Holiday Party.. What to Bring?

I have two options that I use often. First is pigs in a blanket, some grocery stores sell them pre made in the frozen food section or you get the crescent rolls and mini hot dog, cut each crescent into 3 triagles and roll up a mini dog in each then bake as directed on the crescent roll package. Second is Kilbasa cooked in the crock pot - I put 1 large jar of store brand grape jelly and a medium bottle of ketchup with 2-3 Kilbasa. This is a hit every time.

Get a box of brownies to bake and when cooled, cut them in squares, then cut the squares in little triangles. Cover a paper plate with tin foil and arrange the brownies on it. Then dust the brownies with powered sugar (sift the powered sugar through a little sieve). It looks really nice, you don't have to worry about bringing home a plate, and people love the little size of the brownie and the powdered sugar! Good luck and have fun at the party!

Tomato Basil Goat Cheese Dip

One "box" of goat cheese (We use the herb flavored)
half a container of grape tomatoes
fresh basil

mixture of 1/8 cup evoo and 2 minced garlic cloves

1 box of any type hearty cracker

snip up the fresh basil to make a "bed" on your serving plate, place goat cheese on top of it, slice up grape tomatos and a bit more basil over the top

in a separate container mix evoo and minced garlic

travel to the party, pour the dressing on the dip and serve with crackers

This is sooooo good, all of my friends have started making it. So easy, a real hit! Happy Holiday Partying!

Pure Decadence 7-layer cookie bars:

Melt one stick of butter or margarine.
Crumble one wax paper pack of graham crackers, about 1 and 2/3 cups - there are usually 3 of these packs per box of crackers. Use a food processor, blender, or rolling pins.

Combine butter & crumbs, and use the back of a fork press the crumbs to the bottom of a rectangular baking dish, like a 9x12. If you have a bigger dish, use more crumbs & butter - you don't have to be exact.

On top of the crumb crust, distribut:

9 ounces of chocolate chips - semi sweet milk chocolate or the dark chocolate - the dish is plenty sweet whatever you do!
9 ounces of butterscotch chips (or peanut butter chips)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 bag of shredded coconut - about 1 cup.

Pour one can of sweetened condensed milk over the top - it will ooze thru the cracks and fill in any spaces.

You can vary the types of chips (such as more chocolate and less butterscotch), change or eliminate the type of nuts, or even leave out the coconut. It really doesn't matter! The quantities and the size of the pan are really very flexible.

Bake at 325 until coconut is lightly browned and the milk at the edges is lightly browned but not burned, about 30-40 minutes.

Let cool completely, then cut into squares.

Put a paper doily or some colorful foil on a paper place or use a recyclable foil platter, and then you won't have a plate to bring home.

These also freeze very well so you can make a double batch and save some for the next holiday gathering or for unexpected guests. Or even just pop one out when YOU need a treat!

I usually either bring a bottle of nice wine or if I'm asked to bake - I make my choc chip cookies (I just use the recipe from the Nestles package and add a little extra vanilla :-) My friends and family loves those because not everyone always bakes from scratch so its a nice change. Have fun at your party!

This is always a hit:

Spinach Artichoke dip
10 oz package frozen spinach chopped
1 can artichoke hearts (not the marinated kind)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 1/2 cups grated monteray jack cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Thaw the spinach and drain of water with paper towels
Chop the artichoke hearts
Mix remaining ingredients
Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes

Serve with tortilla chips.

I bring a basket of popovers and some butter and apple butter. It is great for a party that has kids because kids will eat them and get a little bit of protein in their "muffin." I got the recipe from Pretend Soup- Mollie Katzen cookbook for kids. Grease muffin pan, Preheat oven to 375. Then it is 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk whisk- 1 cup of flour, 1/4 tsp salt whisk and the pour intot the muffin pan and bake for 30 minutes. Kids can help make it too. The popvers are always gone in the first half hour of any party.
Have a great party!

this was just a hit at a social last night. The host made it.
Large deli type pepperoni....broiled for a few minutes until crispy. take out and add a spoonful of sour cream and fresh basil on top.
THEY LOVED THEM

Happy Holidays! Here are my 2 suggestions both are great hot or at room temperature:
1. Buy a small Boar's Head Sweet Slice Ham (about a pound and a half), a can of 3 Diamond chunked pineapple, and a small bottle of pure maple syrup. Cube the ham and put the cubes on toothpicks with a chunk of pineapple. Put the toothpicks in a Pyrex dish, pour some of the juice in the dish to cover the bottom and drizzle everything with maple syrup. Bake covered with foil for 20 mins at 350.
2. Chunk up 3lbs of chicken breast. Marinate over night in 14 oz of coconut milk. Dredge the chicken bites in 1/2 cup panko mixed with 1 cup flaked coconut (s&p to taste). Place on a baking pan and drizzle with melted butter. Bake at 375, uncovered for about 30 mins. Serve with a Dijon apricot dipping sauce: 1 part Dijon mustard to 2 parts apricot preserves, heated in a small sauce pan.
Have fun at your parties!!

