Dip, Meatballs; It’s Party Time

My roommate and I finally threw our housewarming party this past weekend. By finally, I mean like five months delayed. But, being that we R who we R (we have a ke$ha obsession in this household), we decided to throw it as a housewarming/Halloween party. Costumes make everything better. And as I happened to be going as a crazy cat lady this year (sans cats much to my dismay), and him as a hot mess, we were ready to partayyy.

Between the two of us our talents led to a fantastically decorated home and some pretty delicious nibbles. I attempted to help the roomie out with the decor, but after my feeble attempt at drawing a maple leaf, I was told politely to keep to the “regular” types of leaves. We all have our strengths.

For parties it is always necessary to sanction off the home. Where will people be allowed to put coats and bags? Where will the bar and food be, where can people sit and chat, will there be games? So many questions to figure out. After some rearranging, Ian and I moved into our positions: I in the kitchen cooking, Ian moving up and down the apt cleaning and decorating. Is’t he incredibly talented? He even made a skeleton. All while singing along to a delightful “Summer in the 90’s” playlist of course.

As you may have noticed, I am not a baker. I can make a mean chocolate chip cookie but otherwise I need to follow recipes to make almost anything else. Sure I adjust things here and there to my liking, but someone else came up with the foundation. I am a firm believer in offering a range of choices for party food, trying to satisfy all types of eaters.

My menu balance went as follows: sweet but non-chocolate, sweet and chocolate, meat but no cheese, veggies and cheese. Sorry vegans, you will more often than not be out of luck in my kitchen.

For the chocolate lovers I followed this recipe. It was way too sweet for me and unfortunately was probably the least liked at the party. Not that it wasn’t still over half eaten however.

For the non-chocolate sweet tooths, I found a recipe for caramel apple cider cookies. Sounds pretty fantastic right? The original recipe can be found here, but I made a few adjustments myself.

Caramel Apple Cider Cookie

Feeds about 18–20 (total of around 36–40 cookies)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C softened butter
• 1/2 C granulated sugar
• ½ Tsp salt
• 1 box (7.4 oz) Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix -not sugar free- all 10 packets
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tsp baking soda
• ½ Tsp baking powder
• 1 Tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 Tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 bag Kraft Caramels (14 oz)

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.

2. Mix together your dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. *Make sure this is not the bowl you will be using a mixer in.

3. In a large or your mixer’s bowl, whisk together all other ingredients except for eggs and vanillia.

4. Whisk in eggs one at a time. Then add vanilla in slowly.

5. Gradually add in dry mixture until dough is formed.

6. Place dough in fridge until you have unwrapped all the caramels. If you have a helper who has already done this, you can skip the cooling step.

7. Using as little dough as possible, wrap each caramel in cookie dough and place on a parchment or wax paper covered cookie sheet.

8. Bake for 12–14 minutes, or until lightly golden at edges.

9. Allow to cool on parchment before transferring them to a platter.

Adjustments:

• I cut the butter and sugar down quite a bit from the originally recipe due to the high sugar content of the apple cider packets and butter and sweetness from the caramels.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip:

*I have made this a few times, and this is by far the best it has ever turned out. Follow your tastebuds and they will lead you to happiness.

Feeds 8–12 people

Ingredients:

• 2 cans artichoke hearts
• 1 C. shredded parmesan
• 1 C. sour cream
• 1/2 C. greek yogurt
• 3 garlic cloves
• juice from half a lemon
• 1 (10-oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 1/2 C. shredded monterey jack cheese
• crackers/chips/things to eat this with: my preference is with pita chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. To drain spinach, squeeze excess water out of handfuls over the sink.

3. Mix everything together in a medium sized bowl except for 1/2 C. monterey jack cheese.

4. Spoon into 8×8 baking dish or casserole dish and top with leftover cheese.

5. Bake for 30–40 minutes depending on what pan you use.

*Sorry about the lack of pictures, this one was the last to finish and I already had guests!

Chicken, Bacon, Apple Meatballs:

Growing up in the midwest means that meatballs were probably at every party you’ve ever been to. Bbq meatballs, Italian meatballs, some kind of unknown sweet sauced meatballs, its just a thing that we do. They are also easy to make and hard to mess up. Which is ideal when you are hosting a party and trying to cook four recipes in one day. Meatballs are also subject to experiment. Like my recipe philosophy, these little guys follow the rules for proportion. Because to make the perfect meatball, you need the perfect amount of meat to fat to spice ratio– don’t forget your binder (eggs+breadcrumbs).

The Meatball: beef (your foundation meat), pork (your fat), sometimes veal for more flavor, and then your flavor profile (Italian, Moroccan, Mexican, you name it, there is probably a meatball made there).

My Meatball: chicken, bacon, apples and sage (shall we call this the Fall Meatball and just move on?)

Feeds about 20 people (40 meatballs)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground chicken
• 1 package of bacon
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 2 apples, peeled and cut into confetti size pieces
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C. breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Put bacon and chicken in a food processor. Blend until bacon is fully incorporated.

3. Spoon meat mixture into large bowl, add all other ingredients.

4. Form into small, inch diameter, ball and place on parchment papered cooking sheet.

5. Bake for 20 minutes.