2010 Open House

(The party started at 6. Last year it was 6:20 before anyone arrived, so this year I planned on not having the warm stuff ready right at 6. And they started showing up at 6:00 so I was 15 minutes late with the food. Above is a picture of the finished products!)

Once again, it was time for our annual Open House for our church family. My sweet friend, Connie, spent an afternoon looking over new recipes with me and even went on an all day day shopping trip with me helping me to get ready. I do not like to repeat recipes, so yes, I treat our congregation like guinea pigs when it comes to food. I really liked all but one of these recipes and might repeat a few in the future. Above wins the award for the most beautiful recipe. Rosemary skewers. Mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes and tortellini pasta marinated overnight in champagne dressing...YUM!!!! Below: a close up. Next; marinated fruit. This was soaked in special dressing overnight and was tangy and tasty! Graham Cracker Crumbles. Tasty if you like pecans. Dee Dee's Delights. I make these every year. The kids love them. Peppered Pecans. I heard they were good. I was not about to try one. Mint brownies. Very labor intensive with all the extra steps. Took a long time, but they were delicious!!!!! Orange Blossoms. INCREDIBLE! Monterrey Jack Salsa Dip. Very simple. Very pretty and very tasty! This was my big experiment. A chicken nacho cheesecake dip. Not to hard to make, but I was very nervous when it was time to take it out of the pan. I just knew it was going to plop down onto the counter and make a mess. It DIDN'T! It worked! It looked so pretty!!! You are supposed to cut it like a cheesecake and eat it with chips like a dip. It tasted fine, but a lot didn't get eaten. I don't think people knew what to do with it. Stuffed olives. Yuck. Didn't eat any of those either, but they were all gone by the end of the evening. A pretty picture of the rosemary skewers. Marinated triple cheese stacks with marinated pepper crackers. A bit labor intensive, but impressive. They looked good and were really tasty! Though I didn't eat the crackers, not a fan of pepper flakes. Spinach and stuffing balls. Served warm with hot mustard. A lot got eaten, but I did not try one. Tiny tomato basil bites. I love these!!!! So cool and tasty. My new favorite. Crab Bites. Served warm. A lot of left overs. Not many eaten. Would not try again. My favorite new recipe from last year. The warm leek and goat cheese dip. It is so easy to make and though it sounds really weird, it is absolutely delicious!!! There was punch and champagne as well. We had about 55 people over and enjoyed visiting with everybody. Kids were running around upstairs, adults were mingling downstairs. And there were NO leftovers. Just about everything was gone. It was a wonderful night and a lot of fun. I always get really stressed out then end up having a fabulous time. We are so blessed to be a part of this church and this is our way of saying thank you to everyone.

Well, this is the last post of 2010.
Another year full of blessings and trials.
Another year full of God's mercy and grace.
Another year to rejoice and be thankful in so many things.
Thank you Lord for all you do in my life and the life of my family.
May you use us even more in 2011 to honor and serve you.