Christmas Party Recipe

Kraft foods does a fantastic Spinach Artichoke Dip.

Also for a easy fantastic dessert go to www.tasteofhome.com and search for White Chocolate Dream Torte. It will not disappoint!!

I saw a commerical for a ranch spinach dip on TV the other day that looked yummy.

1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dips Mix
1 container (16 ounces) sour cream
1 box (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
1 can (8 ounces) water chestnuts, rinsed, drained and chopped
1 round loaf French bread
fresh vegetable sticks

I would probably leave out the water chestnuts just b/c I dont care for them and I would serve it in a regular bowl instead of in a bread bowl. But you get the idea. It would be great with pita chips also.

Have a great time.

Crab O'horderves
********************
1 pkg. "sea legs" (pre-cooked imitation crab meat)
1 pkg. chunk pre-cooked imitation crab meat
fresh chopped parsley
mayo
1 bag of Toasteto dip chips

Cut up all imitation crab meat into small pieces. (Kitchen shears does a good job on this.) Put crab meat into a big mixing bowl and add as much parsley as you like and enough mayo to moisten. Spoon mix. Store in the fridge until almost ready for party, then spoon mixture into Toasteto dips. Arrange in a nice tray with parsley to garnish. (People will think you worked hours on it.)

***Note: I use light mayo and baked Toasteo dip chips, since our family is a low-fat family.

Taco Dip

1 can refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning
1 pt. sour cream
dried chives
1 can sliced black olives
2-3 plum tomatoes diced
Salsa
Shredded Cheddar

Mix refried beans with taco seasoning and spread on a platter. Mix sour cream with dried chives (to taste) and spread on top of bean mix. Top with olives and tomatoes then spread on some salsa. Top with shredded cheddar and serve with tortilla chips or corn chips.

Good Luck

Sesame breadsticks, with deli meats and cheeses wrapped around them. Salami, ham, turkey, ham cappy, roast beef. Easy enough, and tasty too. Someone already mentioned spinach dip, people love that, and it takes no time to make! Good Luck. Enjoy the party ;)

How about these....

1 bottle Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
1 package cream cheese--semi soft (mic for about 20-30 seconds)
1 package Wheat Thins or other thin cracker of choice

Pour bottle of RC sauce over the softened cream cheese. Serve with thin crackers. It is basically just at or below room temp when served. Takes less than 5 minutes to make and is a serious crowd pleaser at parties!

Dessert:

1 package french vanilla instant pudding
1 can crushed pineapple - reserve juice (roughly 1 C)
1 container Cool Whip
1 angel food cake

Mix pudding mix with pineapple juice. Stir crushed pineapple into pudding mixture. Fold mixture into Cool Whip. Serve over slices of angel food cake. It takes about 10 minutes to make the topping.

It's nice and light and can be made in a low-fat version too!

~OR~

Pumpkin Pie Dip

1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 container cool whip
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 box instant vanilla pudding
pinch salt
1 box cinnamon graham crackers or vanilla wafers

Mix first five ingredients together, refrigerate & serve with crackers or cookies.

Hope this helps. :-)

How about the old stand by ham roll-ups? Spread cream cheese with chives on slices of deli ham, roll up, cut into bite size pieces. Good served with grapes and those holiday globe grapes are so sweet right now. For dessert, a dump cake. Lots of recipes available on-line for this but basically, you dump a can of cherries, a can of crushed pineapple and a cake mix in a pan, pour butter over it and add walnuts. They are so good.

For the dessert, you could make Oreo Truffles:

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-oreo-truffles-95...

And for the cold appetizer, what about Knorr spinach dip?

http://www.us.knorr.com/Recipes/6200/1/Knorr-Spinach-Dip....

How about Velveeta and Rotelle Tomatoes dip? I make it all the time and everyone loves it. I also make a Taco Dip which is easy as all you are doing is layering the ingredients (cheese and vegetables and taco salsa) and you make it the night before so all you have to do is grab it and go; if you want the recipe e-mail me and I will send it to you.

This a huge hit at at all our office parties. (and we always have parties in my office - lol!)

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/Garden-Veggie-Pizza-Squares...

Garden Veggie Pizza Squares
Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package refrigerated crescent rolls 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1 (1 ounce) package Ranch-style dressing mix 2 carrots, finely chopped 1/2 cup chopped red bell peppers 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper 1/2 cup fresh broccoli, chopped 1/2 cup chopped green onions
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Roll out crescent rolls onto a large non-stick baking sheet. Stretch and flatten to form a single rectangular shape on the baking sheet. Bake 11 to 13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Allow to cool.
Place cream cheese in a medium bowl. Mix cream cheese with 1/2 of the ranch dressing mix. Adjust the amount of dressing mix to taste. Spread the mixture over the cooled crust. Arrange carrots, red bell pepper, broccoli and green onions on top. Chill in the refrigerator approximately 1 hour. Cut into bite-size squares to serve.

olive dip

minced olives (takes a bit but worth every second!)
finely chopped garlic (fresh is best but you can use a jar in a pinch)
finely chopped basil (again, fresh is best but if you use dried, you need to prepare this about 2-3 hours ahead).
parmesan cheese (or romano or other favorite aged cheese, asiago is good also).

if you need exact measurements, you're not going to get them.
Pick your bowl, chop enough olives to almost fill it, then add other ingredients to taste.

typically I use black olives, but you can use other kinds or mix them too!

I usually refrigerate so it stays cool on the cracker. cool adds to the taste of it on a cracker, too. Mmm! My son loves this 'dip' even though it is more of a bruschetta (sp).

a demitasse spoon is helpful for putting the stuff on crackers, but not totally necessary. I like the spoon for putting it directly into my mouth, but that's not polite : D

Good luck,
M.

How about the spinach dip recipe on the back of the Knorr vegetable soup mix packet? It has very few ingredients (no seafood!) and people love it. I serve it with the King's Hawaiian sweet bread torn up and raw vegetables. As for dessert, try the Paula Deen lemon blossoms recipe. The recipe is on the Food Network website. I made these a few weeks ago for a family gathering and people went nuts for them! Very easy also - starts from a cake mix.

you could make for dessert a 'dirt' cake or a 'sand' cake -

dirt cake:

2pkg choc pudding
2pkg cream cheese (8 oz)
2 tubs cool whip (small)
1 pkg oreo or any other choc sandwich cookies

crush cookies to an almost fine 'powder' (using a food processor works well) - set aside

mix pudding according to package directions - whip in cream cheese and cool whip to pudding mixture.

layer into a pan or trifle bowl (or any other bowl) - crushed cookies - pudding/coolwhip/cream cheese mixture - crushed cookies - pudding mixture - etc - leaving the last layer of cookies.

Refrigerate for 2 hours to let pudding set.

You can decorate the top in any festive way you'd like - holly berries - etc..

For 'sand' cake - substitute the pudding and cookies for vanilla ones.

Have fun!

Wegman's has the rye bread already cut up and the dill dip , that's easy or a veggie tray with a dip-use colorful pepper sticks to make it special. Also you could do the Pamperd Chef Southwestern Salsa with chips. Desserts are easy for christmas, cookies or the 7-layer bar cookies or chocolate dipped strawberries served a on a platter with wrapped holiday candies.