New Years Insanity 12/31

As many of you know, I love to cook and I love to have people over.  Throw a party where I can cook a lot and my cooking addiction goes a little bit crazy!  We had 12 of us for New Years, of which several were staying overnight &/or for the weekend, so I figured left overs wouldnt be a bad thing! Here is the menu I contrived for our New Years.

Pulled Pork Sliders with Vinegar Coleslaw
I combined a few recipes to make this one up... I started a 6lb Pork Butt in the slow cooker the night before. I rubbed the entire thing with a Smokehouse Maple Spice, added a can of gingerale, and about 1/4 cup of brown sugar to the crockpot.  I cooked on low for ~6hrs, then pulled the pork.  It probably needed a bit longer as I had to return the center to the slow cooker for another 2 hours, and pulled it again.  Then I let it sit warming overnight, and in the morning turned it back on low again and added 1/2 bottle of Dinosaur BBQ sauce.  1/2 a bottle won't make it lather in the sauce, so we served with additional sauce, but it gives it a nice flavor.
For the Coleslaw, I just grabbed a bag of coleslaw mix, added 1/8 cup cider vinagre, 2tbsps sugar, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon, tossed it all and let it sit for an hour before serving.  This will hold for a day or two chilled.


Bloody Mary Soup Shooters

I started with This Recipe and ended up doubling nearly all the flavorings (horseradish, vodka, Worcestershire).  I would suggest starting with their recipe and then after the blending taste the mixture, and add more of any of the items according to your tastes.  I also used vegetable stock in mine in an attempt to make them vegetarian friendly!

You can see some of the spread here... although the paper towels are from the great spill of the bloody mary shooters!! (be careful carrying a tray of them, any little tip will send them all falling into eachother!

My dad bought me a new serving plate for Christmas that I wanted to show off.  The picture didnt come out that great, but it is a chance to mention my prosciutto wrapped asparagus!

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

This one can be a tad time intensive, but its so simple & worth it.

Take a bunch of asparagus & wash.  Use a vegetable peeler to peel of the outsides of the thick stalks (a trick I learned for making them less chewy/stringy & more tender!).  Wrap each asparagus in about half a slice of prosciutto.  Place on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven for ~15 minutes until tender.

Bourbon Hot Dogs

Super Simple Crock Pot Recipe I used those proportions, but just put it in a crockpot on high for a couple hours.

Blue Cheese Toasts

This is one of my all time favorite go-to recipes for parties.  I learned it from Holly Buckley!!  Simply mix together roughly 1/3cup margarine to 2/3cup blue cheese crumbles.  Slice a baguette into 1/4in cuts and toast the baguette pieces for 5 minutes.  Cover each slice in a heaping teaspoon of the mixture and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes (until cheese is melty).  Serve hot!

Chex Mix

This one I didnt do exactly to the recipe posted, but I increased a lot of the spices and added some Tabasco and chipotle powder to give it a bit of a kick.  It probably still could have been spicier, but its always a good snack!

Chicken Wing Pizza

I love making this pizza for groups!  Buy the premade dough and stretch thin into 1 or 2 rounds.  Boil a chicken breast in just enough water to cover it, plus 1/4 cup tabasco sauce.  Allow chicken to cool for a minute, then shred with two forks. Cover base of pizza crust in tabasco sauce (in place of tomato sauce, but not as thick!).  Sprinkle pizza with chicken and crumbly blue cheese.  Dollup the pizza with your favorite blue cheese dressing, then cover lightly with mozzerella.  Bake for ~20 minutes at 375 or until crust has browned.

BBQ Pork Pizza

Similar to the directions above, but use BBQ sauce for the base, sprinkle with pulled pork, cover in mozzerella.  You could also add some cabbage for some crunch/veggie if you wanted.

Ginger Carrot Soup

Cut up 4-8 large carrots and place in a pot with 6 cups of vegetable broth (broth should cover carrots completely).  Add 6 thin slices of peeled fresh ginger, 1tsp of ginger powder, and 1Tbsp Garlic powder.  Boil mixture until carrots are very tender (~30 minutes). Add salt & pepper and purree with an immersion blender.

Rum Balls

I played with a couple of versions of different recipes and came out with some decent rum balls.  The important thing to note is they WILL be sticky when you roll them.  Coating your hands in powdered sugar before you roll is key!

Nilla Wafer Rum Balls

Coconut Rum Balls - use coconut rum & roll the above ones in toasted coconut

Pecan Rum Balls

And then for my own recipe, I used the Nilla wafer recipe, but used Baileys Irish Cream and Starbucks Liquor to make a kind of Irish Coffee ball.

White Trash

I used this recipe, minus the peanuts and did two batches - one with coconut M&Ms, one with dark chocolate M&Ms.  My favorite is mixing the two together :) Yum!

And I think that about does it for the New Years insanity.  Hopefully some of these recipes come in useful!