Showing posts with label appetizer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label appetizer. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

More farm birthday fun

Here are a few more fun details from Little Miss' "Down on the Farm" birthday party!

For an activity, the kids planted their very own heirloom variety vegetables.  I had ordered seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange, and the little party animals (see what I did there?!) planted their choice of Paris Market Carrot, King of the North Pepper, Blondkopfchen Tomato and De Cicco Broccoli.  Fun!


Even with our ridiculously mild winter, it was still too cold in February to make the kids go outside to handle the dirt. Instead, we did this activity inside.  I put on my brave face, covered the kitchen table with a plastic tablecloth, and set out the potting soil, plastic cups and measuring cups.  And hoped for the best.


And I shouldn't have worried. Aside from a few small spills, the kids did a fine job of filling their cups and planting the seeds.  It helped that all the adults were willing to assist the little ones, and a few adults even planted their own vegetables.  The mess was rolled up into the tablecloth and taken away so that folks could eat there when dinner was ready. 


A big trend with parties (see anything featured on Amy Atlas) are individual labels naming each drink, appetizer, dessert, etc. I like the look but I simply don't have the kind of time or patience necessary to pull it off.  Instead, I made general menus for the appetizers, meal and desserts using clip art I found on Microsoft Publisher.  I printed the menus on white card stock and displayed them in clear acrylic photo frames. Easy!




I didn't take any pictures of the main courses--at that point, the kitchen was too active and getting photos of the food would have been impossible--but here is what I served:


Tomorrow, I'll share the dessert table with you. Y'all come back, hear? 

LOL. I just love imaginary farm-speak.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Martha Monday--Hot spinach dip

With "try new dinner recipes" as a New Year's resolution, it seems only fitting that a few new dessert and appetizer recipes would be included.  Last Friday I made Martha's Hot Spinach Dip for the ladies at BUNCO.  It was very tasty!


The recipe calls for 2 pounds of fresh spinach, but I used 1.5 pounds of frozen spinach and it worked just fine. If you go that route, thaw and drain the spinach before mixing it in with the garlic and onions.  Then, skip the draining step as stated in the recipe.


Before I made the recipe, I read several of the comments.  A few commenters mentioned adding water chestnuts and artichoke hearts to kick the recipe up a notch, so I followed their advice.


I think both the water chestnuts and the artichoke hearts were nice, healthy additions to the recipe.


The addition of the artichoke hearts and water chestnuts evened out the absence of the half-pound of spinach, so everything still fit nicely into a 9x13 casserole dish.


Here it is after 20-25 minutes in the oven.  I served it with Triscuits.  Yum!


While this is a great appetizer recipe as it is written, it was a little short on "creamy" for me. Next time, I'll use more milk and double the amount of cream cheese the recipe calls for.  I'm sure the TMI household will be seeing more of this hot spinach dip in the future. Hooray for new recipes!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Appetizer pizza

Every now and then, I break out this recipe. The original version that I saw was years ago at a Pampered Chef party, and I've since tweaked it to arrive at my current version. This appetizer pizza was requested for a birthday party tomorrow.


For the base, start with 2 tubes of Pillsbury crescent roll dough and a 13x9 edged pan. Unroll the dough and flatten it to cover the pan. Try to smush all the seams together. Bake for 14 minutes at 350F.


While the crust is baking, combine 12 ounces of cream cheese with seasoning. This time around, I used Spinach and Herb Seasoning from Tastefully Simple, but in the past I've used Good Seasons dry Italian mix and even seasoning salt with good results.


While the crust is cooling, cut up the veggies. I used celery, carrots, grape tomatoes, broccoli and green pepper. Cauliflower, cucumber and radish also work well.


Once the crust is cool, spread the cream cheese mixture on it. Add the vegetables, and some shredded cheddar cheese if you are so inclined. It can chill overnight, or simply cut into squares and serve.


This recipe works well with the low-fat crescent roll dough and fat free cream cheese. If you're into that sort of thing. Enjoy!