B-day Hostess!

Hello yall!! I hosted my friends Birthday party this past weekend and I wanted to share with you what I made. I almost forgot to take pictures of the food again, so as you will see the displays are half eaten lol I really enjoyed myself and we had so much fun!!!!

I asked Gina what her favorite cake was and she said chocolate and cheesecake. So I took premade cheesecake from work (one of the many reasons that I love my job!) and used it in the cup cakes. I let some cheesecake thaw out and then I place it into a baggie. I cut off one of the ends of the baggie. Once I had the chocolate cake batter into the muffin pans I then took the cheesecake baggie and piped the cheesecake down inside the center of the batter and then put them in the oven. For the topping I used chocolate icing and dusted it with powder sugar. Then I took another piece of cheesecake and cut lil squares of it that had crust attached. Popped it into the freezer for a bit to harden back up. Melted semi sweet chocolate chips and once melted I poured it into another baggie and snip just a little bit off of the edge. Then drizzled it over the mini cheesecake bites, and placed them back in freezer for a bit. Then I placed the bites on top of the cupcakes and hooray a tasty lil dessert:) If you decide to make this try and keep the cupcakes in the fridge for as long as you can before the party to help keep the cheesecake in good condition.

Quick snap shot of some of the food. I took baguettes and made miniature pizzas. Then did cantaloupe, kiwi, and pineapple skewers. Gina likes Greek salads so I came up with Greek salad bites:)

The first thing onto the tooth pick is your olive, traditionally for a Greek salad you would use kalamata olives but since I had already gotten black olives for her favorite type of pizza I used them. Next a cube of feta. Then a piece of tomato, when you chop up the tomato remove the insides so it won't be runny. Next is one or two pieces of romaine lettuce folded over. For the toothpick to stand up you use a cucumber on the bottom, once you slice the cucumber cut the circle in half so that the toothpick will be inserted into the hard part of the cucumber and not the seeded part. Once finshed I dashed a lil salt and pepper over the top and I had a side bowl with Greek salad dressing in it for people to dunk their bites:)

Recipe Spotlight

Good Morning:) I thought I would share a go to recipe for whenever you have a party to plan!! I absolutely love cheese straws, and since I am always reading recipes and storing them away, I decided to pick this one out for you. I got it off of the Food Networks website a while back. It is Paula Deen's cheese straw recipe, hope you love and find it useful!

Cheese Straws Recipe
courtesy Paula Deen
Serves: 5 dozen

Ingredients
2 cups self rising flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 sticks butter, at room temperature 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar, at room temperature

Directions
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Sift the flour, salt and cayenne into a bowl and reserve. With an electric hand mixer cream together the butter and cheese. Add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time until the batter is smooth. Scrape the batter into a 1 gallon resealable plastic bag. Cut a corner from the plastic bag and on an ungreased sheet pan, pipe 2 rows each for every straw, about 5 inches long and 2 inches wide. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to racks to cool.

B-day Party

Hello Hello out there!!! It's been a while since I've been able to settle down and do a post. Busy Busy Busy! So one of my friends just had her birthday and I was so excited to host her party!! MY FAV THINGS IN THE WORLD TO DO!!! Happy Happy Birthday Robin! I did fiesta style food and had a build your own taco, quesadilla bar to the max! Since my Company I work for owns a cheese manufactory that sells Hispanic products to restaurants I was able to bring a block of our cheese home to make some yummy white cheese dip!! I had a ton of fun hosting and I was so delighted when I was told that I should cater, that is "MY DREAM!" I was pretty busy so I didn't get a chance to snap pics of all the food but I did take a picture of her B-day cupcakes! Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY BURST CUPCAKES!

I started with your basic devils food cake mix from the store and icing. It is better to not get milk chocolate icing when dealing with strawberries, try and just pick out reg chocolate or dark, it helps balance out the taste better in my opinion. I melted down semi sweet chocolate chips to drizzle around the strawberries which actually had 2 functions. 1 It helps just add another layer of flavor, and 2 if the strawberries start juicing it helps contain the juice so it won't start flowing all over the cupcake causing a messy look. I took strawberries and cut straight across the bottom to remove the stems. Then you take your knife and make slits starting from the outside and working towards the middle, pushing back each slit and keeping the bottom in tack! You should try this out sometime it was super yummy:)