For the past 12 or so weeks, Mr. McKinney and a room full of co-workers have been going through a Dale Carrneige Leadership Class. He has really enjoyed it and has enjoyed getting to know members of his team in a new way. My husband is a great Leader, and God not only blessed him with spiritual gifts in this area, but his natural default mode is to think big picture and holistic as well as being a grounded processor in times of crisis. These qualities make him pretty incredible.

Its pretty interesting how the intense nature of their time coupled with going through a shared process has really brought this part of his leadership team together. Each week he comes home with stories of new things he learned, ways he was stretched himself, and character traits he is developing and redeveloping.

Their class meets in the evening at the local community college in our town and I’ve been able to take them dinner a couple times to break up the monotony of sandwich boards each week. So, when he mentioned they would be having a “graduation night,” I jumped at the opportunity to maybe put together a little something to help them celebrate their accomplishments.

People who know me best could confirm a couple things: I love snack foods and nothing excites me more than having a reason (insert excuse) to cook for people. But cooking for a group never has to be complicated. I try to live by a “bake some, buy some” philosophy when it comes to pulling together a party or celebration food, and this menu was no different.

I made most of this ahead of the day it was served and just had to cook or bake pre-made dough the day of for freshness. No need to stress yourself out, just work it in with your daily routine. I like to get it all out and dirty all my dishes at once so I can clean them at one time, but this menu could be prepped in stages.

I’ll share the menu and then some suggested shortcuts below.

• Cream Cheese and Salsa Dip – Tortilla Chips
  • At our house, we call this “whip the fool dip” because you mix together cream cheese and salsa and beat the fool out of it with your stand mixer. It never fails. And you can mix it up with different flavored salsas if you want something different. Make it the day before so it has time to set up.
• Red Pepper Hummus or Fiesta Ranch Dip and Veggies
  • I like to make my own hummus, but this is something easily sold in your grocery deli and often comes in a container you can take the lid off of and serve. As for the Fiesta Ranch dip, its a powdered mix by the Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix. You just stir it in to Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt. I like the tangyness of the Fiesta Ranch, but you could go with any flavor or again, buy a veggie dip from your grocery store deli or produce areas.
• Pepper Jelly/Marmalade/Pica Pepper Sauce/Cowgirl Candy on Cream Cheese – Crackers
  • The sky is the limit on this one. Basically, you get a spicy or strong flavored condiment and pour it over cream cheese (this is where the umami comes in!). Recently I had something like this over whipped cream cheese and it was delightful, but just putting the block of cream cheese down and pouring any one of these over it works just as well!
• Charcuterie Tray of Cut Meats and Cheeses, sneak a cool pickled item in if you have space
  • When I said earlier that I’m a sucker for snacky foods, this is the one that defines it. I love that you can go to most any “American Food” restaurant and get a spread tray of some sort. This type of tray is something you could order pre-made, or make your own with deli lunch meats or by walking around that fun refrigerator section up front by the deli. Salami, pancetta, and other sliced meats can be mixed in with cheeses, mozzarella balls, Babybel pods. Pickled items or olives, deli peppers, dried fruit, and berries are great items to add in the mix. Pimento Cheese or spreads mentioned above are fun scattered among the items with a variety of crackers including pretzel chips, baguette slices, and grain or butter ones. This really can make a beautiful center piece for your display.
• Salty Snack Mix like Firecrackers, Nacho Ranch Texas Trash, Cowboy Chex Mix or homemade cheese crackers
  • If you’ve followed my blog any amount of time, you know I love to make a snack mix. I’ve linked to some above, but the possibilities here are endless. And again, there is nothing wrong with this being part of your “buy” items with all the cool varieties of snack mixes on the chip aisle and on that cool section up in the produce area. Sometimes I just take a stroll around it to see if I come across anything new and different.
• Chocolate Chip Cheeseball or Praline Dip – serve with pretzels, graham crackers, or graham sticks
  • Chocolate Chip Cheeseball is something my mama makes, but this recipe is really close. Sometimes when serving a crowd of people I don’t know, I avoid nuts just because there are so many allergies so you could roll this in chocolate sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, or graham cracker crumbs.
  • As for the Praline Sauce this is honestly something I’ve never made, but I always see it in magazines and I’m just looking for an excuse to make it. I’ve also seen it in jars you can buy at those “mercantile” type tourist shops, but this version from Paula Deen that she puts on… just about anything would work wonders. She even serves it over Brie Cheese! (all the heart eyes)
• Cookies – chocolate chip cookies, confetti, strawberry, or lemon cake mix
  • I really don’t need to go too deep here. You get cookies. Make them small and make them easy! Of course my FAMOUS Quest Cookie You’ll Ever Eat is a good one to use.
  • Or, my mom’s Cake Mix Cookie is pretty much a no-fail too! – Any cake mix, 1/3 cup cooking oil, 2 eggs. Mix and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Confetti Celebration Cookies look festive and taste like birthday cake. For some reason, Strawberry (especially with cream cheese icing) tend to be my favorite. But lemon, carrot/ spice with mix-ins like coconut or nuts and cream cheese icing or red velvet with icing are always incredible. These cookies are a fun way to bring in the colors of your party or add a seasonal item to the menu.
• Bars – brownies, lemon bars, Carmelites, oatmeal bars
  • really the sky is the limit on this.  The more flavors or varieties you make, the more flavors and varieties people are going to want to try.
  • consider cutting your bars in 1 inch by 2 inch “fingers” or even squares.  This will help with your display as well as giving people option to try multiple kinds.
  • Here are some ideas from some of my favorite cooks: Strawberry Oat Bars, Chocolate Toffee Pecan Bars, Double Chocolate Blondies, Magic Cookie Bars, Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars, Peanut Butter Bars
• Fudge, Candies, Truffles or Holiday Bark are all easy things you could make and use here too.
  • just small things that can be eaten with fingers, cut in small pieces, and wow folks with minimal effort.
• Punch – choose lighter colors for spills on clothes or flooring
  • I have a couple favorite punch recipes. One is sherbet punch. Just pour cold Ginger Ale or 7up over a tub of sherbet. 1:1 ratio. You will want the sherbet to be soft so it will drop out of the tub, but still frozen so it holds together.
  • Another one I like to make is using white grape raspberry or white grape peach frozen concentrate. Prepare as directed on the can inside a double bagged gallon size bag or 3 quart size bags. Freeze inside bags or a ring mold. Remove from freezer to allow the loosen from bag enough to put into punch bowl or container. Pour Ginger Ale or 7up over frozen juice.
  • A friend always used those mixed punch flavor concentrates and mixes 1-2 Liter Ginger Ale to one can thawed concentrate, undiluted.
  • Hibiscus tea or a sangria punch would work as well
• Flavored Water – water with floating fruit in it is always elegant and a special treat.
  • Lemon and lime are always a great combination.
  • Oranges and berries is refreshing
  • Cucumber and lemon is a great detox, but some people find the flavor offensive
  • Mint or basil and berries is also a great change from the norm
• Meat – my menu will not include a meat item, but that’s always something easy to add
  • meatballs – 2 packages frozen meat balls, 1 jar cocktail sauce and 1 jar grape jelly or orange marmalade or 1 can cranberry sauce
  • little smokies – same sauce as above or BBQ and orange marmalade
  • cocktail shrimp – if you are crazy and want to tackle something big or order these trays from a deli
  • pinwheels or wrap roll ups with lunch meat in them are a great way to add protein to the table. You can buy these or make your own by layering cheese, meat, and one of the spreads mentioned above inside a tortilla. Roll up, refrigerate and slice crosswise right before the party.

