Make it monday! MeatBalls and Dipping sauces!

This past weekend myself and a few girlfriends held a Bachelorette party for our Best Friend! 

It was so much fun and there was so much food!

SEE! 

I told you lots of food!

For the party I made, the cake and cupcakes (see more on this tomorrow) , meatballs with two dipping sauces and apple dip (more on this next Make it Monday!)

Today I share the meatballs unfortunately without pictures but I'm sure you can imagine what a meatball looks like...

Easy Party Meatballs

Ingredients:

2 lbs of Lean or Extra Lean Ground Beef

1/2 of 1 Small Onion

1/2 Cup Bread Crumbs

1/4 Cup Milk

1 Large Egg

1 Tbsp Ketchup or BBQ Sauce

Steak Seasoning (I like the Keg Steak Spice)

BBQ rub ( I use one that the Chef at Robyn's work makes but you can pick them up in the supermarket or make your own...)

Start by dicing your onion as small as you can (I sometimes grate it into the mix rather than leaving bigger pieces in there). In a large bowl mix all of your ingredients together, be careful not to over mix the meat! Then roll into balls that measure about 1 tsp each, and bake on a sheet pan (I cover mine with foil so that its easier to clean up!) at 350 for about 10 min then flip them over and bake for another 10 mins. 

These are great as an appetizer or add them to a week night supper, you can even put them in marinara sauce and put them over pasta! 

(They freeze very well too)

I got so many compliments on these meatballs but not as many as the dipping sauces.... so here they are!

I used the same basic recipe (that I made up as I went) for both but used two different salad dressings for flavor... I used Ranch for one and the new Kraft Mango Chipotle dressing for the other.

Creamy Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 pkg of cream cheese

2 Tbsp of mayonnaise

2-3 tbsp of salad dressing of your choice

Mix the cream cheese with your electric mixer until it is smooth, add your mayonnaise and then your salad dressing, you may need more dressing than I used to thin it out so its a good dipping constancy. 

Both of these sauces worked out great! 

They were enjoyed by all and I was asked for the recipe several times.... 

(don't you love when that happens!)

PS. don't worry about the mango chipotle being too spicy its really not that spicy but does have a bit of a kick in the after taste! 

What is your go to party recipe, is there a recipe that your family love that you modify for parties....

Hope you give these meatballs a try! You might just love them!

Bachelorette Party Fun! Part 1

This past weekend, myself and my girlfriends held a Bachelorette Party for our Best Friend... (Her name is on a few of the things I made for the party so you will learn very shortly that her real name is Erika... I guess her anonymity is gone for good now!)

Of course I made her cake but I wont be posting that due to ummm ADULT CONTENT.... but I also made a few other very fun things!

As well We all made a few things to contribute to the snacks for the evening.

As you can see we didn't go hungry!

We didn't really have a theme to the night but one running joke was that We're Team Edward! as Our friend is marring a man named Edward and she is a bit of a Twi-hard (like me.... )!

I made some very yummy cupcakes that went over very well!

I used the same recipe that I used here for the Easter cupcakes... and of course I use my recipe for butter cream icing found here. Then I just dyed it teal which is the main color for the wedding it's self, I did that with the Wilton teal icing color. (gives such a rich color and doesn't water your icing down! highly recommend it if you haven't used it before!)

I also made the cupcake toppers as well I used them for the survival bags for the guests! You can see them above but here is a close up...

(Sorry its a bit dark had to turn off the flash so you can read it!)

To make these I used Microsoft Word, I made a circle then typed the wording in the circle. Then I printed and cut them (you could do this with a circle punch) then I cut out a circle of the black or teal card-stock that was just a bit larger than the paper circle.Than I hot glued a toothpick to the back!

More on the Bachelorette Party tomorrow!

Here's a sneak peak at the survival bags I made up too!

Tell the Truth Thursday! Writing about your family!

Do you ask your family before you post about them?
Do you hit publish post and then think oops maybe that wasn't for the whole world to see?

Last week around the bloggy world two of my favorite mommy bloggers posted about this on the same day.... weird? maybe.... maybe not!

Mom-101 posted "Drawing the line" about a funny story that her daughter told her well really a slip of the tongue and then she was mortified and begged that Mom not talk about it... or write about it...

Then Mommy said what? posted "Where do we go from here?"  In which she too spoke to her daughter about posting stories about her, asking if it was ok if she shared some of these stories to which her daughter said "yesh" (yes in three year old... but you already knew that....) "but don't tell anyone."

