Creating Marie, Part 2

So, on to the hors d'oeuvres!

The first recipe came from my own brain when I was lazy about cooking dinner one night. This was also a big hit at the party on Saturday. Prosciutto, mozzarella and bread (I haven't named them because I'm lazy, obviously). Also, I don't eat meat anymore but if I'd ever make an exception, I'd do it for this.



Ingredients
-1 package of pre-sliced prosciutto (about 6-7 slices in a pack)
-1 small ball of fresh mozzarella (6-8 oz)
-1 pre-cooked baguette (actually, I get the kind that is mostly cooked and then you cook it the rest of the way in your oven)

Directions
-Preheat oven to 400°f
-Cut bread into rounds approximately 1/2"-3/4" thick and place on baking sheet.
-Cut mozzarella approximately 1/4" thick and lay slices onto bread.
-Pull apart prosciutto and lay pieces on top of mozzarella.
-Put pan into oven on center rack and bake for 3 minutes (this cooks the bread).
-put pan on top rack and broil for 3 minutes (this toasts the cheese and prosciutto).
-Check occasionally to make sure they don't burn.
-Eat warm or cold.

The next recipe came from Karrie (I don't know where she got it). It's a tangy pasta salad that's good hot or cold.



Ingredients
-1 box of pasta (I used bow-tie pasta because, well, bows fit the theme)
-1 can of quartered artichoke hearts (partially drained)
-1 jar of roasted red peppers (partially drained)
-1 small jar of pesto
-A few tablespoons of small capers

Directions
-Cook pasta and drain. Pour back into pot.
-Add all of the above ingredients, stir.
-Pour into a bowl and serve hot or cold.

The last recipe is one of my mom's specialties...sugar cookie fruit tarts.



Ingredients
-sugar cookies (or ingredients to make sugar cookies...I like this recipe)
-1 package of cream cheese
-1 jar marshmallow fluff (large or small, whatever you feel like)
-fruit (grapes, strawberries, mandarin oranges, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries...whatever you want)

Directions
-Bake sugar cookies (or use pre-made cookies).
-Mix cream cheese and marshmallow fluff in a bowl (make sure cream cheese is softened before mixing).
-Prepare fruit by washing and cutting as necessary, spread fruit on paper towel to soak up water.
-Spread cream cheese frosting onto cookies.
-Top with fruit right before serving.
-Eat about a million before serving to guests.



We also had fruit, fruit dip (pre-made from the store) and champagne.

For dinner I wanted to keep things simple since we had to save room for desserts. I made chicken breasts topped with basil, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella. The recipe says to stuff the chicken breasts but I used the basil/tomato mush as a topping instead. The topping and cheese went on just a few minutes before I pulled everything out of the oven.

The desserts came from Patrick's Bakery because my baking skills are not up to the level of fancy desserts just yet. Maybe someday? Probably not, though.



And that's it for food. Everything went over very well. I'm actually pretty proud of myself since I'm definitely not a cooker. Karrie helped prepare the food and she made the pasta dish but I thought up the menu. Usually my dinner menu consists of a bowl of cereal so you can see why this was a challenge for me. I can honestly say that it'll be quite a while until I have another dinner party but I'm also very happy I had this one. Now I know I can do it without panicking. And now I also know that keeping it simple is the key.