Birthday parties, booze bouquet, recipes and mini bar ideas

Last night I hosted my husband's 40th birthday party. It was really fun, we had a lot of friends over, and since our house isn't huge, we decided to try having the party in the garage. Early October in South Dakota can be either warm or cold. Last night was cold! But we moved the car and truck out and borrowed a few space heaters, and viola, the party was perfect. We moved in our patio tables and chairs and I didn't care at all when a drink got spilled on the garage floor. It was a great way to show off the whole "man-cave" to his friends. (I have a fun idea to add to it for Christmas.)

For my gift to him, I always throw his party and make his bourbon cake. No, I can't share the recipe, the friend who gave it to me told me not to. Last night we increased our guest list and I spent 2 days cooking getting ready. I served chili (with hot dogs for chili dogs and french fries for chili-cheese fries), homemade runzas - a divine food from Nebraska and southwestern egg rolls. For the kids I also made pizza rolls - they burned through those in no time flat, and pink lemonade cupcakes.

I sewed 3 Girl Scout vests to help me pay for the party and was able to buy him the first 2 seasons of the show "Archer" on DVD along with the book "How to Archer"

The second part of his gift was a booze bouquet inspired by an image similar to this:

Except to make mine, I went thrift shopping (like you didn't see that coming,) and I found an awesome retro-70s-faux red leather ice bucket for $2.50. Then I bought a pack of 10 chopsticks at the dollar store. At the liquor store I bought 10 different individual shot-sized bottles, the most expensive was $1.79. To put it all together, I hot-glued the bottles to the chopsticks at varying heights and added some festive-sparkly ribbon to each one. I filled the ice bucket with ice and added the booze-on-a-sticks. All said, I think I spent about $20 on the whole thing. And now we have an ice bucket.

His friends kept showing up with unnecessary gifts so now I have 3 bottles of bourbon, a bottle of tequila and all those mini-bottles to store. This has inspired me to start a new quest. We need a DIY Mini Bar!!! I'll post more as I decide what to do.

My friends asked me to share the recipes for the egg rolls and runzas, so here they are:

Southwestern Eggrolls:
1 small can refried black beans
1 small can drained black beans
1/2 pkg frozen spinache - thawed and squeezed dry as possible
2 medium fresh tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
4 green onions, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
salt & pepper to taste
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
3/4 cup grated monterey jack cheese
flour tortillas
oil for frying

Combine ingredients (except tortillas) in a large bowl. Put a couple heaping Tablespoons of mixture in a warmed tortilla. Wrap like a burrito-very tightly. Use a toothpick to hold closed.

Fry in 1/2 inch deep oil in a skillet over medium heat (oil is ready to fry when it bubbles around the handle of a wooden spoon when you insert it). Turn and brown on both sides. Remove to a cooling rack over a paper towel. Cut diagonally and serve with dip or salsa. Can be prepared and refrigerated before frying or can be fried and the frozen. Reheat in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

Runzas
Filling
1/2 lb ground beef
1 onion minced
2 cups cabbage, chopped fine
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Dough
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 packages of dry yeast

Preheat oven to 350.

Filling: brown ground beef and onions. Wilt cabbage in butter and then add to beef.
Dough: Put about 1 3/4 cup flour in a bowl. Stir in sugar, salt and yeast. Heat milk, water and shortening until warm and add to flour mixture. Add eggs and beat with mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in rest of ingredients and knead dough for 3 minutes. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. Roll dough very thin and cut into rectangles (about 4x6). Place 3 Tbsp of meat mixture in center and bring edges together. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown.

Variations: (swiss cheese & mushroom), (pizza sauce, sausage, pepperoni & mushroom)

S'mores Gift Bask or S'mores Party Idea

Our FABULOUS daycare provider just moved into a new house, and instead of giving her a gift card for a house-warming present, my daughters and I decided to make her a gift basket. Our daycare provider has a fire pit so we thought it would be fun to give her a S'mores Gift Basket.




The gift basket (actually a bright red mixing bowl) included the following items:
Graham Crackers
Hershey's Bars (the big pack)
Marshmallows
1 Hershey's Cookies 'n Cream Bar
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Werther's Original Chewy Caramels
1 Hershey's Dark Chocolate Bar
Roasting forks

Some of the items listed above may seem a bit odd, but I included the following recipes:
Toasted Wacky Taffies
6 wrapped caramels
12 Ritz crackers

Unwrap caramels and insert one onto the end of roasting fork. Hold fork about 12" to 15" over coals. Toast caramel over campfire until just softened, being careful not to melt the caramel completely. Place 1 caramel between 2 Ritz crackers.

Sailor S'mores
Marshmallows
Creamy Peanut Butter
Saltine Crackers
Chocolate Bar

Toast marshmallow to desired doneness. Spread peanut butter on 1 side of each saltine, then place piece of chocolate on 1 cracker. Add marshmallow and make sandwich.

S'more Burritos Please!
1 8" flour tortilla
2 to 3 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter
3 Tbsp miniature chocolate chips

Cut 1 piece of foil about 12" long. Set the tortilla in the center of the foil. Spread the peanut butter over the tortilla, almost to the edges. Sprinkle marshmallows and chocolate chips over 1/2 of the tortilla. Fold in sides and then roll like a burrito, beginning with the chocolate chip side. Wrap foil around burrito in a flat pack. Bake in 375 degree oven for 8 to 12 minutes OR double wrap and place on warm embers for 5 to 15 minutes OR grill over medium-low heat for 5 to 10 minutes.

S'more ideas
1. Cookies 'n Creme S'mores: use cookies 'n creme candy and chocolate graham crackers to make s'more.
2. Peanut Butter S'mores: use Reese's peanut butter cups instead of milk chocolate.
3. Dark S'mores: use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate
4. Chewy Chocolate Caramel: toast caramels and sandwich with chocolate on graham crackers.

My sister and her husband were super lucky and their oldest son built them a brick fire pit for Father's Day. She thought it would be fun to have a S'mores party, and I agree. I think the lists and recipes above would be a great help to setting up her buffet table of s'mores fixin's.