Perfect Party Plan!

Friday night I hosted a party at my house and had 15 of my favorite girl friends over for a night of fashion, wine, food and fun.

Now, I'm not much of a bragger BUT, I am bragging when I say, I hit a food HOME RUN at this party. The only thing left on my food buffet was 6 celery sticks....EVERY SINGLE BITE of food was consumed. That has NEVER happened to me before, and we entertain A LOT! I LOVE hearing, did you make that? whats in this? I promised that I would post the menu on my blog.....If only I had remembered to take photo's of the food. (sigh)

- A wooden tray with sliced, strawberries, sharp cheddar cheese slices and Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuits. (those crackers are THE BOMB!!!!)

- Carrots and celery with Kraft Cucumber Ranch. (Yes, the cucumber ranch DOES taste better!)

- A romaine lettuce salad with kalamata olives, feta cheese and chopped tomatoes. Toss in some OLIVE GARDEN salad dressing, right before your guest arrive. (yes, they now sell bottles in their restaurants and everyone LOVES it!)

- Erin's Black Bean Dip. (I cannot tell you how many compliments I get on her dip and its GOOD FOR YOU!) I don't have the exact measurements, because I watched her make the recipe and didn't write it down.
Erin's Black Bean Dip
One can of black beans, rinsed and drained
Half a can of mexi-corn, drained
Chopped cilantro
Chopped jalapenos
Chopped Tomatoes
Chunked Avocados
Limes (the juice keeps the Avocados from turning brown)
Mix the black beans and corn together, stir in cilantro and jalapenos, add some black pepper and a little salt. Put it in the fridge to marinate for awhile. 20 minutes before your guest arrive, chop and de-seed your tomatoes, cut avocados into small chunks and squeeze fresh limes over the top. Add to bowl and lightly stir. (you dont want to stir too much, because your avocados will get mushy) Serve with corn and blue tortilla chips!

-Mini crock pot with lil smokies in bbq sauce. (everyone loves those things and since they are small, you don't feel guilty eating them, right?)

CD Kitchen's Bacon and Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
I used their recipe as a guide but I used 4 packages of fresh mushrooms and 12 ounces of cream cheese. The stems from 2 packages of the mushrooms and that amount of cream cheese made enough stuffing for all 4 packages of mushrooms. Here is my version of the recipe, it made LOTS of mushrooms! I also made these in the morning, put them in the fridge and popped them in the oven, once my guests arrived.

Bacon and Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
An entire package of bacon, fried and crumbled; reserve fat
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
4 packages of mushrooms, stems removed
The stems from 2 packages of mushrooms, finely chopped
Directions:
Cook the bacon. I poured off almost all of the fat before I added the onion and stems. Saute onion and mushroom stems in bacon fat until tender. Mix crumbled bacon, onion and stems with softened cream cheese until the mixture is workable. (I did this like I make my meatloaf, with my hands. It was MUCH easier to work with.)
Stuff each mushroom and place in fridge until you are ready to bake. Bake at 350degrees F for 10-15 minutes. Finish under the broiler just until tops are golden.

6 bottles of wine. Now, I am not a wine drinker SO even though I had a list of suggestions, it still took me 45 minutes to find 6 bottles of wine.
A. because they don't display wine by brand (like they do with beer...yes, my gauge is beer, don't laugh at me.)
B. they don't have them in alphabetical order.
Doesn't it just make sense to have all the Kendall Jackson wine in one section and the Robert Mondavi in another?? I mean REALLY??? And whats up with this whole, red wine in the rounder glass thing and white wine isn't the same as blush and don't buy pink wine. Ahhh, my head is spinning!!! In my world, wine should not be this difficult. Since I'm not a wine drinker, I'm thinking no one in the Wine Industry cares. Ok, glad I got that off my my chest. :)

Anyway, I WILL serve this spread in the future, cause it was ALL good and there were NO leftovers. I love that!!
Hugs,
Tara