party recipes part two

These are the recipes I used for Chris's graduation BBQ.  First up, some delicious spicy crab dip.  A family friend brought this dip to our July 4th celebration last year, and I meant to share the recipe then.  But that was around the time my computer exploded and I lost all my pictures.  Lucky for you we made it again!  The recipe suggests serving it with thinly sliced toasted French bread.  We served it (as did Paula, or family friend) with the homemade tortilla chips from Whole Foods.  Absolutely delicious.  Seriously, I like it and I HATE spicy food!

Hot Crab, Artichoke and Jalapeno Dip

Ingredients
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
two 14 ounce cans artichoke hearts, drained and chopped fine
2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallion
1/2 cup drained and chopped bottle pimento or roasted red pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
4 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
3 jalapeno peppers (bottled) seeded and minced
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 pound crab meat
1/3 cup sliced almonds toasted slightly

Directions
1.  In a small skillet cook bell pepper in the oil over moderate heat until softened.  Let cool.
2.  In a large bowl combine pepper, artichokes, mayonnaise, scallion, pimento, parmesan, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, jalapeno pepper and celery salt.  Blend the mixture until combined well.  Stir in crab meat gently.  Transfer to a buttered baking dish or an oven proof chafing dish and sprinkle almonds.  (May keep for one day in refrigerator covered).
3.  Bake the dip at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until top is brown and bubbling.  Serves 10.

Chris requested one of his favorite BBQ places for the food, and he really wanted beans and coleslaw.  Personally, I hate beans and coleslaw.  Therefore I opted to make a spinach salad so I would have something to eat that I liked, and was a wee bit healthier.  You can find the recipe for the cranberry spinach salad here.  It wasn't anything mind blowing, but the salad was good!

Another food that Chris really loves is pie.  I believe his preference is grandma's peach pie, but yet again, I was being a little bit selfish.  So I went on the hunt for an apple pie recipe.  We also decided to try and find a bar recipe, thinking it would be easier to eat than a piece of pie.  These bars were a little bit messy, and weren't the easiest to eat, but they were good.  I'm not sure exactly which recipe we used, but I think it is pretty similar to this one.

If anyone follows me on pinterest, you might know that my pins usually include LOTS of desserts.  I mean I'm trying not to eat them, why not think about them all of the time?  Sheesh!  Anyway, these cookie dough filled cupcakes were one of my pins, and I decided to give them a try.  You can find the recipe here. 

A little story to go with these ones... my mom was over helping me get ready for the party.  We realized I forgot to get eggs, and since Chris to the store for some while we made a different dessert.  Some time passed, we all had lunch, yadda yadda... I was chasing Ryann around and my mom mixed up the cupcakes.  Unfortunately the first batch burned.  So we sent Chris back to the store for another box of cake mix.  The second batch seemed to turn out fine.  My mom went home, and I started stuffing the cupcakes with cookie dough.  The cupcakes seemed a little crumbly, but they tasted good (of course I tried the part I was just going to trash, oops :o).  I opened the fridge to put the cupcakes in and saw the egg carton... with no eggs missing.

My mother made the recipe twice, six eggs should have been missing.  Yep, that's right.  We sent Chris to the store specifically for eggs, and she completely forgot to use them!  Not one of her finer baking moments :o).  Don't worry mom, I still love you.  Alas, Chris returned to the store a third time for another box of cake mix.  And wouldn't you know I burned that batch, only a tiny bit.  I decided those were the ones I was using!!  The cupcakes were good, but not something I really wanted more of.  And no, it had nothing to do with them being a touch burnt!

 
Ahhh.  Oreo Cheesecake Pretzel Bites.  These little guys were probably my favorite thing at Chris's party.  The were incredibly easy to make, super easy to pick up and eat, and freaking delicious.  If you need a good simple dessert bite, these are great.  Find the recipe here.

I think that is all the party recipes I have right now.  Actually, I'm not sure that we have a party coming up anytime soon at all.  Maybe I'll have to make something up...