My Culinary Awesomeness...

Today my mom had a group of girls from work over for their annual Christmas Party. I love to bake and cook and just do things for parties, you couldn't pay me to cater something but I just like doing it for myself (and in this case my mom). We went grocery shopping the other night and I got started in the kitchen this morning. We agreed on meatballs and sauce, a fruit tray with cream cheese and marshmallow fluff dip, a veggie tray shaped like a Christmas tree, and a bread bowl type thing with dip in the middle. For dessert we had Christmas cookies, cherry bread, plum pudding with rum sauce, and candy cane and skor fudge.





My first picture is of the bread bowl dish, I got the recipe from the Pillsbury website; it's called Spinach Dip Crescent Wreath. I've attached the link bellow for the recipe. I was actually really impressed with the dip itself, I like spinach dip but I'm picky. I loved how the bowl was edible, it was not only environmental conscious but also easy clean up. I'm taking a moment to brag over my holly garnish...my husband always tells me one day I'm going to end up cutting a finger off when I cut things...but to every one's surprise I didn't. : p

The next dish I prepared was one of my favorites, I love veggies and dip and this was a neat little way to display them. Again I got the idea from Pillsbury's, but I added a bit to the tree. It turned out great and I was lucky to remember to snap some pictures of it before everyone dug into it.

My mom got the cherry bread from a local store called Taste Of Country. It's my favorite store to go to when I'm home, it has all these neat little home things. For the past couple of years we've gotten tree ornaments for our animals, they write their names on each of them for us. Off topic a bit but oh well. So with the bread platter I topped it off by making Christmas cookies. To most of the world they are known as shortbread cookies, to my grandma they are known as scotch cookies. I have some of my fondest memories making Christmas cookies with her. The mess we'd make in her kitchen, and on ourselves. All the decorations we'd put on them and the variety of cookie cutters we'd use. It's something I'm proud to have the ability to do, because most of the women in my family can't bake...at least not like my grandma and I. I might post the recipe later on, but for now I'm keeping it my little secret. he he

The last of the desserts that I made was fudge, I love making fudge. It's so easy to make variations from the same recipe. I use the Carnation Evaporated Milk Fudge recipe. And I usually just buy the can of milk and rip off the label to get the recipe while I shop but this year I was really disappointed to find that Carnation has chosen to put an assortment of other recipes (milkshakes) on the labels. So, I had to resort to the very helpful Internet; not that I minded...I'm just a creature of habit. lol For one batch I did the regular recipe but then place a couple tablespoons of crushed candy canes in and then topped it off with some bigger pieces of candy cane. I have to say once I tasted it all I could think of was how good it would be if I had of made my mint fudge with the candy canes. Can you say good. And speaking of mint that was also a big disappointment for me. I couldn't find any mint chocolate chips at the grocery store...and I can't even say it might have just been the store because this is the second time I couldn't find them. So, this time I opted for skor chocolate chips, and it turned out to be amazing. Not all the chips melted so it made it crunchy which was a nice change. As I mentioned above I've attached all the links for the recipes I've used....hope you enjoy them as much as I know we did.

Spinach Dip Crescent Wreath

Christmas Tree Vegetable Platter

Carnation Fudge