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.