SHORTCUTS

• think – sweet, salty, savory
• think – finger foods – people will be potentially standing around eating while they talk. How can you keep things miniature or contained? What creates the least amount of “licking fingers”? What are foods that wont run on the plate or spill? What will each item do to their face as its eaten? Think about small crackers, tortilla strips, cutting bars in to long rectangles instead of squares. Maybe even offer toothpicks.
• plan ahead and just buy these groceries when you buy your other items for the week.
• shop your pantry and make flavor adjustments based on things you may already have. For example, I found some Roasted Habanero and Pineapple marinade/spread that I picked up on a random vacation stop in a boutique. It would be perfect as my option poured over cream cheese or, I could whip it up with the cream cheese to make a cheese ball or spread already mixed together. You may have a can of corn and black beans in your cabinet. Rinse them and stir together with jarred salsa for an easy addition. maybe buy pre-made dips or desserts. Mix them in with some you make at home yourself.
• Think about the dishes you have to serve these in or the location you will be serving in. If you are away from home probably skip a meat that you can’t keep warm in a crock pot.
• If serving all on one table, think about dishes that will layer/stack your food, or plan to bring books to serve things at different levels.
• If you are transporting your items like I did, keep them in covered containers to transport them and then transfer them to your serving dishes on site.  This will make it easier to carry in and out of the location and you have less messes along the way. Also, you have those same containers to pack it in and bring it home.
• If you intend to send your left overs home with attendees, you can save empty containers that you have from sour cream, cool whip, dips, etc and those become great “throw aways”. Of course extra storage containers work too!

And, this is a great menu set up for any type of celebration, showers, office party, retirement, etc. Heck, as far as I’m concerned its a great menu for a Saturday at home!

Share your thoughts below. Have you done something like this? What items were on your menu?