~ Party Recipes ~ Easy Guacamole

 

 

 

 I got an email today from a lovely reader Laura, who asked me to post the recipe for the Guacamole I made for the Super Bowl Party and what tips I have to prevent the Guacamole turning brown.

 

Well I answered to Laura the secret is just to leave the seed of one Avocado inside. Add lots of lime juice and if made in advance, cover it with clear Saran wrap without leaving any air in between. Cover as close as you can to the Guacamole, and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to serve. 

 

My recipe is very simple: I just blended 3 Ripe Avocados, 1/2 white onion, and the juice of 2 big limes in the food processor and that's all.

 

I use ripe Avocados, when they are soft to the touch but not so much, otherwise they will be brown inside.

 

You can also serve the Guacamole with some "Pico de Gallo" on top, which is just a mix of finely chopped tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and lime juice.

 

I just leave it plain and I think it's really delicious. this guacamole never stays long on the table. Served with Tortilla chips is always a favorite! ...and It tastes even better if you have a Margarita with it!

 

Do you have any favorite party recipes? Please share with us. Submit your recipe at party-tales{at}rogers{dot}com 

 

 

~ Party Recipes ~ Spinach and Ricotta Cheese Lasagna

I usually make Spinach and Ricotta Cheese Manicotti but yesterday after I started mixing all the ingredients for my filling I noticed I didn't have enough Manicotti so I decided to make it a Lasagna instead.  It was delicious! So I thought of sharing the recipe here as I think Lasagnas are perfect to serve in a party, as you can always make them and freeze them ahead of time and just warm up for the party. 

To make this lasagna you need:

SPINACH AND RICOTTA FILLING:

900 grms Baby Spinach

425 grms Ricotta Cheese

1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

1 cup Grated Mozzarella Cheese

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Nutmeg

1/2 cup Italian seasoned Bread crumbs {or season your own bread crumbs with dry herbs}

Salt and Pepper

Steam Spinach for 5 minutes in a double boiler and mix with the rest of the ingredients.

 

RED SAUCE:

1 jar of Strained Tomatoes

3/4 of the same jar filled with water.

1/2 Onion

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

Fresh Basil

Salt & sugar

1 teaspoon Roasted Red Peppers seasoning mix

In a large pot saute 1/2 chopped onion for about 5 minutes, add 1 Strained or Pureed Tomato Jars, Water {Fill with water 1/2 of the tomato jar and pour in the pot}, Fresh basil leaves, season with roasted garlic and red pepper seasoning mix, pinch of salt and pinch of sugar

 Cook in low for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  I always make a lot of this sauce and freeze to have it ready when needed.  You can also add a carrot and a celery stick while cooking for extra-flavor and just remove before serving

COOKED LASAGNA NOODLES: Cook using package directions. I usually boil 9 lasagna noodles for a 9x13 glass pan for 3 layers of Pasta and 2 of filling in between.

Now that you have all ready, Add Red sauce to the bottom of your lasagna pan and star layering your lasagna as follows:

 Pasta, Red sauce,  Filling and repeat again. Finish with a layer of pasta, red sauce, and Parmesan Cheese. Sprinkle Dry herbs on top.  Cover with Aluminum Foil and bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.  Uncover the lasagna and bake for another 5 minutes. 

You can also use the filling to stuff Manicotti, just put some sauce at the bottom of your pan, put your stuffed manicotti cooked shells, cover with red sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese, cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.


I hope you try this recipe and enjoy.  Please let me know it you do!

Did you see my Beef and Chicken Lasagna recipe?  See it here.

~ Birthday Party ~ Americal Girl Doll Party & Tutorial how to make Pinwheels

How cuter can this get? A party for you and your doll. Beth from Beth Kruse Custom Creations  styled this adorable American Girl Doll party for her daughter Ella's 7th birthday and she sure did and amazing job.

Some of my favorite details of this gorgeous party incude the petite decorations and accessories for the both girls and their dollies like the Pinwheels, hair barrettes, bracelets and birthday hats.  Beth is also sharing with us a tutorial she put together on how to made the paper pinwheels.

Here are all the gorgeous details of this party, as told by Beth:

"Every day, at some point, you can catch my daughter flipping through the American Girl doll catalog. So for her 7th birthday, we decided to do an American Girl Doll Party.

Her favorite color is blue so we picked the colors navy, hot pink and teal. We also used the american girl logo for inspiration and incorporated stars. Because we were doing it outside, I thought pinwheels and bunting would be great decorations"

"I wanted the dessert table to be set up out in our yard. It rained all day so we had to wait until the last minute to set it up.  The large ella banner was cut using the cricut and then I used streamers to ruffle the background"

Beth decorated mini-cupcakes with tall tiny flags she made using wood skewers and paper.
 She wrapped the licorice in bunches and made gorgeous cupcake toppers for the chocolate frosted cupcakes. 

Some other sweet treats were the mini-poptarts on a stick {Beth got the recipe from here}, Swirly suckers for girls and pretend suckers for dolls {made by pippaloo} and cookies wrapped with bakers twine. 

