Tag: parties

Chocolate Balloon Cups with Peanut Butter Mousse

Chocolate Balloon Cups with Peanut Butter Mousse

To sum up these chocolate cups with peanut butter mousse: my dad (my most honest and pickiest critc) said [mumbled] “you can make these whenever you want” through his full mouth, to which my mom responded with just a really extreme head nod since her mouth was full and she’s a lady! So what are you waiting for!?! Get off the computer and start making these (or pencil these in for the next event on your calendar where you want to impress)

CHEESECAKE: White Chocolate Raspberry

CHEESECAKE: White Chocolate Raspberry

Yet another Birthday Celebration this month (and we wonder why I have trouble not keeping a consistant weight!). My Grandmother (Hi Grandma!) loves to read my blog and always whines that she doesn’t get to taste more of what I make, so I wanted to 

Jello shots – grown up

Jello shots – grown up

I found the Jelly Shot Kitchen & Food Librarian weeks ago and vowed that I wanted to figure out some fun ways to make “grown-up jello”. Now, we have all had Jell-o shots (unless you are one of my students OR friends under 21 who are reading my blog – then I know hope that you have just had regular jello!) I decided that instead of making those gooey pieces of Jello that are so hard to get out of their cup, that I had to figure out how to make JIGGLER versions of Jello!

After much (much, much, much) discussion I decided I was going to make “Chocolate Covered Strawberry Grown Up Jello” and then really go out on a whim & try to make “Beer Jigglers” for New Years! I was quite concerned about how well these were going to set up, so I did them in containers so that in case of failure, we would still be ok 🙂

Beer Jigglers – consistency was awesome, but the flavor was a bit off. I think next time I will use a bit of honey to bring out more of the beer flavor since these almost tasted watered down a bit and could have been mistaken at times for a strange iced tea! SO, to make BEER JIGGLERS: combine 1 bottle beer and 2 packets of Knox gelatin. Then slowly heat this in a pot to fully activate the gelatin. Fill the mini-muffin liners (in your mini-muffin pan) with the beer jello. Once its solid (at LEAST 5 hours please – play it safe with this Jello, don’t rush it), peel them & turn upside down for your own version of Beer Jiggler Body Caps!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jello – the taste of these were awesome. When I un-molded in, I think that I let it in the warm water for a bit too long since it ‘melted’ a bit on the outside. Overall, this was a success. To make your CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY JELLO take a package of Strawberry Jello & combine it with 3/4 cup boiling water. Once that is dissolved, pour in about a cup of Creme de Coco (chocolate liquor). Place into your desired serving vessel (I used a plastic bundt pan) and chill overnight. Turn out of your pan & slice (you can make this is chocolate molds or in a pan and slice or whatever you’d like to try).

EXPERIMENT & remember there is always room for Jello. Leave me some feedback here on my blog and let me know what you think, other good recipes I should try, or anything else!

[Christmas] Stained-Glass Jello

[Christmas] Stained-Glass Jello

Cookies and Cakes and Pies and Mousse and JELLO… yes, especially during the holidays when we just eat and eat and eat Jello is the perfect addition, remember “There’s always room for Jello”! Also Jello won’t fill you up too much (or fill you out) 

Chocolate (mousse) Cups

Chocolate (mousse) Cups

YUM – I love Chocolate (although I hate headaches – one of which I had a pretty major one while everyone else was enjoying these at Aunt Pat & Uncle Mikes during our annual tree decorating this year)! Every year we bring dessert to Tree 

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Pumpkin Carving 2010

2010 pumpkin party

This past weekend marked my 2nd annual pumpkin carving party! I tried to create a table filled with lots of yummy & boo-tiful treats – I still need to work on the “scary-factor” of the food. Unfortunately, a lot of the cool looking Halloween treats are sweet and not as healthy! Since we were not going to have a sit-down meal I tried to go with some tasty treats that were at least a little healthy & kinda creepy looking.

ready to dig in to some pumpkin party goodies
delicious dip

We LOVE my spinach dip (even if I never make it the same way any two times) which I served in a pumpkin (which is currently washed out & sitting on the counter so I can cook something else with). Then chips & salsa may be one of my favorite treats, so that was a must. Also deviled eggs turned into eyeballs (have I mentioned that I am not an artist – yeah, use your imagination on the “eyes” here!)

Devil Eyes

Then for a nice warm dish I did a baked ricotta dip (read through the comments – I added pesto, salt pepper, garlic) which I couldn’t resist after seeing it a few weeks ago on Food Network! Lots of sliced up bread (in the sweet Dollar Store cauldron) for dipping, especially in the beer-cheese fondue (oops – didn’t take a picture of that) – but I took 3/4 beer on the stove to boiling, then added a bag [slowly and at a really low temp] (8oz) of cheese which I tossed with some flour. Once it was melty and yummy – we threw it in the mini crock pot…. short time later it was gone!!

Cupcake Cones

Finished off the night with my cupcake brownies & some sliced apples for  dipping in the caramel sauce.

A great evening of food and fun and friend and pumpkins and games! I look forward to continuing this tradition and enjoying the talent that my friends [who are armed with knives and pumpkins] have!