A Sweet Catering Experience

I got a call last week from my sister-in-law. She had been assigned dessert at a fancy party that she and my brother were attending…just a few days later. She needed help, and I just so happened to be in town. She asked for my help (eek!), and I happily obliged!

Of course, “helping” for me meant taking over completely and making a menu for several tasting desserts. There would be fourteen people at this fun party, and we both wanted them to have lots of sweet choices for their after-dinner treat.

This was the menu. I think that we’re in business here!

I started out on Friday evening by making some from-scratch cheesecakes that turned out so perfectly. Baking them a day early allowed them to cool completely so they were ready to be formed into pops and dipped in chocolate on Saturday.

I’ve never made cheesecake from scratch before, but it was easy-peezy and holy smokes delicious. And Hubby ate all of the “failed” pops and couldn’t get enough, so that is saying something for a guy who isn’t crazy about sweets.

The cheesecake took longer to set than I expected, so I ended up forming them into balls and then popping them back into the freezer to set up.

Melting cheesecake doesn’t mix well with warm dipping chocolate, you know?

And only the best would work for a party of this magnitude. This chocolate perfectly cut the sweetness of the cheesecake. Rich, creamy, decadent. I think they will like it!

After being dipped and tapped to get rid of any excess chocolate, the cheesecake pops were rolled in fresh graham cracker crumbs and then placed back in the freezer until transportation time.

They turned out amazing. I guess the whole rustic look is working here, because the party-goers couldn’t get enough of these. They were big on purpose, so each partaker got one to enjoy.

I don’t think that I would attempt cheesecake next time, unless it didn’t have to travel. We had to store everything in a cooler on top of some ice to keep them cold. They weren’t very forgiving when it came to travel, but I’m glad that they held up through the party!

I decided to add some mint to the menu through some homemade Oreo cookies with from-scratch cream cheese mint frosting. The cookies were delicious and uniform in size, thanks to my one-inch cookie scoop.

These were deliberately removed from the oven just a little early so that the cookies would stay soft and chewy. After cooling on the pan for a few minutes, they were moved to a wire rack to hang out until ready for some frosting in between.

The frosting got tinted green to let the guests know what to expect when they took a bite.

My sister made a birthday cake once for my brother. It was covered in a beautiful green frosting, and we all got excited for the mint explosion about to ensue. But she was stunned at our expectations…it was just green frosting.

No mint.

I have learned so many lessons from this wise sister…now I know that green frosting = mint, and never bring fruit trays to Christmas Snack Tables.

Next I baked some sugar cookie cups to fill with a sweet cream filling. I piped this into the cups and then topped with beautiful fresh fruit.

The cookie cups were so fragile, but I love how they turned out. They were chewy in texture, and the cream just melted in the mouth. The tart bursts of the berries on top made a nice presentation with the eyes and with the mouth!

These were less than two inches wide, so they were just little guys. But lots of flavor came in little packages. And it’s fruit, right, so it’s healthy!

Right?

I made five treats today, thinking that I would still have four back-ups in case one of them didn’t work the way that I wanted. I am thrilled that all five dessert options turned out today…fragile cookie cups included!

It made baking from 7:00 AM nonstop through 4:00 PM a wonderful experience. I have way more fun with this whole catering thing when the goodies turn out well!

You know that I couldn’t really cater a party without having a cupcake offering, right?

For today, I decided to go with Rolo Cupcakes similar to these from My Baking Addiction. I changed the frosting and used melted butter in place of vegetable oil for an even better cupcake.

The cupcakes turned out perfectly plump and not too tall or short. I was relieved.

I’ve always wanted to try a “dripping” chocolate ganache on top, and I am tickled to announce that it worked like a charm!

Kitchen Assistant Hubby had to help me with this step, since the chocolate ganache set up quickly after touching the cooled caramel cream cheese buttercream frosting. So he came right behind my spoonfuls of sugar chocolate ganache with some cut miniature Rolo candies.

I love when people are shown what they can expect to taste. Rolos on top because there was a frozen Rolo baked inside!

Tickled was I at seeing these done cupcakes. They look so dang edible!

My last item to prep for the day was Lemon Drops for some nice tart flavor. I usually make Paula Deen’s Lemon Blossoms, but they always get stuck in the pan regardless of how well the pans are greased. And I couldn’t deal with that potential failure today of all days!

So I decided to try a new recipe from Woman’s Day for Little Lemon Drops, and they worked like a charm. I held my breath when I turned the pan over. They were supposed to just fall out…and they did!

Wonder of wonder, miracles of miracles!

