Bridal Shower Punch

The Mission:

Make "Bridal Shower Punch" using the recipe that my sister found. It's the same punch that she made for my Bridal Shower in 2007. It's supremely tasty. I added sliced limes (recipe called for lemons or oranges, but I thought limes would look cooler) to give it some color other than pink.



The Ingredients:

• 8 cups of prepared sweetened pink lemonade (I used the frozen concentrate kind and mixed with water as directed)
• 4 cups of carbonated lemon-lime beverage (Sprite, etc.)
• 2 quarts raspberry sherbet
• lemon or orange slices (to garnish)

The Instructions:

Using a round ice cream scoop or large cookie scooper, scoop out HALF of the sherbet into balls. Place them on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they're frozen, you can remove from sheet and place them in a ziplock baggie to save on storage space. By freezing the balls in advance, it will slow the melting process. I froze the balls over night. In a large glass punch bowl, mix the prepared lemonade and the lemon-lime pop. (Make sure that both are VERY cold, since that will slow the melting of the sherbet). Add in the remaining half of the raspberry sherbet and stir well until mixture is frothy. Add the small scoops of frozen sherbet and the lemon/orange/lime slices (if using) and serve immediately.

The Results:

The punch turned out fantastic! Since I was pressed for time, I failed to get pictures of the punch until it was ready to serve. Oh well. Freezing the sherbet balls ahead of time turned out really well. The only problem was that I kept wanting to eat them instead of saving them for the punch. Next time I'll have to buy a separate quart of sherbet just for me ;)

The Reviews:

The ladies at the shower enjoyed the punch. My sister was thrilled with it (it was a special request from her) and there were absolutely no leftovers. I swear I thought my Mom was going to lick the punch bowl! Though it's impractical to make this punch very often, I'm going to have to come up with an excuse to make it again soon.

Oreo Balls

The Mission:

Make Oreo Balls for Heather's Bridal Shower, They look fantastic. They sound tasty. And I'm pretty sure that they'll be impressive.

The Ingredients:

• 1 package Oreo cookies, crushed
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 package white almond bark
• 1 package chocolate almond bark
  
  

The Instructions:

Using a blender or a hand-held mixer, blend together the crushed oreos and the softened cream cheese. Roll into walnut sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Chill for at least one hour. Melt approx 3/4 of the chocolate almond bark. Stick a toothpick in an oreo ball and dip it in the melted chocolate until coated. Place on a sheet of wax paper and allow to harden. Repeat for every oreo ball. While waiting for oreo balls to harden (approx 15 minutes), melt 1/4 of the white chocolate. Pour the melted chocolate into a decorator bag (or a plastic ziplock baggie with a tiny piece of the corner cut off). Drizzle white chocolate over the hardened oreo balls to decorate.

The Results:

Wow. I think they turned out pretty good. I had toothpick holes in each of the oreo balls and I didn't like that, so next time I'll try and figure out a way to elimate the holes. I also had problems with the oreo balls falling off the toothpick while I was dipping in the chocolate. I think next time I'll freeze the balls first. I'll see how that goes. They still turned out quite nice looking and I received a lot of complements on how professional they looked.

The Reviews:

I had not one single left over oreo ball. Everyone raved about how pretty they were and how good they tasted. My sister was very pleased with them and reserved a few for her to take back to school. I will definitely be making these in the future since they went over so well. The only complaint I got was from my husband, who didn't like the "wang of the cream cheese." But he doesn't like cream cheese, so his opinion doesn't count! ;)

Sausage Balls

The Mission:

Add one more item to the Bridal Shower menu... something a little more hearty and "male friendly" since my Dad and Husband would be scarfing leftovers later. So I started flipping through recipe books, taking suggestions, and checking around online and found these. I figured they fit the bill quite nicely for being a heartier appetizer. And they looked fun and easy to make.

The Ingredients:

• 1 (12 oz) package of extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 lb pork sausage (mild or spicy - your choice)
• 2 cups Bisquick baking mix
• 1-2 dashes of hot sauce
  

The Instructions:

Let the sausage come to room temperature before making. I've been told that this step is very, very important and that the balls will turn out dry if you mix them with cold sausage. I have not tested this theory, since I didn't want to have a dry appetizer. Maybe sometime I will try just to see what the difference is. Anyway - mix together the room temperature sausage, the grated cheese, the bisquick, and the hot sauce. I've found that it's easiest to just mix it by hand in a large mixing bowl. Shape bits of the sausage into tablespoon sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 375*F oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until balls are hot and golden brown. Serve warm.

The Results:

I thought that they turned out fantastic. The recipe made about 60 sausage balls for me, and I found that it was a perfect amount. Since I was cooking them at my parent's house I wasn't using my own things, so I will make the following changes when I make them at home: first I will use a bigger mixing bowl to mix up the ingredients. It was difficult to do in a smaller bowl. I will also line the cookie sheets with foil so there will be no clean up. I love to cook and bake and entertain, but sometimes the amount of cleanup gets overwhelming!

The Reviews:

The ladies who attended the shower thought that they were fantastic. Dad really liked them, and my husband ate all of the leftovers. Then he went to the store to buy more ingredients so I can make more this week. So apparently these were a big hit! He wants me to make them for our next big cook-out as well. I'm very pleased with this recipe!

Bridal Shower

The Mission:
Host a Bridal Shower in honor of my little sister who will finally be getting married in June. Since my house was too small to comfortably hold all the shower guests, I am taking over Mom's for the day. I wanted to keep things simple but very, very tasty. I finally came up with the following menu that I think will be bound to have something for everyone's taste. It also has a lot that can be made in advance, so I won't be over-doing it in the kitchen on Saturday. Hopefully everything will turn out well!

