Party Food Recipes

Barbecues, Giants or Yankees games, poker game, whatever your social get together is nothing brings it together like food, food, and more food! You may want to cut back on dishes by stocking up on paper or styrofoam cups, plates, and bowls and plastic silverware. You may want to cut back on waste and garbage and have a lot of plastic 'summer' dishes. The most important thing to have is lots of salad bowls!

Obviously you want to serve meat. Everybody loves meat (except vegetarians and veagans of course) and you have to have something for the 'main entree'. You can serve a number of meats. Hamburgers and cheeseburgers, hot dogs, sausage, ham, turkey, steak, chicken... but it's the side dishes that really get the spotlight.

Crackers with pepperoni and sliced cheese are also great to lay on for snacks, along with other 'condiments' like pickles and olives.

For a little class, or just something different from the usual, try laying out a tub of port wine cheese in place of the sliced cheese and pepperoni. (You may want to keep a back up tub in the fridge, because this stuff is tasty!) Port wine cheese can be found with the other 'real' cheeses in your grocery store. It is a spread, and it is colorful (like a sunset.) Man, I love that stuff!

Other snacks to lay out would be fruit! Include a fruit dip... and there is a very easy recipe for a delicous fruit dip.

Mix one part cream cheese with one part whipped cream. Yum! Serve with strawberries, bananas, peaches, or whatever fruits you like to serve.

For another twist on a normal party snack, use a dijon or honey mustard when making deviled eggs. For the daring, use horseradish.

Another delicous snack is ham rolls. Mix cream cheese with horseradish, spread on sliced ham, roll them up and let them sit in the fridge for about an hour.

Salads are a must have at social get togethers. So here are the secrets to some of my most popular salads.

Italian Pasta Salad

This classic has many variations. It usually always has italian dressing (a whole bottle of it) and tri-color rotini (cooked, drained, then rinsed in cold water).

To this basic concoction I add feta cheese, half a brick of extra sharp cheese cubed, a small can of sliced black olives, parmesan cheese, sliced peppercinis (optional) and salami. You can order a thick slice of salami from the deli and cut it into smaller cubes.

Fruit Ambrosia

While some people use whipped cream for this popular fruit salad, my secret ingredient may surprise you!

1 part (cup) red seedless grapes
1 part (can) mandarin oranges
1 part (can) pineapple tidbits (the smaller chunks)
1 part (cup) mini marshmallows
1 part (cup) sour cream (!)

Okay, if you've made a face, just trust me on this. You have to mix them all together the day before, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The juices from the fruit make the sour cream much sweeter... but not too sweet! I promise someone will ask for the recipe, and you can laugh at the look on their face if you decide to share the secret ingredient!

Tossed Salad

Something healthier to serve. I never even really ate salad, until I tried to make one and absolutelty fell in love with it!

Lettuce, tomato, onion, carrot. Pretty basic. Then add 2 hard boiled eggs, a half brick of extra sharp cheese cubed, and pieces of chicken. If there is no chicken already being served at your get-together, you can heat up two large chicken fingers/tenders out of your freezer, use leftover chicken out of your fridge, or just skip the chicken.

I wouldn't recommend putting any dressing on the salad, allow guests to choose their own dressings but do suggest mixing italian with ranch for this one!

Banana Pudding

1 box vanilla pudding
1/2 tub whipped cream
bananas
20+ vanilla wafer cookies (Nilla cookies)

It should be fairly self explanatory, but I'll go over it with you. First, you make the pudding according to the directions on the box. (Stir with milk, refrigerate for about 2 hours.) Then you crumble up the cookies, slice up the bananas, and mix those into the pudding, along with the whipped cream. Done.

Well, I haven't given any recipes for macaroni or potato salad. I may serve those, but I think it is important to offer something different, a variety, and something that your guest may have never had before. I am always looking for new recipes myself, because my family has 'social dinners' on a regular basis. I have learned to throw anything together for a last minute get-together. There is nothing wrong with throwing out pizza rolls at the last minute, but it is even nicer to know how to use what you already have to make your own pizza snacks.

There are many tips to making your parties (planned or unplanned) stand out. Watch the food network sometime! You may never make those 5 star restaurant meals, but you'll learn some tips that may improve on something you do make, or inspire you to try something new. Try freezing fruit inside your ice cubes. Not only will it make a 'pretty' glass of ice tea or water, it will also taste delicous as it melts.

I will leave you with one more recipe, the only one of mine I will share that involves the best part of food. Dessert!

Chocolate Cake with a Cheesecake Layer

Yeah, so I'm not too creative with the name of this dessert. Once you try it, you won't care. Make a box of chocolate cake in two round pans, instead of one large pan. (Making a layer cake may sound scary, but I promise by the 3rd try it will be looking much better, and those first few practice cakes still taste as good!)

Make a box of Jell-o cheesecake pudding and let it sit in the fridge while you bake your cake.

Once the cake is done, you have to let both layers cool completely. Then you set the bottom layer on the cake tray. Spread the pudding over it. You may only use 1/4 or 1/3 of the pudding. Carefully set the top layer on.

Walk away and pat yourself on the back. You're halfway done. When you're ready to finish, frost the cake. It helps to microwave the frosting so it is much softer and almost liquidy... it will run down the side of the cake on it's own.

It will be a bit messy, but experience has taught me that when you have to physically spread the frosting... the cake may break. You can use the spatula to smooth the messy frosting and clean up whatever has dropped on the tray. Refrigerate for an hour and this cake should look perfect. Even if it doesn't, who cares?! Tell people it is chocolate cake with cheesecake layer and they won't care how it looks.

Enjoy!