Category — Entertaining

We’re about one-third of the way through with the appetizer recipes, so how about a cute beverage idea for your next holiday gathering?

By far the most popular part of the annual party was this setup of desserts and shots. Let’s zoom in…

The Lighted Christmas trees with Ornament Shots were the bomb! I had purchased the round ornament shot glasses last year in the Target Dollar Spot but had yet to use them. Then Marissa sent me the TikTok idea of hanging them on these simple lighted trees. It’s a winner!

I’ve linked the trees and shot ornaments below. As for the shots themselves, do whatever you’d like. The most popular at our party was the Rum Chata & Fireball shot, which tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. So good! I also made Bailey’s Irish Cream shots, Cranberry-Tequila shots, and Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey shots.

This recipe may be one you want to have in your back pocket and wait to make. Why? Because it is for deviled eggs.

Eggs! What is happening with eggs!?! If you live in a cave or maybe you’re a vegan and don’t know but there is a world-wide egg shortage. They are hard to find in stores and may cost up to $10 a dozen for organic right now!

The Avian flu is the cause. It is predicted to last into the first month or two of this year. I believe the shortage hit right around the time of our party (12/18/22). I don’t think Peggy, who made this recipe, had a problem, but it would have been an issue a week or so later. These devils are darn good, so how about you bookmark this and save it for Easter?

A little whiskey, a little bacon, who wouldn’t love it!?! Laura made this delicious pot of gold.

This recipe comes together easily, once you have the 8 shallots peeled and chopped and it makes a lot. Plenty to bring to a party and plenty to keep for yourself. The original recipe calls for paprika, but I prefer smoked paprika. Be sure to follow the recipe when it tells you to remove from the heat before adding the whiskey. No one needs a surprise flambe.

April make this yummy dip. It was a big hit and it is full of protein to keep the party going. The recipe and the photo come from Taste of Home.

*** As an added bonus to these potluck recipes, I’m adding a Little Known Amazing Random Fact at the end of the post. I found these on a page I follow on Instagram and I can honestly say, I knew none of them! Be sure to check them out and let me know if you knew any.

Tuscan Sausage & Bean Dip

• 1 pound bulk hot Italian sausage
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 8-ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 package (6 ounces) fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped
• 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup chopped seeded tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• Assorted crackers or toasted French bread baguette slices

I hosted my annual Christmas Appetizer Potluck on Sunday, December 18th. Marissa, Jeff and Max had arrived the afternoon before. I was pretty upfront with my friends/guests that this was as much the annual gathering as it was a “Come Meet Max!” Party.

I took not one photo of the food or beverages that night. In fact, the photo above of Max and Tram is the only photo I took. Poor Max is so tired. He did his best to stay up and meet everyone. Such a sweet little trooper.

Since there are no photos of the food, I’ll be lifting the photos from the websites I found the recipes on. This one is from Inspired by Charm.

In case you don’t recall how my Christmas Potluck works, I send out the invite and when I have a good idea of how many will attend, I send out an email with the selection of recipes to choose from with links to each recipe. It’s a strictly enforced, “first come, first served.” Each guest “replies to all” with the recipe they will be making. This year was a new record – 70% of the guests responded within 4 minutes of that email going out!

Stay tuned in the days to follow, there will be another dozen recipes along with the super fun and festive cocktails I served. And the best part, there are photos of those! Thanks to my girl, Mary, who took some great pics! Thank you, Mary! xoxo

Below is my son, Connor’s, recipe choice. So cute!

This salad screams “SPRING!” English peas, check. Sugar Snap Peas, got ’em. Asparagus, you betcha. Radishes, for sure. Mint, yup. The instructions for the recipe look long, but once you get the water boiling and the bowl of ice water set up, it comes together in a snap. Just be sure to blanch the asparagus last so that the water doesn’t take on the taste until the end.

I found the fresh English peas at Trader Joe’s. I don’t like frozen peas, but I loved these! I’m not sure how long they will be in stores, but get them while you can!

The end of the month is a week away so I want to take this opportunity to remind you about the April contest. To be eligible to win, you either need to leave a comment on every post in April beginning with the post from April 1st and continuing through the end of the month. And/Or you may also enter by following Harmony Boards on Instagram and getting 5 of your friends to follow. GO HERE for all the rules and details.

Several of you are playing along by leaving comments on these posts, thank you! But I have to let you know that a few of you need to go back and be sure you’ve posted on all the posts, right off the bat a couple of you missed commenting on the April 1 post, so if you’re playing, please double-check before the end of the month. I want you all to be eligible to be in the drawing! If you haven’t started playing, it’s not too late, please join in.

Asparagus, Radish, and Mixed Pea Salad with Mint and Hazelnuts

Yup, another post about that pickle juice vodka I made that isn’t so great. It wasn’t my intention to write another post but a comment from Nancy on the last post prompted this one.

