Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bunko Recap!

Monday night my mom had her annual bunko for the month of December. She always picks December because she has so much fun doing it. The past few years I've helped her with the food and this year I decided to do EVERYTHING on my own. We usually buy items pre-made to make it easier and then add fresh along, like a pre-made dessert from somewhere. Not this year though. I planned out everything and it was going to be all made at home! I had to cook for a large crowd 12 ladies including myself because I wasn't going to cook all the food and not have some! LOL.

The end result was a HUGE success. The ladies loved their meal and dessert. We had fun when it came time to do the present exchange, and were giggly from the lovely drinks we've all been drinking down, like red wine or my new favorite, prosecco and pomegranate juice. They were also using Chambord in their prosecco which is really delicious as well! My goal for the bunko menu was to keep it Italian, simple, healthy, delicious, and no meat. I don't think anyone notice that it was all vegetarian! One lady is allergic to chocolate and another is allergic to pecans. So I made sure none of those items were included in this menu because I wanted everyone to be able to enjoy everything.  

Appetizers:

Cream Cheese with Fischer and Wieser Roasted Raspberry Chipotle sauce, pita chips on the side.

This plate was CLEAN at the end of the night. This is always a huge hit at parties with everyone. The creamy cheese and the sweet, spicy kick from the sauce is so good! I like this with goat cheese too ;)
 
Mrs. May's Naturals Ultimate Crunch

These were all gone, they are so good! I get a huge bag at Costco for a good deal.
 
Meal:  

Caesar Salad (which I've made before and shared on the blog.)


Baked Ziti ( I adapted my recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.)
  • I used Barilla Plus pasta. You can't tell the difference and you get the health benefits of Omega 3's and extra fiber.
  • I didn't make meatballs and I added fresh basil to my sauce.
This was such a hit! I didn't make ziti in a while, so I wanted something to follow. My dad gave me some good tips, and now I'll be able to make this my way next time. I'm thinking for my boyfriend and I'll add meatballs to it for him! 
Ciabatta Garlic bread (This came from Trader Joe's, heated up in the oven, crunchy outside, soft middle with chunks of roasted garlic!)

My plate, but I went back for seconds on bread, pasta and salad! The bread was my favorite, I took a roasted tomato and smeared it on top of it when I ate it.
 
Roasted Vegetables ( I made a variation of this during the summer.) Yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, mini tomatoes, sweet onion, garlic, shallots, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and EVOO.
  Dessert:

Butterscotch Apple Cake (made this for Thanksgiving.) Vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce, no pecans.
 
I'm eating my cake and forgot to take a picture!! So here it is almost done =P
  This was what was left of the cake, and my dad came home and FINISHED the rest. Wish I had some leftover dessert for the next day!
 
It was a very successful evening. I had so many compliments on the meal I provided. I even had to give away copies of the dessert! They loved it a lot. I tried to get a mother/daughter photo but we never got one! Oh well. The food is always the most important part right ;) So this week I'm going to finally start Christmas baking! I can't wait, I'm really in the mood for my peppermint bark and fudge!

So stay tune!

Good night,
Fallon

3 comments:

sharibecht said...

Hi Fallon!
OMG is this BUNKO night as in the GAME?? Wow that brings back great memories of being a kid - my mom used to host a bunko night and always made the best desserts those nights that I wanted to stick my little kid fingers into! :) I don't even know how the game goes! How fun!!!

Shari B. :)

catherine @ www.unconfidentialcook.com said...

Everything looks fantastic. No wonder there's no more left!

Robin said...

Why what a feast you prepared! Everything looked wonderful, no wonder they all loved it and wanted the recipe for that dessert!