Food Lush

Mardi Gras Party Ideas

Editor's note: For our last week at Food Lush, I've asked the writers to share both a favorite post by another writer, from over the last three years, and a favorite post of their own. You'll see these posts linked to at the top of their new post for the week. Enjoy a stroll down Lush memory lane!

By Ariel

I'm sad to be saying goodbye for awhile, but thankful to the Lush editors for letting me in on this wonderful website. I learned a lot about food around here (like not everyone is ACTUALLY a gourmet chef in their spare time. Everyone loves a shortcut!) The first post that came to mind when I was asked to throwback a favorite was Carrie's cauliflower pizza crust!  I had never heard of such a thing before but the genius is astounding. I've used it several times and actually find myself craving it more often than regular pizza, go figure. My own favorite of mine is one of the first ones I wrote here at Food Lush, and continues to be my most-requested party food, my Bacon and Cheese Tartlets.  I make these for every. Single. Group. Gathering. And still people need confirmation that yes, I am bringing them, don't worry.

*** 

For my last post around these parts for awhile I thought it would be appropriate to send off with some Mardi Gras party ideas. Fat Tuesday is coming up February 12th, and while I'm a little too far north for the real party, my people and I never like to pass up an excuse to eat and drink in the name of a theme!

First and most important, the drinks:

[Photo credit Chicago Tribune]

The Mardi Gras Hurricane!  Rum, rum, and some other stuff, this is a staple and a favorite of mine.  Whenever I find these on vacation I'll usually down enough so that I won't notice a hurricane going on around me, but what a delicious drink!

Or, if you want to get everyone involved in some fun, how about a Virgin Hurricane?

[ Photo credit Taste of Home]

To spice up your appetizers with some theme fun, how cute are these claw picks?
 

 
[Picture from nolaimports.com] 

My husband and I are going to the beach for a week with a few other couples, I'm thinking I need a beach-themed party before we go and these little claw picks are just so cute I can't stand it.

Of course, you also need some Mardi Gras COOKIES!  You can pick up a set of your own Mardi Gras cookie cutters at Mardigrasoutlet.com for only $12 or browse all their cookie cutter shapes here.
 

For snacks, how about Mardi Gras Pretzels, King Cake Bars, or these Apple Beignets (which I am DROOLING OVER)

[Image from Babble.com]

For the main attraction (ah, who am I kidding, the booze up top is the main attraction!) how about this amazing looking citrus marinated shrimp dish from Southern Living?



[Photo credit Southern living]

And one of my absolute favorite things to eat in the entire world, the Shrimp Po' Boy:

 

[Image from cooking channel tv]

I recently discovered  restaurant nearby that made the most excellent shrimp po' boy I've ever found in this part of the country.  I'm so excited to go back I can't even tell you.

Hopefully I've put everyone in a party mood.  Rather than a Hurricane I'll probably be tipping back a few champane cocktails this weekend (today's my birthday!).  Thanks for two great years, you guys!  We truly couldn't ask for a better crowd around here.

Pigs in a blanket and other upcoming appetizers

by Caitlin

Notice how I cleverly avoided titling this "Holiday appetizers," "Christmas appetizers," or "New Year's appetizers"? But consider this the ole bait & switch. I do love a good hors d'oeuvre, and I think this can be considered the season of the appetizer. And the season of the cocktail, cookie, baked good, giant meal, and anything else you want to justify indulging in.

I've got a few menus and meals to plan for, and I can't stop thinking about pigs in blankets. A few years ago on a whim I decided to make some (for the first time ever) for a party my husband and I were throwing. He'd just made his own duck breast prosciutto, was plotting a fancy cheese plate, and didn't see a place for pigs in a blanket on our snack table. Guess what was the first to go? Apparently people just can't resist processed meat products wrapped in processed pastry, especially when you offer them something to dip them in. They've become a favorite once-or-twice-a-year indulgence for me ever since, and this is the perfect time of year for them. 

Photo: me

Last year I felt much more virtuous buying cans of crescent rolls and Morally Superior Hot Dogs* at Whole Foods. They didn't have Humane L'il Smokies* at the overpriced hippie grocery store, so I bought regular sized Virtuous Hot Dogs* and cut them into L'il Smoky size. It worked great. Press some poppy or sesame seeds on the top to show you mean business. 

*Not the actual names.

