a few winter party theme ideas:

* Snowman Party – The fun can snowball in a hurry with a creative theme. Use a simple menu like Snowman’s Soup (Potato Soup), Snowman Rolls (shape biscuits or rolls into a snowman shape). Cut your favorite white cheese with a small snowman cookie cutter, and place on top of  nice green salad for Snowman  Salad. Finish the meal with a snowman shaped dessert, easily made by stacking varying sizes of cupcakes, covering in white frosting and finishing with coconut or by dipping Nutter Butter Cookies in melted white chocolate and adding a face and a hat with frosting. Use snowman decorations left over from the holidays to highlight the theme. You can even make an easy centerpiece out of white styrofoam balls (available at craft stores) placed in a pretty glass bowl.

* Snowflake Party – Get the kids in on the decorating for this party. Have them cut as many snowflake as they can and hang them all around your serving and gathering area. Chiffon, organza or even tulle can be a great and affordable way to carry out the theme, especially when you combine white and icy blue. Layer white lights under the chiffon for a warm glow. For this party you could make snowflake soup (tomato soup with a sour cream snowflake floating in each bowl – fill a sandwich bag, clip a corner and pipe it on!) and snowflake sandwiches (grilled cheese sandwiches made by alternating a dark bread like rye with a lighter bread like sourdough or white. Cut out snowflakes from each then put the cut out of one bread into the cut out area of the other.)  Serve Candy Cane punch (1 liter cranberry or strawberry juice, 2 liters of lemon-lime soda, 2 quarts peppermint ice cream. Just before serving, put chilled  juice in punch bowl, scoop in ice cream, top with chilled soda. Garnish the bowl with mini candy canes) with snowflake sugar cookies for dessert.

* Skating or sledding party – use mufflers and mittens for your decorations. Use mitten shaped invitations to spread the word. Serve hot cider and hot chocolate (if you are serving hot chocolate make sure you have fun add ins read like marshmallows, crushed peppermint, mini chocolate chips and long peppermint sticks to stir with), snack mixes, and something simple like  mac and cheese with warm bread and salad. Make ice skate brownies for dessert. Cut a small skate shape our of cardboard for a template then cut out brownies, flipping the template over for half so the skates or heading different directions. Frost with white icing, make laces from red icing and the skate heel from a touch of chocolate frosting. Add a mini candy cane on the bottom for the skate blade.

* Winter Animals  – this theme works well and is most fun for younger children. Using the theme of animals that make you think of winter, it can be a really fun meal for little ones. Penguins can be made from hand-boiled eggs with olive heads and arms (use a whole black olive for the head and the tip of a mini carrot for his beak. Cut an olive into quarters lengthwise for arms and use tips of mini carrots for the feet. Toothpicks will anchor on the head and limbs. Be sure someone removes the toothpicks for younger ones before eating!). How about polar bear sandwiches? Just cut bread slices in the shape of a polar bear. You could do peanut butter, grilled cheese, meat, whatever you want. Serve milk as “artic punch” and have popcorn balls for reindeer cookies for dessert.

* Escape to Paradise – for the adults who are tired of gray skies and freezing temperatures, tell everyone to come dressed in their tropical best. Turn up the heater, play the luau music and put out a feast featuring “warm, sunny” foods and drinks like tropical fruit salad, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken and veggie skewers, crab pasta salad, orange-avocado salad atop mixed greens and tropical sunrise drinks (orange juice and ice with a dash of pomegranate juice). Make sure everyone has a lei to wear. A parting gift to each guest could be a votive that smells “tropical” like pineapple or coconut, as a a fun reminder of the evening. Tie it in a circle of tulle with a bright ribbon and it makes a lovely little gift!

She Who Needs to Escape… or at Least Plan a Party

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Elegant New Year’s Dessert

Posted in Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Holidays, Puddings and Custards, tagged , , on December 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

bubbly-dessertIf you’re looking for an elegant show-stopping dessert to ring in the new year, this one definitely fits the bill.

Simple and beautiful, your guests will be wowed!

Bubbly Dessert

1 tbsp. unflavored gelatin

2 cups cold white grape juice, divided

2 tbsp. sugar

2 cups club soda or champagne

8 fresh strawberries or raspberries

In a small saucepan, sprinkled gelatin over 1 cup of the cold grape juice. Let stand for one minute. Heat over low heat stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir in sugar. Remove from heat, stir in remaining grape juice. Cool to room temperature.

Transfer gelatin mixture to a large bowl. Slowly stir in soda or champagne. Pour half of the mixture into eight champagne or parfait glasses. Add a berry to each glass (if using a strawberry, remove hulls first). Chill glasses and remaining gelatin mixture until almost set, about an hour.

Place the reserved gelatin mixture in a blender, cover and process until foamy. Pour into glasses. Chill for three hours or until set.

Makes 8 servings.

 

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Best Pie Crust

Posted in Desserts, Entertaining at Home, Pie, Recipes, tagged , , on December 27, 2013| 2 Comments »

Drizzle on some caramel sauce and enjoy!

Because my dad has never met a pie he hasn’t liked  – I’m sharing this easy pie crust recipe. It is the best ever!

Ingredients for the best pie dough ever!

Combine dry ingredients until coarse and crumbly.

After adding liquid, let the dough rest covered in the fridge for 45 minutes. Then roll out on a well-floured surface.

Ready for a pan.

I was nearly giddy at this point in the game because the crust was so easy to handle. Mine would have been in about 10 pieces of flaky messiness at this point with my old stand-by pie crust recipe.

Here’s what the bottom layer looks like with a beautiful berry filling. Did I mention we made three pies?

And the top crust goes on so easily. Yes, I am a big believer that a little butter is good and another pat or two is even better! There are no finished photos of the berry pie because Miz Sunshine grabbed it hot out of the oven and ran off to pick up little Miss Sunshine!

Vodka Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups  flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces

1/4 cup cold vodka

1/4 cup cold water

Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble coarse crumbs ). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

If, like me, you do not have a food processor, get ready to apply some arm muscle and work the dough together with either a fork or pastry cutter until all flour is mixed in and it is crumbly.

Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Generously flour a clean, flat surface and your rolling pin. Divide dough in half and roll out one half, turning dough over between rolls to keep from sticking to counter or surface. Place in a pie pan and fill with favorite filling or prick with a fork and bake shell until golden brown then fill.

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