The Menu:

Ranch Dip

Assorted Veggies

Raspberry Baked Brie

Water Crackers

"Crack Dip"

Tortilla Scoops

Sausage Balls

Ricotta Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms

Cream Puffs

Eclairs

Oreo Balls

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Bridal Shower Punch

Sweet Tea

Heather's Deviled Eggs

The Mission:

Learn how to make my sister's recipe for deviled eggs. She has never written it down, and I'm not very good with making things up. Heck - I'd never even made hard boiled eggs before, so this was going to be a big first for me! Because things got crazy over the weekend, I ended up not really helping her, but just listened to her instructions while she made them. All of the ingredients are approximate. She usually makes it to taste and appearance, so feel free to adjust everything to your own personal taste!

The Ingredients:

• 12 hard boiled eggs
• 6 Tbsp mayo
• 9 tsp dijon mustard
• 6 tsp worchestire sauce
• paprika for sprinkling

The Instructions:

First you need to hard boil all of the eggs. I handled this completely on my own. I pricked the top of the raw eggs and set them in a medium saucepan. I then poured enough water in the pan to completely cover the eggs. I brought that to a full, rolling boil for 10 minutes. I then placed the eggs in a separate bowl and doused them with cold water so they would be cold and ready for Heather when she got to my house. The first thing she did was peel the shell off each egg, then slice each egg in half (lenthwise) and scooped the yolk out into a medium mixing bowl. She then added in the mayo, mustard and worchestire sauce to the yolks by sight, giving me approximate measurements so I could write them down for future use. She mixed all the ingredients together until smooth, filled the hollow eggs, sprinkled with paprika, and served! It seemed very easy.

The Results:

They looked good. They tasted good. People ate them. I'd say that they turned out really well. Of course, I can't take any credit for them at all. I just boiled the eggs. That was it. I'm excited to try them on my own sometime, though.

The Reviews:

Other than my family, people said they were good but "different." Apparently my sister's recipe for deviled eggs isn't the standard or typical. Who knew! I wasn't serving them to people who were huge fans of deviled eggs anyway, so the reviews weren't rave, but I thought they tasted yummy :) Thanks, Heather!!

Cheesey Green Bean Casserole

The Misson:
Make Green Bean Casserole the way my husband and his family like it - cheesey!

• The Ingredients:
• 2 cans of cut green beans
• 1 can of french cut green beans
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• shredded cheddar cheese - we use about 6 oz.
• 1-2 tps pepper (optional and to taste)
• 2-4 Tbsp paprika (optional and to taste)
• French's Fried Onion crunchies - enough to cover top of casserole

The Instructions:

Mix together the green beans and the cream of chicken soup in an 8x8x2 inch baking dish. Stir in the grated cheese, the paprika and the pepper until well blended. Smooth out the top and bake in a 350*F oven for 30-45 minutes or until hot and cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven and sprinkle the fried onion crunchies on top. Place back in the oven and bake uncovered for 3-6 minutes, or until onions are a golden brown. Serve hot.

The Results:

Turned out fantastic as always, the onions were the perfect golden brown color, the ratio of cheese to beans was superb.

The Reviews:

Everyone loved it! I had not a single spoonful of leftovers. Yay :)

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

The Mission:

Try out "Kittencal's Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes" as found on recipezaar.com since the recipe got great reviews and can be made ahead of time (see the link at the bottom of the page). The recipe says "you may even make them up to 2 days in advance." Which I thought was fantastic considering I had a lot of cooking to do for the Easter dinner. With this big side dish out of the way, I'd be free to concentrate on other things.

The Ingredients:

• 8 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 6 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) cut into cubes
• 1 1/2 tsps onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup shredded cheddar (optional)
• paprika to sprinkle (optional
• ground black pepper (optional)

The Instructions:

Butter a 9"x 13" casserole dish. Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling water with 1 Tbsp salt and 1 Tbsp white vinegar until just fork tender. Drain and place into a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer - I used my KA mixer - beat the hot potatoes until just semi smooth and still a little chunky. Add in cream cheese, sour cream butter, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. Mix until combined and smooth. Spread the mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle lightly with paprika. Allow to come down to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. When ready, bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes in a 350*F oven. If desired, sprinkle with the shredded cheddar and return to the oven for 3 mintues or until cheese is melty.

The Results:

I apparently chose super duper large potatoes, because mine were overflowing the KA mixer. So I spooned out about 4 cups worth and everything went back to normal. In my case, this had an extra bonus, since it left me with some plain mashed potatoes to serve to my husband, who was not interested in the "creamy junk" that was going into the fancy recipe. Silly husband. The potatoes turned out really well and the recipe went smoothly. My only regret is that I forgot the cheese. I'm sure they would've tasted fantastic covered in cheese, but they were pretty darned good with just the sprinkled paprika! Next time I might add a little bit of milk to make them slightly creamier. I thought mine turned out slightly on the dry side, but I probably should've scooped out more than 4 cups of my excess potatoes.

The Reviews:

Everyone who attended my Easter Dinner had nice things to say about the potatoes. I'm very pleased with how they turned out - though I did have quite a bit of leftovers since my three absent guests were the big potatoe eaters in the group. Oh well. I brought some leftovers to my coworker and she enjoyed them. I will definitely be adding this recipe to my holiday/big event dinner menus for future use. The fact that they're "make ahead" makes them a fabulous side dish!

http://www.recipezaar.com/Kittencals-Make-Ahead-Mashed-Potatoes-191490