Photo from browneyedbaker.com

In the past I've also had great success with buffalo chicken dip (again using Virtuous Chicken because chicken in a can = ew), and I am currently contemplating Things That are Wrapped in Bacon. Contenders: water chestnuts, scallops, dates stuff with goat cheese. 

Photo from sheknows.com

Yep, I think we've got a winner.

Do you have any fun appetizers planned? What are your feelings on pastry wrapped meat products?

Buffalo Chicken Phyllo Cups

By Ariel

One of my favorite party foods is Buffalo Chicken Dip. I lived into my twenties before I even knew it existed (I know, right?) but thanks to my sister-in-law, I have a delicious habit that I break out every time I have people over. 

This Halloween, however, I realized I had too many dips. (What? you say? I know, I know.) I had spinach, ranch, pumpkin, and caramel. I had already planned on making the chicken dip, but after some brian-storming with a co-worker I thought of something that might be an excellent alternative. I was right!

And it's simple: take your favorite Buffalo Chicken dip recipe (as long as it includes ranch), but  instead of using however much ranch dressing the dip calls for, substitute it for 4 Tbs (one packet) dry ranch seasoning powder. This makes the dip more substantial and fits perfectly into mini Phyllo Cups. I spooned the chicken mixture into the cups, about a Tbs fits, and stuck them in the oven at 250 degrees for about 10 minutes. You just need to keep an eye on the dough because they are already pre-baked. 

They were a hit! They were the first to disappear off the table, so next time I'll be doubling the recipe (I made 60 this round). I can't wait to try these as an appetizer for the holidays, I have a feeling they'll be a hit there as well! 

Wedding Food: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

by Maura

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably know that I am newly engaged. (Yay!) My fiance, Will, and I decided we should keep things simple, so we are having three weddings.

I'll give you a minute.

Yes, three weddings. Theoretically, we are having an intimate (immediate family and a few friends) ceremony, and then two parties in our respective home states. In reality, there are three (!!!) events to plan. The two parties are going to be cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and after the ceremony we will have a sit-down dinner. 

"Yes, and?" you ask. I'm interested to know what you love and hate about wedding food. We are trying to avoid the rubber chicken dinner that we associate with large weddings, but we still want our guests at the cocktail parties to enjoy themselves and eat some good food. What was the best thing you ever ate at a wedding? Was something truly awful? (I'm a fan of wedding horror stories, so don't hold back.) Is wedding food something you even remember, or should we just focus on tasty, tasty booze?

I'm always a fan of the raw bar at weddings, although I only really eat the shrimp and maybe crab claws. I also am a huge, huge fan of cheese, so my plate is usually a teetering tower of cheese and crackers. Sliders are another favorite, and of course so are pigs in blankets. I can't think of any truly awful wedding food, although I tend to pass over the pasta stations because I can eat pasta at home. 

(Photos from Martha Stewart Weddings)

Music Birthday Party

by Tara

We celebrate my daughter's half-birthday in June, since her birthday is right before Christmas. This year, since she's really into music and dancing, we opted to throw a music-themed birthday party. I had a really hard time finding food to go along with the theme, but wound up with some ideas and options.

First, I bought a box of music-themed cookie cutters. 

I made:

-Almond butter and jelly sandwiches (shaped like pianos):

-Firecracker tuna salad sandwiches (shaped like guitars):

-A cheese and crackers platter, with music note-shaped cheeses (pepper jack, colby jack, and medium cheddar):

-Chocolate-dipped pretzel drumsticks (white chocolate and dark chocolate):

-Music note-shaped chocolate chip cookies, but these didn't turn out so well after they'd baked, so I wound up needing to frost them with music notes.

-Cupcakes frosted together. My initial intention was to make them a big, rectangular-shaped iPod on top of them, but since the cupcake group wasn't retangular I opted for something different. I'm not the best cake decorator, but since my kid is only 18 months old I didn't figure she'd care.

I drew an iPod and headphones, then wished my girl a Happy Half-Birthday.

I also served melons, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes on a fruit tray, but none of it was cut into anything fancy.

And just for fun, here's a picture of the half-birthday girl, in a ridiculously frilly, cupcake-like dress because I couldn't resist (and she hated it; it got in the way of her playing all day).

Obviously, all pictures are by me, blurry, bad lighting, and all.

Have you ever thrown a party with a difficult theme?