Everyone seems to like my 'sweet and sour' meatballs. I buy a bag of frozen meatballs at BJs or Costco and put them in a pot with a jar of spaghetti sauce and grape jelly (Some people use chili sauce and cranberry sauce) and simmer them for an hour or two. They are always better the next day after they have cooled in the refrig and soaked in all the sauce. I bring them in a crock pot and bring toothpicks.
Happy Holidays,
S.

My mom always made these appetizers which I thought sounded gross when I was little, but they are so good a whole plate can disappear within minutes in the smallest gatherings:

Get sliced cooked ham (like for sandwiches) and spread cream cheese over one whole face (I usually get whipped cream cheese and let it sit on the counter for half an hour to make it easier to spread). Then take a green onion (scallion) and place it along the long edge of the ham. Roll it up, slice it into 8-10 pieces, and stick in some tooth picks. They're so delicious and easy to transport!

I have a tried-and-true recipe success for you! People always ask if I am going to bring it. The funny thing is that I do NOT cook, so that I am seen as some gourmet genius with something so easy (but tasty) is a bonus!

BAKED BRIE

Ingredients to buy: a mini wheel of brie OR small wedge, jar of pesto, frozen puff pastry (Pepperidge farm sheets are perfect), and crackers.

Take out one sheet of frozen puff pastry and let defrost for a while. Turn on oven to 350. Scrape off the exterior white stuff off of the brie, then slice it through the center of the cheese creating a kind of sandwich. Spread pesto across the both halves, then close the "sandwich" back up. Now wrap the cheese/pesto sandwich inside of the defrosted puff pastry as if you are wrapping a present. You'll need to really seal up the dough to make sure no brie or pesto leaks out when baking. Place the whole thing on a cookie sheet and bake for about 30 minutes or until the dough looks cooked and is a light golden color. The brie will have been melted with the pesto so when your guests cut into it with a cheese spreader and spread it onto a cracker, it will spill out. However, it will be GONE before you even need to worry about it getting cool!

If you can bake it for at least the last few minutes at the party location, that is ideal. But if you can't, you can bring it in a dish warmer, or on the actual cookie sheet with aluminum foil to keep it warm (and the party isn't an hour away), that's fine.

Enjoy!

My family always loves it when I make pigs in a blanket.
get some mini hotdogs and packages crescent dough and go to town. cut each piece of dough into 3 pieces. roll the hot dogs up and bake 8-10 mins at 375 degrees.

Hi:

My new favorite item to bring is Monkey Bread. Always a hit. Go to allrecipes.com and search Monkey Bread I (There are other versions...I always make "I"). It's an easy recipe.

Good Luck,
J.

hi there! every get together, whether it be family or friends the request has been spinach dip in a bread bowl. Easy to make. The recipe is on the package of a veggie soup mix. I usually cut up or break up extra bread and put into a zip lock. happy holidays!

For a sweet appetizer or dessert try this apple dip.

Mix one bar of cream cheese with a small container of fluff. Spoon that into the bottom of your serving bowl. Cover that with warm melted caramel. You can melt you own caramels or use the caramel topping that's already melted. On top of this, spread crushed up Heath bars. I just found pre-crushed Heath,(toffee and chocolate) bars in the baking section with the chocolate chips so you can use that instead of crushing your own. Lastly cut some Granny Smith apples into wedges and stick partway into the dip. You can treat the apple slices with lemon if you don't want them to brown. Soooo good!!

Well, you should probably ask the hostess. You wouldn't want to have everyone bringing the same thing. If she doesn't give you any ideas though or tells you not to worry about it you could always bring a bottle of wine if they are drinkers or sparkling cider if not. I always bake cookies. I tend to go overboard and make 20 different kinds of cookies. So usually people ask me to bring that to parties. A small simple cookie tray though might be nice. One year I brought a stuffed bread to a holiday party which went over really well.