A Food Fest Weekend!

We began our "food fest weekend" last Friday with Brett, Esther and girls for a "day after St. Patrick's Day" dinner of corn beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots as well as soda bread. Isabel was ready to "dig in"! We topped off dinner with cookies for dessert - unfrosted CHRISTMAS cookies I found in the freezer that I frosted green for St. Paddy's. We had a great time!

On to Saturday....
Rich is a coach for three Community Life groups at church (another way to define small groups.) We planned a progressive dinner for the three leader couples and ourselves that was very fun.

We started off at Eric and Elizabeth's home for appetizers. They had a lovely array of appetizers, hot peach salsa cheese ball and crackers, skewers of fruit, cheese, olives and pickles, plus a veggie pizza. We ate like there was no other course to follow. Would you believe I had my camera in my purse but totally forgot about photos until we were nearly done at OUR house. " (I know, YES, you would believe it!) Anyway, here's Eric and Elizabeth.

Next it was on to our house for salad. We had Pretzel Jello Salad and Mandarin Salad, served with Zwiebach from Bread Basket (a local bakery/restaurant). For our non-local readers, Zwiebach is NOT a teething biscuit. It is a German/Mennonite sweet dinner roll. "Zwie" means two and so it's one roll shaped with another smaller one on top. When you remove the top "knot" it leaves a lovely vessel in the bottom roll for butter and/or jelly.

For the main course we went to Roger and Leslie's. It was great fun to see how each home set their table! There we had pork chops with potatoes and carrots. We were all beginning to moan and groan about how "full" we were feeling!

For dessert we went to David and Tayna's. David made his version of creme brulee. Their table was so dramatic!

What a great time we had with everyone.

Sunday we had the Senior Adult lunch after church so guess what ... more food. I prepared my version of Southwestern Chicken Salad. We got home about 2:30 pm and promptly "vegged" out. Talk about pooped - and not EVEN wanting to think about food!

Tomorrow evening I'm hosting the Mom2Mom Leadership Team for dinner. This is something I've been thinking about for a VERY LONG time. So when you hear from me next it will be all about that evening of food, fun, fellowship! :)

Here are the recipes from our progressive dinner salad course.

Pretzel Jello Salad
2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cup melted butter
2 teaspoon sugar
1 8-ounce package cream cheese (I use Neufachtel)
3/4 cup sugar
4.5 ounces Cool Whip, thawed
1 6-ounce package strawberry flavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 10-ounce packages frozen strawberries (I use 1 15-oz pkg and 5 oz. from another pgk.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix crushed pretzels with butter and sugar. Press into bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish and bake in preheated oven 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cool thoroughly.

Blend cream cheese and sugar. Fold in Cool Whip and spread evenly over cooled pretzel crust. In medium bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Mix in strawberries and set aside to cool and thicken for about 15 minutes. When strawberries are defrosted and gelatin thickened, pour over cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours.

Mandarin Salad
Dressing:
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablesppons vinegar (I use half rice wine vinegar and half white wine vinegar)
1/4 cup salad oil
dash Tabasco
1 tablespoon snipped parsley
Mix all in a jar and shake. I make it a day ahead and refrigerate.

Salad:
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar (I usually use more)
1/4 head iceberg lettuce
1/4 head romaine
1/4 head red leaf curly lettuce
1 cup chopped celery
1 green onions (with tops), thinly sliced
1 11-ounce can Mandarin oranges, well drained

Tear off 12" or so of waxed paper and lightly butter.
In small sauce pan cook almonds and sugar over low heat, stirring constantly, until carmelized and coated with browned sugar. Watch carefully - they can burn quickly. Turn out onto waxed paper and break up as soon as you can handle. I always make extra for munching! Can do a day ahead.

Tear lettuces in bite-sized pieces.(I don't measure, just fill the bowl with as much as I need.) Toss with celery and green onions. If serving immediateley add oranges and almonds. Shake dressing and toss together. Sometimes I don't use all of the dressing - don't want to "drown" it. If making ahead, I do lettuces, celery, onions and store in frig, then add oranges and almonds just before tossing with dressing. This serves 4-6. I doubled it for a salad course for 8 people.

Enjoy!