Nancy said, “Did you think about pouring some of the vodka back into the pickles to have “pickled” pickles? Maybe for Bloody Marys?”

Actually, I’d not only thought of it, but I’d already done it. Although I didn’t pour the vodka back over the pickles, I poured it over the contents of this jar of mixed vegetables I had picked up at World Market. As you can see in the photo, the vegetables are packed in safflower oil. The oil taste and smell were unappetizingly strong. Seriously strong, when I opened the jar, I gagged a little. No, the oil had not gone rancid, you can see the “use-by” date is 2021. It was just Very fragrant!

I used part of the contents in a Custom Installation of Harmony Boards earlier this month. To make them taste and smell good, I drained off the oil, patted them as dry as I could get them, and then rinsed them in apple cider vinegar. That worked. They are on the rectangular dish in the photo above.

On Saturday I helped my dear friend and former neighbor, Amy Kilpatrick (of Amy’s Famous Taco Soup fame) with a surprise 50th birthday party for her husband, Scott. Amy and Scott are high school sweethearts. They became girlfriend and boyfriend when they were 15 or 16 years old and turned 50 within a week of each other. Amy’s birthday was last Thursday and Scott’s is this coming Thursday.

I remember attending their joint 40th birthday party at Scott’s parent’s house. Amy decided to throw Scott a surprise party and asked for my help. She told Scott she would be at a conference all day on Saturday. Their two boys, Tim & Will, who attend UofA in Tucson, came home for the weekend to celebrate with their parents. Tim and Will’s job was to keep their dad occupied, yet available for party time. It wasn’t too hard since March Madness is in full swing. The guys just hung out all day, watching games and enjoying time together.

Amy ordered a custom installation of Harmony Boards for the party. I already had an order for the afternoon, so I had 2 other boards to make and deliver, a total of 8 boards for the day. That’s a BIG day for Harmony Boards! Since all that was going on, there was no way Amy would be able to cook the dinner portion of the party at my house, so she enlisted her mom, stepmother, and mother-in-law to do all that. They each prepared a brisket and the additional sides and such.

The theme of the party was Pickle Ball. Scott is big into it, if you don’t know what it is, check this out, it’s the hot new sport. Amy went all out with the theme and the decorations were so cute and fun.

We figured out the perfect way to get Scott to the party. He and the boys have always been wonderful about helping me when I need extra muscle. When I lived in Equestrian Manor they lived only a block away. I’d call them for help every now and again, such as when a wind storm was about to blow down a new tree in my yard and I was holding on to it for dear life. I had my cell phone, called Amy and she sent the boys over to help me tie it to one of the bigger trees to keep it from blowing down. Or when I needed to move furniture, Scott and the boys were always willing to lend the muscle.

The weekend before last, my friend and former neighbor, Whitney, hosted a bridal shower. She asked me to help with the food and she ordered a Harmony Board too.

The menu was a green salad, frittatas, and breakfast potatoes. Since I’m Irish and I love potatoes, I’ll post that recipe first.

I quadrupled the recipe, so when you see the photos, do not fret. It looks like a lot because it is a lot!

I bought a mix of baby potatoes from Costco. The tri-color of the potatoes and tri-color of the bell peppers really make for a pretty dish, as pretty as you can get with potatoes, anyhow.

In the recipe, I say to roughly chop the potatoes, think bite-size. With the baby potatoes, that was as easy as cutting them into quarters.

Since I was just dropping the food off, I didn’t get a photo of the finished product (I did the last stage of roasting at Whitney’s house and left them in the oven as I left) so, I’ll just leave you with a photo of one the lovey buffet tables she had set up for the food.

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Cute mama-to-be, Chanté, posing in front of the cocktail station at the Harmony Boards launch party. She is the sweetest!

I’ve posted the recipes for the two signature cocktails we made for the party, so now it’s time for the mocktail. A mocktail that Chanté and others, who choose not to imbibe but still want to feel festive, could enjoy.

I wanted to try something new. I know so many people who are lovers of the elderflower flavor, such as the famous St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur. I’ve made several cocktails with St. Germain, such as this Champagne Cocktail, but to be perfectly honest, I’m not a fan of the elderflower flavor. It’s a bit too, let’s just say, flowery, for my taste.

But since I had no intention of drinking the mocktail that evening, I went ahead and created one using elderflower syrup.

Where can one find elderflower syrup, you ask? Amazon, of course.

Oh, and in the photo of the ingredients below, there is a bottle of agave. That is because I tried making it with a 1/2 teaspoon of agave nectar in my first attempt and … NO!  It was way TOO sweet for not only my taste, but for anyone except maybe a six-year-old.  Pretend that is not there!

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