Basic Party Recipes

Are we all ready to party into 2016? Well here are some BASIC and EASY recipes to help with that:

Party Punch, Spinach Dip, Cocktail Sauce, Guacamole, Cucumber Sandwiches, Deviled Eggs, and Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

Basic Party Punch

2 cups Water (for one giant ice cube made the day before)
1 64oz bottle of Ocean Spray Cranapple juice
1 2L bottle of Canada Dry Ginger Ale
1 8oz can frozen Pink Lemonade

optional: gin or vodka

Mix Juice, Ginger Ale, and Lemonade (and gin or vodka if planning to) in a bowl
Break up the lemonade
Add the giant ice cube


Basic Spinach Dip

1 box frozen spinach
1 16oz container reduced fat Sour Cream

Cook Spinach as directed on the box (steam)
Squeeze out as much water as possible
Mix with the Sour Cream
Store in the fridge

Basic Cocktail Sauce

1/2 C. Ketchup
1 tbsp. Horseradish (not hot so add more to taste)
14 tsp Lemon Juice

Add everything to a bowl and mix
taste until just right, adding a very small amount of horseradish as needed

Basic Guacamole

2 Avocados
1/2 a small onion finely chopped
1/2 1 ripe medium plum tomato chopped
1 tbsp. Lime Juice

Peal and mash Avocados in a medium bowl
add onion, tomato and lime juice
Stir and chill for at least 30 minutes

Basic Cucumber Sandwiches

1 8oz package of whipped Cream Cheese
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp Basil
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Dill Weed
1 1 pound loaf cocktail rye bread
1 cucumber thinly sliced

In a small bowl, mix cream cheese, Oregano, Basil, Garlic, and Dill Weed
Spread equally onto the bread
Top with a cucumber

Basic Deviled Eggs

12 Large Hard boiled eggs, peeled
Mayonnaise
1 tsp wet mustard (horseradish mustard)
Paprika

Slice eggs lengthwise
Remove yolks and puree them
Mix with mayonnaise (judge how much as you go needs to be the consistency of cream cheese)
Add mustard
Mix well and spoon mixture into eggs
Sprinkle with Paprika

Basic Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Wax Paper
2 C Semi Sweet chocolate morsels (preferably dark chocolate)
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 pack strawberries with caps on

Clean the strawberries
put chocolate and oil into a microwavable bowl
Microwave for 30 seconds and stir until melted and smooth (I just put it in for 1 minute 30 seconds)
Dip each strawberry in the chocolate
Place onto baking sheet with the wax paper on it
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.