Valentine's Day Party Sweets

By Dani

One of my besties and I are having a little all-girl's night for Valentine's Day, and I am bringing a few sweets to share. Because what Girl's Night Out is successful without at least one sugar coma, amIrite?

So, I decided to go snooping around on Pinterest and oooooh gosh, you guys. Look at what I FOUND! Sugar coma, cute widdle pink hearts, Cupid eat your heart out, because these cupcakes are only for the girls:

Red Velvet Cupcakes from Bakerella.

Not to be so easily satisfied, I went and found more stuff. Like this:

Valentine's Jelly Pops

Raspberry White Chocolate Shortbread

Mini Nutella Cupcakes

And, ohmygosh you guys, bubbly AND frosting?! Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Espresso Shortbread

Sugar Waffles (wouldn't these be great with a side of Nutella and strawberries?)

And, just because we probably should not eat handfuls of refined sugar, HEALTHY Strawberry Shortcake Martinis

So this is a lot of options. What recipe or two do you guys vote for? Do have any favorite party sweets (that may or may not be shaped like a heart)? 

Jalapeno Popper Dip: Make This Now!

By Kristin 

I’ve been meaning to write about this Jalapeno Popper Dip for at least 2 months (since the first time I made it) because it is so awesome. But then, I never remember to photograph the dip when it comes out of the oven because I stuff it all in my piehole.

This is the empty, clean pan that housed the dip. We ate the whole thing this past weekend at my mom’s house, where we were celebrating my Grandma’s birthday. It was a HIT! 

This dip makes a lot, so I usually half it, unless it’s going to be a big party. This was plenty for me and my family. I mean, more would have been better, but then no one would have been able to button their pants. 

You can get the full recipe here. 

And then make it now. TRUST ME.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Oh Pinterest, you've done it again! I would have never in my wildest dreams come up with this cookie monster cupcake idea on my own. 

After seeing the pin, I couldn't find a good cookie monster cupcake tutorial online - just a lot of random pictures, so I wrote one myself. You can see it, in all it's glory, here. 

Or follow the 6 easy steps below!

1. Bake the cupcakes of your choosing, making sure to fill the cups to the top. We went with the quintessential funfetti flavor, one box filled 12 cupcakes.

2. While they are baking you can prepare the googley eyes.

All the examples I saw used white chocolate discs. But the boys love them some “mellows” so I wanted to find a way to make this work. They are just large marshmallows with dollops of blue gel icing. I let these sit for about an hour before I put them on the cookie monster cupcake so the gel didn’t run.

3. Next the fur.

I put half a bag of coconut into the food processor with a whole tube of blue gel icing. Just be careful when you are doing this because I noticed steam coming from the top, after spinning it for a while. Sorta worried I was burning up the machine, I checked and thankfully the steam wasn’t hot it was cold? I was actually beginning to liquify the coconut and it was creating a mist. So don’t do that.

Once I got the coconut to the blue hue I wanted, I transferred it to a bowl and mixed in a shaker of sprinkles to make cookie monster a little bit sparkly and fabulous. Ha, my poor boys.

Now that they’ve baked and have nice big muffin tops (finally, a situation when that’s actually desired!), let them cool and then you can begin icing and assembling.

4. First you’ll want to ice the top. I chose Pillsbury Easy Frost (which is 99% of the reason this was so darn easy). Then over the bowl of fur, holding the cupcake upright (or the muffin top will begin to separate), place handfulls of fur onto the icing. Rotate the cupcake from the base as you go and lightly press the fur down.

5. Mouth: Then after your satisfied with the fur coverage, take a serrated knife and give the little monster a mouth. Just cut about 1/4 of the way in at an angle so you don’t cut the whole top off or encourage it to separate. Then lift the knife to open the mouth and shove the Chips Ahoy cookie in!

6. Eyes: After the gel icing has set (note: it won’t be completely dry, just a little less gooey) take your serrated knife and cut a little of the rounded part off the marshmallows so the eyes will sit flat on the cupcake.

If not then they will either roll off or you will have to secure them with tooth picks. Which is neither cute nor safe, both of which we want our cookie monster cupcakes to be, right? 

After you cut a few of the mellows you’ll want to rinse the build up off the knife with hot water so you can keep getting nice clean cuts.

A little icing on the bottom of the eyes also helps them to stick.

And that's it. Seriously. 

Made any creative cupcakes lately? Do share....