I set them out to cool on a tea towel. To make them look even more professional, I decided to top them with Sugared Cranberries.

Purdy, huh?

They sat in a dissolved-sugar glaze overnight before being tossed in more sugar, so the tart smack was really toned down. They ended up being the perfect topper for pretty little lemon bites of bliss.

Aren’t they fancy?!

After I made a lemon glaze, it was time to dip the little lemon drops and then top them with the cranberries.

Wait for it….wait for iiiiiiiiiitttttt…….

SHAZAM! (Say that in a Gomer Pyle voice, please).

Don’t you just want to pop one (or thirty) of these little guys into your mouth? Of course, for quality-assurance purposes, I did just that.

No, I didn’t count. But I was happy with the party taking place in my mouth!

The glaze actually locks in the moisture from the cakes. I toned down the lemon juice in the glaze because the extreme tartness today came from the sugared cranberry on top.

Aren’t they gorgeous?!

I was really happy with how everything turned out. I feel so blessed that all five attempts at awesome desserts worked well enough to be proud of putting them in front of people to eat.

My brother said that each and every dessert was a hit at the party, and he even managed to hand out some business cards for them to call me again.

I’m OK with that. It must have been the cute Chrome Animal Name Card Holders, huh?

Short but Sweet

Just a quick note today, I’m afraid. I didn’t get home from work until almost midnight last night, and we have some maintenance items to do early this morning on Gladys. And, while I love to blog ahead so short posts like these aren’t a possible solution, I had such a fun weekend “working” that I didn’t have a chance to get any additional posts ready!

More to come on that soon!

For now, I thought that I would share some treats that I took to our New Years Eve party with friends.

I made Chocolate Cupcakes with a Cream Cheese Buttercream to balance the sweetness. My frostings are never killer sweet…and they are better that way, too! Hubby then helped me sprinkle some mini Ghirardelli chocolate chips on top for a little crunch. I always try to be mindful of texture in addition to taste.

Needless to say, these were delicious! And slurped up by us all as we awaited the magical moment of welcoming in the new year.

I also quickly made these cupcake toppers. This is another part of designing that I would love to explore more, in addition to website design. And now that I have a Silhouette Cameo, I think that some pretty cool things could come out of this little ol’ brain of mine!

More than likely, I’m actually going to have to read the instructions for it before that actually happens. Boo.

This particular flag was my favorite, since the writing was accidentally upside-down. I’m working on overcoming some perfectionism, so leaving this be was a giant step for all Micah Kind!

A veggie tray was also on my list of goodies to bring for the festivities. My sister would be so proud. It was yummy. Around that time of year, I think that our bodies are all just craving something besides sugar and junk!

Alton Brown’s Spinach Artichoke Dip also came along, but I was too busy eating it to photograph it. It was a hit. You can’t go wrong with that recipe and a sliced crusty baguette!

It was such a fun party, and we actually made it all night. Well, at least until about 1:00 AM. I am pretty sure that the fireworks woke us up last year. That’s how awesome we usually are on New Years Eve.

I’ve got some fun travels to share soon! It feels great being back to work after such a nice, long holiday, that’s for dang sure!

Because One Snack Table is Never Enough

Believe it or not, this was actually Hubby’s idea. To have another Snack Table Party, but this time with his side of the family.

It sounds like one of my crazy ideas, huh?

When he pitched his suggestion to throw a party to me, it seemed like a peaceable option. So I went along with it. Just a few nights after the 2012 Annual Family Christmas Snack Table, we had four couples over from Hubby’s family.

I love hosting parties. Did you know that about me? And I would probably do it every week, if I could get away with it.

Dang budget…

Student loans really cramp so much of my style!

I don’t know how to say this without being disowned, but this party spread was actually better than the one that we experienced with my family. Everyone brought a few things to enjoy. I made three types of treats and Alton Brown’s Spinach Artichoke Dip.

Others brought meatballs, mini wienies (much to Hubby’s delight), two types of chicken wings, veggie wraps, Krispy Kreme Donuts, and bean dip.

These meatballs were made by Hubby’s cousin, Barbara. Everything tasted so good!

Maybe it helped that Uncle Ben brought fun hats for us all to wear. I was Mrs. Claus all night, but we also had a jester and a Dr. Seuss with us as well.

Boy oh boy. I get hungry just looking at all of this! It looks like a partay!

Jalapeno Poppers, store-bought cookies (wha?), and veggie wraps. I also brought out the troughs to fill with candy. It’s appropriate at a pig-supporting event such as this.

