Party

Well I had a party and didn't take a single picture, I can't believe I forgot. It was a Taste of Home party, you know the kind someone comes selling something. It kinda felt like a time share presentation, you have to listen to the presentation then have the fun. It wasn't really so bad & I liked what she was selling, you can never have enough serving dishes. Anyway I think I liked the food that I served the most (along with the friends of course) and thought I'd share the recipes. My favorite thing was the berry cones from Rachel Ray, which I found on the Hostess with the Mostess blog.
1 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons sugar
Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 pound fresh cherries, halved, plus 10 whole for garnish
1 pint mixed berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries)
6 ounces milk or dark chocolate
20 sugar cones
1. In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and the lemon peel. Mix well and refrigerate.
2. In a medium bowl, toss the halved cherries and mixed berries with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon juice. Refrigerate.
3. Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high, 20 to 30 seconds at a time, until the chocolate just starts to melt. Stir until smooth. Using a pastry brush, paint the inside of the cones with the melted chocolate. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until the chocolate hardens, about 15 minutes.
4. To serve, stand the sugar cones in narrow glasses. Place a dollop of the sour cream mixture in each cone, then fill with the mixed berries. Top with another dollop of sour cream and garnish with a whole cherry.
Of course I altered it a bit. I used fresh strawberries and a few fresh black berries, and frozen raspberries. Omitting the cherries and blueberries and I used the chocolate shell stuff to line waffle cones instead of sugar cones. I would suggest though that you use sugar cones because they'll hold the stuff better. Anyway it was a big hit.

I also served my sisters Artichoke dip with homemade pita chips, also very yummy!
8oz. cream cheese-softened
1 C mayo
1- 14oz. can or jar of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
2 green onions, sliced thin
1/2 C grated parm
1 C grated Motz.
Dash of hot sauce
Dash of worchestershire sauce
salt and pepper
*beat all ingredients together. Transfer to pie plate and bake at 350 for 30-40 min.

Pita Chips:
12 pitas
1/2 C olive oil
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper
parmesan cheese

preheat oven to 400 degrees
Mix olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper in small bowl. Place two pitas on a cookie sheet brush with olive oil and sprinkle with parm cheese. Cut each into 8 pieces. Bake for about 7-8 min, watching carefully not to get too brown.

And finally I also made wanton cups filled with oriental chicken salad. These were pretty good but I made up the wonton cup the day before and they kinda tasted stale I think, you know chewy instead of crisp. I also tried a new chicken salad recipe that was pretty good.

(obviously what's in these is not the chicken salad)

Crunchy chicken salad
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 package (3 ounces) Oriental-flavor ramen noodle soup mix
2 tablespoons sesame seed
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups cut-up cooked chicken
1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts
4 medium green onions, sliced (1/4 cup)
1 bag (16 ounces) coleslaw mix
1. Melt butter in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Stir in seasoning packet from noodles. Break block of noodles into bite-size pieces over skillet; stir noodles into butter mixture. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly; stir in sesame seed. Cook about 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly, until noodles are golden brown.
2. Mix sugar, vinegar, oil and pepper in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and noodle mixture; toss.
I omitted the peanut, and doubled the dressing ingrediants.

I wish I'd taken pictures, I made these paper lanterns from this cute scrapbook paper and also used the paper on the table and a few other places.
This is the paper I used;




Oh well it was fun to do a party again and just eat and be with friends.