 

Halloween Party Food

By Ariel

It's not too late to start planning for our Halloween party, is it? No? Okay good, because I started around mid-July. Kidding. Sort of. Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday. It beats out presents at Christmas and even turkey at Thanksgiving. I love to get dressed up and put on too much makeup and I love candy, so there's that. My husband and I have been throwing a Halloween party for years now (five, actually), starting way back when I rented a house with some room mates in my college town, to when we lived in a townhouse apartment, and finally to our house we have now.  We were not even living in our house a full year when we hosted our last party, and I am happy that the house is a little more party friendly (although not by much, truth be told) for this year's festivities.

Thanks to the internet, my obsession for theme food knows no bounds. Every year we do one main dish of meatball subs.  They're easy, somewhat mess-free if you're, ah, careful, and they can be eaten while holding a drink and a plate. I should also mention our parties are still of the adults-only boozy variety, so I cannot with good conscious recommend meatball subs for the kids. Besides being tasty, they even look a little creepy when they're simmering in a crock pot.

{Photo by me}

As for other dishes, it varies. I have a few in mind this year I'm itching to try out.

{Photo from Parents.com}

How cute is this idea for a dip bowl?  It's so simple i'm embarrassed it never really crossed my mind to gut a small pumpkin and fill it with ranch for the veggies, or maybe a sweet cream cheese pumpkin dip? I'm not exactly sure WHAT I will fill the tiny pumpkins in my future, but rest assured they will be filled.

I've made wings before, but I've never tried wings as an appetizer before. Deviled Chicken Lollipops just sound a little creepy, don't they? I think these little guys would look great on the table spread with a couple colorful dips:

{Photo by FoodNetwork.com}

Next up is something I found earlier this year from Food Network; Cheddar and Hard Cider Fondue.

{Photo from FoodNetwork.com}

I'm going to be trying this dish sometime this week, I almost squealed with joy when I came across it because it sounds SO good.  Besides, what says "party time" like spiked fondue?  Exactly.

Speaking of booze, what better way to garnish your Halloween cocktails than with licorice and skittles?

{Photo from FoodNetwork.com}

Alongside all the candy, how about a tasty treat you can talk the kids into helping with?  PreschoolRock.com made little chocolate covered pretzel sticks with white chocolate, I'll bet these would be great with some orange food coloring for pumpkins, and regular darker chocolate would make a cute black cat!

{Photo from PreschoolRock.com}

The following might be my personal favorite when it comes to the fall season: spiked cider. It's not exactly the most complicated recipe, but it makes for a fantastic party drink.  We do two gallons of apple cider to one gallon of spiced rum. Serve it in a big cauldron with plenty of ice and you have refreshment with a great decoration.

{Photo by me}

Finally, how about a candy corn tree for decoration, or to let your guests know what dish is what?  Seriously, Ms Dean, you're my hero.

So, did I cover all the bases?  Here's a quick run down of other Halloween-happy posts from Food Lush last year: Katie's Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, Nora's Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches, Cherie's Mummy Dogs, and Amanda's Spooky Punch Bowl.

I'd love to hear what you like to make for Halloween! Creepy cocktails? Horrifying Hors d'oeuvres? Let us know in the comments!

Feeding the Masses at a Family Reunion

By Natalie

For the 4th of July weekend we are having a family reunion. There will be about 30 people there. My parents have rented 2 large houses for all the families to stay at. My cousin and I were put in charge of meal planning and the shopping. 

What I want to know, is how would you divide the labor and purchasing of food?  My cousin came up with a color coordinated schedule of which house will prepare what. But, does that mean I'm going to be standing in front of the stove most nights, and who's going to man the grill? How would you do it?

Here's the schedule we came up with:

Day 1:

• Lunch: travel 
• Dinner:beer can chickens, beans, squash, corn on the cob

Day 2:

• Breakfast: smoothies and omelets  at our house, and monkey bread at the other house
• Lunch: sandwiches
• Dinner: ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, beans, chocolate ice cream, key lime pie ice cream, red, white, and blue cake, and banana pudding

Day 3:

• Breakfast: breakfast casserole at my house, waffles at the other house
• Lunch: hot dogs and sandwiches
• Dinner: BBQ pork loin, mashers, salad, ice cream, and peach cobbler

Day 4:

• Breakfast: muffins (prepared ahead of time and frozen)
• Lunch: travel

What's your go to meal for feeding the masses?

How would you prepare your shopping list?

What would you make ahead of time?