I wonder a lot of the time if the pictures and stories I post today will harm my child or my family... I make sure not to use names of family and friends if they don't want me too... or if they don't know I even have a blog, which most of my friends don't... but I do wonder that if I say something about Delaney or even just using her name on the blog will hurt her later in life...

This internet thing is permanent I know that and I know that even if I didn't put it here, its still on facebook and its still in email and all that, but is what I'm saying and doing going to change her or hurt her when someday she is applying for a job and the boss Googles her and comes up with a picture of her as an "Irish Princess" at 2 years old or worse.......

After hitting post on the "I'm back" post last week I read these two posts and thought uh-oh what is hubby going to think about me posting all about his illness and what had happened to cause his hospitalization that week... I mean no I didn't go into every detail of his illness and all the tests and procedures he has had or any really personal details of what hospital he was in or what were the conditions of his release... but still its his life. We may share this life as husband and wife but is it my place to say anything at all about him? Long story not so short I got hubby to read it... he said it was fine, he didn't care and it sounded good to him.... (Good thing too because it was already on the blog for the world to see)

So I guess my truth this week is I wonder where to draw that line in the sand myself sometimes.... do I post only what I know has been approved by those who are involved, or do I post what I want to (keeping in mind that I personally choose not to use names).
I usually go with the latter and hope that it dosen't get me into trouble later...

What do you do? Do you feel that it's an issue for you or not?

Make it Monday! Quadruple Chocolate Chip Cookies.....

Your drooling right... 

Just the title alone make you drool right... 

Well that's what I thought when I saw this recipe over at Simply Baking!

I found her on a blog linky party back in May and I am so glad I found this recipe!

These cookies have a definate personality disorder... they really aren't sure if they are brownies or cookies but either way they are awesome! 

 They don't look like much (maybe because these were the last two left) but let me tell you Y-U-M!

And since I love them soooooo much I wanted to share (cause I'm nice like that)! 

Quadruple Chocolate Cookies/Brownies

Ingredients

1c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2c all purpose flour

2/3c unsweetened cocoa powder ( I prefer Nestle)

1tsp baking soda

1/2tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

1 pound semi-sweet chocolate chips

2c firmly packed brown sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

2tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups white chocolate morsels

2/3c milk chocolate (or semi - sweet) morsels

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Melt 1 pound of semi sweet chocolate chips in a double-boiler or in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stiring in between each 30 seconds.  Set aside once chocolate is smooth.

3.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl.

4.  In a stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg addition.   Add the vanilla, then add the cooled chocolate to the mixture and blend well.

5.  Add half the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix on low speed, then add the remaining flour mixture and mix until the batter comes together, then add Chocolate chips.

6.  On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough.

Bake for 7-9 minutes until puffy.  Do not over bake!  You want them to resemble a brownie texture.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

 

That is the original recipe that Ashley over at Simply Baking posted but I did make one change.... 

I added the new Hershey Drops... The cookies and creme ones...  

You know you've seen them in the store and resisted buying them knowing that you'd get the bag home and eat the whole thing (I only know this because I bought a bag  three bags of these to make this recipe and we ate the first two before I could make them). 

I have to give lots of credit to my hubby because he was the one who suggested that the Hershey Drops would be great in this recipe! 

To add them I just cut them into quarters so they were around the size of a chocolate chip and folded them in at the end with the other chips! 

 

 

Got some time? You should stop over and check out Simply Baking and have a look at her other recipes too she has lots of cupcakes (my obsession!) like this Strawberry Cupcake that may be making its way into my oven very soon! And she's a girl after my own heart with a recipe for Egg Salad too! Gotta Love it! 

 

Hope you like these cookies as much as we do... 

One word of warning they make a big batch and they get gobbled up quick! 

Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day!

Today for me is more about celebrating my Husband and my Mom.... sounds strange... 

Well for a long while, most of my life I feel, my Mom has also been my Dad.... and I always try to do something for her on Fathers Day as well as Mothers Day. 

I feel like if you are doing both jobs you get both days! 

My Mom has always been my rock and one of the people who shaped my life teaching me right from wrong, how to be a lady, how to be myself and most of all how to be sure your treated the way you deserve! She always believed in me and to this day still tells me how proud she is of me! 

Happy Fathers Day Mom!

My Husband is one of the most amazing men I know and he is the light in Delaney's eyes! When she sees him come home she screams and runs to him, when she hasn't seen him in a couple of days like last week when he stayed at work due to car issues she woke up at night crying that she wanted her Daddy! 

We are so grateful for such an amazing man and I thought that the rest of this post ought to be dedicated to him!

Happy Fathers Day Robyn!

I hope that you and your family have a lovely Fathers Day with whom ever you consider your Father figure to be!