December 12 & 13

13 then 12 Days till Christmas and what would I like to see
A house full of friends to party

Friday and Saturday were filled with partying. Greg had a work party and then came down to NYU for my lab party. It was a lot of fun and included a Yankee swap gift exchange. I ended up with some truffles which I donated to the party. Then it was home to start setting up for our church party. All day today we cooked and cleaned.

It was all worth it though as we had an excellent turn out and most people stayed all the way through to the end. We enjoyed really delicious food, great fellowship, and even fun games. Greg and I cleaned up and now are enjoying SNL before bed. It was a great day and so fun to see our friends from the ESPM communion team and our home group! The spread of food. Lots of new recipes that were delicious! Then we moved onto deserts which our guests provided for the most part. A tour of our house with a stop in the studio to talk about crafts! Then we played Apples to Apples which was a lot of fun too! A couple recipes that were delicious and easy:

Walnut Red Pepper Dip
(From MyRecipes.com)
2 cups Shelled Walnuts
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 jar (12oz) roasted red peppers, drained
1 garlic clove
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Put is walnuts, cumin, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until walnuts are finely ground. Add peppers, garlice, olive oil, and lemon juice and process until smooth. 1 TBSP has 59 calories, 1.1g protein, 5.5 g fat, 0.4g fiber, 51mg sodium. ***** 5 stars delicious and easy.

Stuffed Mushrooms
(from Becky Higgins Blog)

1lb. Large Mushrooms
1lb. pork sausage (I used 14oz vegetarian Italian Sausage)
4 oz cream cheese (I used tofutti brand soy cream cheese)
1/4 c. onion (I used shallots)
1/4c. stuffing mix
garlic salt (I used granulated garlic + salt to taste)
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce (I used Vegetarian style)

Remove stems from mushrooms and save about 10 stems. Brown sausage, add chopped onion and stems (I process everything in the food processor to chop finely and focussed on cooking the onion since my sausage was pre-cooked). Add cream cheese and stuffing mix (I added a little water since the sausage didn't render as much fat as meat sausage would). Season with garlic salt and worcestershire sauce. Stuff each mushroom cap with a heaping spoonful of mixture. Bake at 350 until water is released from the caps (about 10 min). **** 4 stars yummy and easy.

Chocalate Cake Cookies
(Becky Higgins Blog)

1 box chocolate cake mix
2 eggs (I used 1/2 cup egg beaters fat free egg product)
1/2 c. light flavored oil like canola
1 c. chocolate chips (we also used peanut butter chips)

Mix all together and spoon mounds onto a baking sheet. They do spread as they cook so leave some room. Bake at 35o for 8-9 minutes. **** 4 stars for being chocolaty and super easy. Whole thing takes about 10 minutes to make!

Hot Spinach-Artichoke Dip
(FoodNetwork Website)

1 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach
2 (13 oz) cans artichoke hearts
1/2 c. mayo (I used soy mayo)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. grated Parmesan
1 c. grated pepper jack cheese

Heat spinach in a microwave safe bowl for 5 minutes and squeeze dry. Drain artichoke hearts and coarsely chop in a food processor. Combine all ingredients except jack cheese in a large bowl. Stir well. Scrape into a prepared casserole dish (sprayed with cooking spray) and sprinkle jack cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Serve piping hot or transfer to a chafing dish and keep warm. Serve with begal chips. ****4 stars. Guests loved this and it was prepped the night before and then baked when everyone arrived. Easy!

We also had stuffed tomatoes which were good but a lot more work, crudite, store bought mini quiches, store bought potato puffs, and an antipasti platter. Plus lots of chips and crackers for dipping and deserts that friends brought. It wasn't vegan by any means but a vegetarian party and everyone left full and happy.