Party Preps

Before we go schmooze with the muckity-mucks, we're having our own little Christmas party here at home tomorrow.

Shrike's never into the idea of a party, so we compromised on how to go about it - her compromise was that she's letting me have a party, and my compromise is that I didn't invite every lesbian and every Democrat in the state.

Like last year, it's a potluck, but unlike last year, when I think we provided sodas, beer, wine and a bag of chips, I actually did a bit of cooking.

This morning, Peeper "helped" me make cheese"ball" dip (it's supposed to be a ball, but it's not firm enough, so I serve it as dip). She sat in her highchair with some Cheerios, and I did my food processing and mixing at the table beside her.

I gave her the "empty" cream cheese tub to clean out, and little bit of dried beef (not much, it's incredibly salty) and let her help me taste-test it when I was finished.

(From that paragraph, you might think that you've figured out why my cheese won't "ball," but I have made it with "brick" cream cheese and it wasn't firm enough then, so I just blew that off and switched to the tub kind, so it would be more dippy. By the way, the recipe is here.)

Then, during her nap, I made what we've decided to officially refer to as "Mrs. Claus' Nipples," which you might remember from a couple of years ago.

Okay, maybe Anonymama and LadyKay will remember. LadyKay because she was so amused by the name, and Anonymama because she was so relieved to be anonymous.

Shrike agreed that it's a good name for them, but I think only because the other option I'd offered was "Elf Titties," and she found that disturbing.

Evidently, she thinks that elves should be asexual.

Where does she think baby elfs come from?

And how are they fed?

But I digress.

These little yummies are pretzel "snaps" topped with Hershey's Kisses or Hugs (melted) and M&Ms.

I learned last time that the Hugs melt better than the Kisses, so I went that route this time. I also discovered Candy Cane Hugs, which are white chocolate with tiny bits of candy cane in them and Oh My God, they are good. And more festive, with red and white stripes.

I did those first, and let them go just a bit too long in the oven, so instead of just getting soft and melty, they started to brown a bit at the tips.

I almost couldn't bring myself to add the M&Ms, because they were already living up to their name so well.

I got the regular Hugs out of the oven at the right time.


That's a good thing, because I was just about four M&Ms from finished when Peeper woke up. I had to go back later and move them into the freezer to set up.

Here are the finished products.

Although that project pretty much ate up nap time, and a thirty-minute catnap around 8 pm pushed Peeper's bedtime back to midnight, I somehow managed to get the living room, kitchen and her room straightened up and sort of clean.

Peeper's been changing her sleep schedule around again, moving to just one nap - which now falls right at party time! So, we're going to try to get her up early tomorrow (9ish?) so that, hopefully, she'll go on down for a nap around noon and be well-rested before guests arrive!