It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

So a fellow blogger is having a party, and asked for some recipes, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to post some of my favorite ones here.

I like to serve finger food at my parties, but still hitting all the food groups. Fruit trays are always nice, but I like to make a dip, with Cottage cheese and honey (to taste) and just blender them together. Sounds simple, and it is, but not everyone likes heavy snacks. I sneak veggies in queesh, cause if you put enough cheese and/or bacon in they don't notice! I also like to wrap veggies in bacon and broil them. Surprisingly, I find that most people will eat the sweater (baby carrots, red and yellow bell peppers, sugar peas) veggies just raw, and usually with out any sort of dip.

Still on the light side is Black Bean Salsa, 2 cans of drained and rinsed black beans, 1 lb bag of thawed corn, 1 can green chilies, either 5 (ish) diced roma tomatoes or 2 cans diced stewed tomatoes (depending on season and price) salt and pepper to taste and a dash of cumin, 1/4 cup Cilantro (chopped) fresh or powdered garlic and onion (which ever you prefer) (if using fresh 1 small clove garlic minced, and 1/2 small onion minced) 1 Tbs Lime juice. I like this on a tortilla or that hard toasty bread (not so much for chips).

For something more substantial (and time consuming, but NOT hard) there's always my 4 layer dip. The bottom layer is Pinto beans (you can use canned beans if you like but I make my own (the day before) in my crock pot, I use 1 lb of beans, cover with water, check on them through out the day to make sure they stay covered, and then when soft I add 1 pk of Ham Flavor, and salt to taste, then mash with my potato masher). The next layer is "Mexican Rice" 1lb grd beef browned with 1/2 onion and garlic, salt and pepper and a dash of cumin, remove the meat from pan, add 2 tbs butter and the other half of minced onion, 1 small clove garlic and 3 cups of uncooked rice, saute till rice is slightly browned, replace meat to pan, along with 1 can of stewed tomatoes, 1 can of green chillies, 3 Tbs Chicken Bullion (not the little cubes, over in the Hispanic section they have this stuff LOOSE in jars!! it is easier to use, and tastes better, you can even get it with a tomato base!! who knew! it's a green jar with a yellow label by Knor of course!) Add water to cover. Cook covered, but with lid not on all the way, and keep adding water to cover till rice is tender. Third layer is shredded Colby Jack cheese, and the Fourth layer is either Salsa or Mexican flavored Stewed tomatoes (your choice, my family is not a huge fan of Salsa, as they like their tomatoes nice and chunky). You need a LARGE 13x9 pan to put this in and those restaurant style chips for dipping (I of course fry my own tortilla chips, but no pressure).

I'm sure everyone knows how to make Spinach dip, so I'll not bore you with that, what I will say is that if you add chicken to it and then use it as filling for these Puffs it's like tiny little sandwiches. The Puffs aren't that hard, but they are a tiny bit fiddly. 1 Cup water, 6 tbs butter, 1 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1 cup flour 4 eggs. Bring the water and butter to a boil, and remove from heat, add flour (in pot) return to heat till it pulls from sides of pan. Remove from pot, but batter in bowl and beat till cool (er) add eggs one at a time, put batter in a zip top bag, cut off corner and pipe onto a baking pan (cookie sheet/stone) into blobs about 2-3 inches wide (wet your finger and smooch down the tips so they are nice and round). Bake at 400 for 15 min and at 350 for 30-35 min. They will puff up and be hallow, once cooled you can cut them open and they will be hallow and be ready for filling. These are the same puffs that they fill with creme, but if you do that make them smaller? (or not LOL). I made these for Christmas Eve and the kids gobbled them, so did the neighbors.

Crepes are simple, and you can fill them with lots of different things. 1 1/2 c flour 2 eggs 1/2 c milk 1/2 c water 1/4 tsp salt 2 Tbs melted butter. Combine eggs, flour and salt, add water, milk and butter. Batter should be thin and then cook like thin pancakes on a well oiled pan. They're good with whipped cream and fruit, or pie filling, the skies the limit here.

For a sweet but not too sweet dessert I like to do Banana Bread with Chocolate chips. 1/2 c shortening 1 c sugar 2 eggs 3/4 c mashed bannans 1 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/4 flour 1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts) 1 c chocolate chips (I use semi sweet or dark) 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Combine all the wet ingredients and then fold in the dry. Put in a greased pan and bake at 350 till you can stick a tooth pick in it and pull it out dry (30-45 min?) I bake a lot so my nose knows ya know?

Also in my blog are my cheesy meat balls, strawberry fluff, plumberry buckle, scones, cookies of various kinds.

I think that's about it. This should also redeem me for the lack of posting this week! LOL, I am cooking all this week, but not getting too fancy (prolly).