We put appetizer plates and silverware in a few different places so people could really load up. My only complaint was that the plates weren’t big enough, and I think people were too shy to get two plates.

Luckily, to solve this awful dilemma, I found some gorgeous red and white dinner plates on clearance for a dollar during my post-Christmas shopping excursion. We will have great plates to use next year…if I can wait that long!

Aren’t those napkins cute? One of the few things that I will risk purchasing at IKEA…

I’m surprised that our electrical system could handle so much goodness taking place. There were lots of yummy foods plugged in to stay warm.

Unfortunately, something didn’t stay as warm as it needed. Hubby has a tummy bug for a few days after this, and we think that it was something that he ate during this party.

Poor kid. I hate when he gets that skinny!

We all “stocked up” on fat reserves tonight. Maybe I should have made a fruit tray?

hahahahaha! Just kidding.

This was before he was sickly and skinny. Isn’t he cute? He wore that Santa hat for most of the evening, until he said that it was too constricting and preventing him from eating more.

It looks like a ton, but please remember that this is only a tiny appetizer plate.

Everything tasted so good!

I tried to get some fun shots of ornaments and lights with my new camera lens, but my tiny tripod didn’t cooperate. I guess I’ll need to get one that can actually support the weight of a DSLR, huh?

Well, Ok. If you insist.

We bagged up some treats for our neighbors just a few nights after the Snack Table Party at our house. I made Hershey Kiss Peanut Butter Cookies and Pretzel Rolo Turtle Bites this year for our friends and loved ones in the neighborhood.

Hubby wanted me to make enough for the entire street in addition to our friends. Since I left this until Christmas Eve (unintentionally, I assure you!), I just couldn’t make that many in one night.

What a slacker. I hope to do it next year. When he isn’t sick in bed and can help, too!

Even without doing every single house on our street (twenty-six, to be exact), we still had about thirty goodie bags to deliver. We put them in this little iron basket for easy transport.

Sick Hubby drove while I knocked doors. He wouldn’t let me do it alone, but he certainly wasn’t feeling well enough to help, either! I tried (and failed) to get him to stay home in bed.

Inside the bags were cookies and bites. I wanted to do some Andes Mints Cookies, too, but knew that they would permeate everything else in the bag with mint flavor. So I refrained.

Who says that I don’t have any self-control when it comes to sweets?!

And these were a hit! I had several people say so when I saw them at church a few days later. I think it might become one of our traditional treats to hand out each year.

That is, if I don’t eat them all before they get wrapped up.

Hubby’s Family Christmas Snack Table was a success, and so were our neighbor gifts. We are slowly making our way to Christmas morning!

2012 Annual Family Christmas Snack Table

The holidays just wouldn’t be magical in my family unless we all ate until we were sick on multiple occasions. And we have created a party to facilitate just such blissful agony.

It is called the Annual Family Christmas Snack Table.

I designed the invitation and sent them out a few weeks prior to the party night.

No one except me showed up in stretchy pants. That was awkward for a moment. Until they all regretted their decision when I out-ate them all.

I’m sure that this post won’t have nearly enough food to make us all sick, so let’s take a journey back in time to enjoy some past years of Christmas Snacking.

Snack Table 2009, with two very pregnant ladies. I was not one of them.
Snack Table 2010, or the year of the Forbidden Fruit Tray.
Snack Table 2011, or when I had to leave early for work. Are you kidding me?!

Phew! Now that you just had to loosen another hole on your belt, let’s move on to this year’s festivities!

It felt very different this year. Probably because my sister, her husband, and (now) two boys were in Texas for the event instead of gathering around the Snack Table in person with the rest of us.

They Skyped in for some of the fun, but it only made us wish that much more that they were there in person. I hope you know how missed you were, T’liese. We would have probably even temporarily allowed a Fruit Tray, too, if you had only been able to attend.

Should I be captioning these photos, too? I brought Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Cookies seen up above, and these are Pretzel Turtle Bites.

Which are heavenly.

Which is why I ate them all made them, yo.

Please tell me that you’ve had Andes Mints Cookies. They are soft, chewy cookies that have Andes Mints placed on top just as they come out of the oven. After a few minutes of melting, the mint is swirled around to create a delicious, minty frosting.

I could eat a million of these little buggers. And I probably did, if you must know.

I went to three stores looking for the typical box of Christmas Andes Mints. Did they go out of business and not tell anyone? Finally, Target came through for me, but they were in the form of giant Andes Mints individually wrapped in plastic, not foil. Weird, huh?

So I broke them in half when it came time to “frost.”

