FUN FOOD AT THE BUNCO FUNDRAISER

Our Ladies Auxiliary at church put on a benefit for a Domestic Violence Program in our area.

The one thing that our group does amazingly well, and I hate to brag, is cooking for our community events.  Yearly, we have a fundraiser, an Oktoberfest and we also alternate having a Mardi Gras or St. Patrick's Day meal every year.  The neat thing about our events is that we cook from scratch-yes-scratch.

For our fundraiser, we made baked chicken wings with Emeril's Essence, Swedish meatballs, cheese balls in the shape of wine bottles, salami bites, Black Forest ham and Swiss cheese sliders, a ginormous fruit platter and mini brownies frosted with white frosting to look like dice--it was a Bunco party.

I want to share one recipe that we tried.  It will go in my recipe file, because not only was it easy, it was simple and oh so tasty.

SALAMI BITES

This recipe makes 40 mini muffin appetizers.

First, mix together 8 oz. softened cream cheese, 1 c. grated mozzarella, 1 c. grated fresh Parmesan and 1- 9 oz. box of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry of all water.

The next step was to take a thin slice of Genoa salami and using a 2 3/4 in. biscuit cutter, cut a hole out of each slice.  Then take a snip at opposite ends of the salami.  This will allow the salami to fit in the mini muffin cups.  YOU do NOT need to spray Pam into the muffin pans because the salami has enough fat in them.  I promise you they do not stick after cooking.

Place one circular piece of salami in the bottom of each mini muffin pan and place a dollop of the cream cheese mixture on top.   

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until slightly brown in a 350 degree oven.  Let cool for about 10 minutes before removing them from the pan. These tasty bites can be served at room temperature so it is not a last minute kind of appetizer.  I love this!

Here is the dessert press for our Bunco players to enjoy eating before starting their game.

We served about 90 guests and our organization was able to make a substantial donation to our community Domestic Violence Program.  And that, is a good thing.

WILDFLOWER CENTERPIECES FOR WEDDING RECEPTION

One of my daughter's friends was married recently.  On their 'honeymoon', two of her friends went with them to climb Mount Rainier.  One of them was my daughter.  Though they had a wonderful time trekking up the mountain, it was a challenge.

When the couple returned, they had a reception. I volunteered to help the bride decorate for the reception.  Her theme was hiking and camping.  I pulled out a few of my vintage suitcases to start the juices flowing for our decorations.

When it got around to centerpieces, I mentioned that we could use wildflowers.  Because she was on a budget, I suggested uses soup cans as vases.  I pulled off the labels and glued birch wrapping paper around them.  Adding twine finished off the display.  I suggested wood slices to anchor the centerpieces.  The bride mentioned that an old tree had fallen on their property and her father made the slices for her.  The floral lady from church worked her magic and placed the flowers in the 'tin' cans.

The last touch was to add copies of vintage Mt. .Rainier posters on a flower  pick to the bouquet.

And this is the result....

The bride had 16 round tables, so at the end of the night, she told me I could take the flower arrangements.  One of our parishioners works with the boy scouts and asked me if she could have the tin cans.  Easily, these rustic cans would work for the scouts and I was going to throw them away.  So, I brought them home and filled my mantle and a vintage basket with the cans.

It was wonderful to have a room bursting with blooms for a few extra days.

Just goes to show, what you can do on a budget!



LOTTERY FRAMED AUCTION PROJECT



FAMIILY BRIDAL SHOWER

Another  family wedding is upon us and I realized that I never posted about the bridal shower that the girls in the family gave Megan.

The inspiration came from one of Megan's favorite colors-which morphed into Tiffany blue.  That was all I needed to get onto the planning for this family event.  We set the date in order to have most of the girls attend.  Last Thanksgiving, we came together to celebrate Megan and her upcoming marriage to Andrew.  The day was full of activities.  Thanksgiving morning, we had the shower and that afternoon, we held Thanksgiving dinner at a room at the hotel.

I wanted to have an elegant shower presentation.  First of all, I couldn't have done this shower without my sister Karen, who allowed us to use her beautiful home for the shower. Also, since I was coming from out of town, my sister, Sharon helped too.

My youngest daughter came up with the idea of draping the pearl strands into the chandelier.

Thoughts of Audrey Hepburn brought to mind pearls, Tiffany blue and silver.  All accents incorporated these accents.

The menu was placed in a beautiful pearl and rhinestones encrusted frame.

I tried to come up with a favor for the shower.  I found these cute Hershey bar wrappers in the Tiffany color.  On the back, the wedding date was printed.  The silver paper dessert plates added to our Parisian glamour.

For dessert, Megan requested cheesecake, so we had a 3 tiered display of various types of cheesecake.

Another picture of the dessert sideboard.

A plate of mini quiches, fruit kabobs and cinnamon mini rolls was just the right amount of food for a bridal brunch.

I must stop and share with you the amazing talent of my sister-in-law, Debi who created these gorgeous floral centerpieces. Isn't this one beautiful?

And finally, our happy bride to be!