Just about every year since we were married in ’97, we’ve hosted some sort of holiday gathering.
It’s morphed over time from a few friends decorating the tree while we served up new cocktails, homemade finger foods and a handmade party favor to an open house with more than a few friends, homemade and purchased treats and dishes, and a treat to go.
I’m always happy connecting with old and new friends and each year I try to find ways to prep in advance so I can spend time enjoying our guests… and the food.
Highlights from this year’s event…
White lightning chicken chili – I think I first saw the recipe for this on Pinterest. I love chicken chili with white kidney beans, so I was game for a new version that looked like I could easily scale up. For a large group, I roasted two chickens with fennel bulb, herbs, onions and carrots. I used the carcasses to do the stock base for the soup. I also modified the recipe a bit. Instead of pureeing the peppers, I roasted them first. I also had to substitute Cubanelle peppers for the Anaheims called for in the recipe. I prefer Anaheims, but Cubanelles work nicely to round out the flavor, especially to add a bit of sweetness to the heat.
Espanola butternut squash soup – This is a personal vegetarian favorite, mostly because I turn up the heat on this one with New Mexico green chili powder. This time I cut the butter in half and served it with crusty Italian bread from Turano Bakery.
Hoosier sugar cream pie – for the first time ever, this one went fast, much to the disappointment of my daughter, who delights in this particular treat as a leftover.
S’mores brownies – I used my ceramic square muffin pan for these. The trick to getting a good campfire-like toast to the marshmallows is to turn on the broiler for 30 seconds to a minute before taking them out of the oven.
Hot chocolate bar – this one was much easier to manage thanks to a friend who lent me a 40-cup percolator. Must have one of those.
Seven Bridges Road – Another first. For our signature cocktail, we turned to Bon Appetite for a punch with a pretty decent kick. This lovely cocktail blend of Pimms No. 1, dry gin, curacao, aquavit, clover honey, fresh lemon juice, sparkling wine and lemon slices pierced with cloves. The cocktail is a reddish orange with orange curacao, but turns a green with blue curacao. Both colors are hard to see in my grandmother’s ruby red glass tumblers.
Crock pot teriyaki chicken wings. I had 8 pounds of these in a crock pot…more than 50 wings and didn’t get a single one. I’m pretty sure the kids made off with most of them. Same for the always kid-popular…
Grape jelly and chili sauce meatballs. Total crowd pleaser. Clearly need to make more next time.
Cannoli chip and dip tray from Turano’s Mamma Susi Bakeshop. We got compliments on this all evening.
Flops…
Pumpkin pie. Definitely will skip this next time around.
Spiced cider. I never learn. This never does well no matter where I serve it. I know people like it when it’s spiked, but I can’t push it plain for self-service spiking. Definitely need to skip this next time around.
Goat cheese and Greek yogurt dip. I don’t think I had a very attractive presentation with this one. At least that’s what I’m telling myself because I really like this soft cheese spread. I whip it up with 2 parts goat cheese and one part Greek yogurt, plus garlic powder and red chili flakes. So good.
Virtual Farmgirl 