I don’t know about you, but this looks like a party-about-happen to me!

I made Lemon Squeeze Cupcakes, which mean that I poured a sweet lemon glaze on top of lemon cupcakes to let things sink in a little. Then I frosted them with lemon cream cheese buttercream frosting.

Cupcakes make my heart go pitter-pat. Or didn’t you know?

I’m finally learning through lots of practice that sometimes, less is more. I don’t like cupcakes with frosting three feet high. I like just enough so that each bite has some frosting, but not so much that you can’t taste the cake!

Yep. I’m becoming a frosting snob!

But they turned out so pretty! And very, very edible, I assure you!

I decided to set aside a few chocolate chewy cookies from the Andes Mint Cookies recipe to make Homemade Oreos with them. With homemade buttercream frosting.

Because I was worried that I wasn’t bringing enough food. *snort*

I am tearing up just thinking about them now…

Aren’t these adorable?! After squishing the halves together, I rolled them in cute Christmas sprinkles to make them even more festive. They were almost too pretty to eat.

Almost.

Wow. I would probably do some pretty awful things to have one of these cookies right about now.

How are all of your New Years resolutions going (nervous laugh)?!

So, after my oven could take no more abuse, we headed north towards my brother’s house for the Snack Table! First, we stopped to pick up my Dad on the way. We had enough time to open some presents, so I caught it all on camera.

He’s a handsome guy, huh?

I look like him.

But that’s not why I think he’s handsome. Sheesh! I don’t want to be a handsome guy!

And now I know where I get my opening-Christmas-presents intensity! Look at this excitement!

A few of his presents were things that he had suggested…like new, fancy drool-proof pillow cases. He is a tough one to buy for, that’s for dang sure. And he certainly doesn’t want anything!

Hmmm. Maybe we’re not related after all. I always want fun stuff!

Oh man. These pictures absolutely crack me up! Have I mentioned how nice it is to have my Dad back from Mexico?

Wait, that sounds bad. He was down there on purpose!

He lived there for seven years and moved back to Phoenix this past April to be closer to family.

It has been wonderful living in the same city as my Dad. That hasn’t happened since I was four years old! He’s a lot of fun, even though I don’t see him as much as I would like. (He is probably grateful for the lack of visits from me!)

He reads a ton, and one of my readers recommended that I give him this book (hi, Peter!). I also bought Dad a new stylus to use on his iPhone, since he lost his about one week after he got it back in May.

Obviously, he was pretty excited to get a new stylus. Probably as excited as I was to give it to him!

And this was probably my favorite picture of all…him posing like he was using the stylus in all its glory. He is so funny!

I’m glad that you’re home, Dad. I love you.

On to the Snack Table! We brought a dear family friend to the event this year. Here Don is prepping his shrimp cocktail that he brought.

It’s his first time…he didn’t know any better. I guess I’ll have to add that to the do-not-bring list next year.

Rookie.

Luckily, it was far enough away from the best thing at the party that I only gagged a few times. Shrimp = fish.

(I stained these cabinets, by the way).

So here is some of the spread. I say some because my Dad brought Chicken Tacos for his savory contribution to the evening. They were so good, but he was still setting them up on the entire back counter when I was taking these pictures. And then I forgot to get a picture of the tacos!

I was probably too distracted with stuffing my face later to remember to take a picture of it all. Oh, the memories.

You’ll just have to trust me, though. He brought incredible Chicken Tacos. He used your recipe, Charloe, and they were out of this world!

These are the Andes Mints Cookies just before being devoured. We always had these growing up at our Family Snack Table, so they just taste like Christmas to me.

And they taste like chocolaty, chewy, minty cookies, too. And that’s fine by me.

Everyone got a cupcake. Or six two.

And these didn’t last long, either. Not that I expected them to last long. Not with this crowd.

Have you seen how we can put food away in my family?!

This was another one of Dad’s contributions to the evening. How he still has candy from Halloween is beyond me (maybe we aren’t related), but I was personally glad that he decided to share it with the rest of us.

Pretzel Rolo Turtle Bites. Sweet, salty, crunchy, caramel. What more could you possibly want in a snackable dessert?

Here is Don, our wonderful family friend. He brought everyone poinsettias for Christmas…so thoughtful! We sure do love Don.

And I wish my brother would let me post pictures of his family, because I got some really good ones of them. I guess we’ll just have to finish the party with a picture of me and Hubby. Very full at this point in the evening.

But that’s the whole point of a Christmas Snack Table!

I am already planning the menu for next year’s event…