Lemonade Cans -A favorite of the birthday girl
{lemonade banner attached to dowel rods}

"American girl wraps for cans -could also be made for water bottles-
{make them waterproof by using packing tape!} The girls LOVED these.

They had so much fun finding 'their' doll"

Pinwheels for girls and dolls {how to make pinwheels} and goodie bags

 

"Matching pinwheel barrettes I made for the birthday girl, her sister and their dolls and

mini plates and cups for the dolls {american girl party supplies from joann fabrics}

I thought these were kind of pricey, but they were a favorite of the girls.
They were all pretending that their dolls were eating too!"

Birthday hats for the dolls

"The party went late so that we could watch a movie outside with a projector so we also used a lot of tiki torches.  The yard looked so pretty!"

Thanks Beth for sharing with us and putting together that wonderful tutorial. 

American Girl Party Supplies can also be purchased at Birthday Express

Personalized American girl doll party printable now in the shop

~ Party Recipes ~ Chicken and Beef Lasagna

As seen on Sarina's Sweet Second Birthday Party

Here is the recipe for my famously acclaimed Lasagna :)

Essentially to put the Lasagna together you need to have all of these ready:

1- Chicken:  Put 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a pot, add 4 Chicken breast skinless boneless and brown for 2 minutes {you can use bone-in chicken breast too, just be careful when shredding to remove all the bones}, add chopped vegetables {In the food processor blend 1 big onion, 3 garlic cloves, 2 tomatoes}, add salt and pepper {you can use as well poultry or roasted garlic and red pepper seasoning mix for extra flavour}, 1/2 chicken cube, and 1 cup of water. Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes in low heat or until cook, just not overcook since this will be in the oven again we don't want the chicken to turn into rubber. Shred chicken, with all and vegetables, in the same pot using two forks.

 2- Beef:  In a pan, Saute 1kilogram of extra lean ground beef, with  vegetable mix {In the food processor add 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 sweet cubanelle pepper, 1 carrot and 1/2 celery stalk}  Salt and Pepper or use Montreal Steak Seasoning. Brown for 2 minutes then add 1 cup of Red sauce {Recipe below} and let simmer 20 min approx. in low heat. 

3- Red Sauce:  In a large pot saute 1 chopped onion for about 2 minutes, add 2 Strained or Pureed Tomato Jars, Water {Fill with water 1 of the tomato jars and pour in the pot}, Fresh basil leaves,  season with roasted garlic and red pepper seasoning mix.

4- White Sauce:  In a pot add 2 tbsp of butter, 2 can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup, 2 cups of Milk, bring to boil and let it simmer for 5 minutes in low heat

5- Cooked Pasta: I prefer to boil fresh pasta rather than using oven ready {It seems I always choose the hard way in everything I do, but believe me the result is different}. Another reason while I choose to boil the pasta rather than using oven-ready is because this way you can freeze your prepared lasagna to bake another day, however with oven-ready pasta the lasagna should go in the oven right away.  Use a big pot follow pasta instructions and don't boil more than 9 at the time, being careful to not to overcook. Save your cooked pasta in a Pyrex filled with cold water until ready to put lasagna together. {You'll  need at least 15 cooked lasagna pasta for each of the big aluminum pans like the ones shown in the picture above}

6- Shredded Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheese

7- Italian herbs seasoning.

Now that you have everything ready, you can put the lasagna together as follow: 

- Start with some of the white sauce in the pan

- then add the first layer of cooked pasta, just overlapping by 1cm. and cover the whole pan {5 cooked pasta should cover it}

- More white sauce

- Beef

- Red Sauce {be generous}

- Mozzarella cheese

- Second layer of Pasta {another 5 cooked pasta}

- White sauce

- Chicken

- Red Sauce

- Mozzarella Cheese

- Third layer of Pasta

- Pink Sauce: white and red sauce mixed :) 

- And top it all with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and little bit {1 teaspoon of Italian herbs seasoning}

Cover with aluminum foil, put into preheated 350 degrees oven for 30-45 minutes and VOILA!! it is ready. 

Now if you want to freeze to bake another day instead, you can do so, just defrost overnight in the fridge before going in the oven, it might take a little bit longer than 30 minutes.  If your ingredients were hot when you put together the lasagna, let it cool down before freezing.  Now if you want to bake it the next day, don't freeze, just leave it in the fridge.

HERE IS YOUR SHOPPING LIST: 

Chicken Breast Boneless Skinless

Extra Lean Ground Beef

2 Jars of Strained or pureed Tomatoes

2 Tomatoes

3 White Onions

1 Carrot

1 Sweet Cubanelle Pepper

Celery

Garlic

Extra virgin Olive Oil

Fresh Basil leaves

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Milk

1 can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup

Pasta for Lasagna

Italian Herbs Seasoning

Montreal Steak and Roasted Red Pepper Seasoning mix {optional}

Big rectangular Aluminum pan {just toss it in the garbage after the party}

Believe me it's not as hard as it sounds.  I really recommend making the lasagna days ahead before the party, freeze, and bake the day of the party. I think it even taste better this way.  I hope you make it and enjoy! If you do, let me know how it goes.