If you want to serve a hot meal, serve white pizzas or prepare individual chicken or cottage pies for each guest, add some [...]]]>

When you prepare the party snacks for the snow party, think “white  snacks”, like popcorn snow balls, marshmallow snowmen, homemade marshmallows, meringue snowflakes and snowflake shaped cookies decorated with white icing or fondant.

If you want to serve a hot meal, serve white pizzas or prepare individual chicken or cottage pies for each guest, add some small, freshly baked bread rolls and round off the meal with a white hot chocolate drink.

Even if you have to think “white” snacks and food, the food would seem quite boring if it is all white, so you can bring in colour with toppings, fillings and added decorations to the snacks.

Here is a recipe for the popcorn snow balls:

• 40g margarine
• 100 g popping corn
• 250g white marshmallows
• icing sugar

1. Heat margarine in a large pot. Add corn and cover with a lid. Cook over a medium heat, shaking the pot occasionally, until the corn stops popping. Remove from the heat and set aside.

2. Put the marshmallows into a large glass bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water to melt. Stir occasionally. When melted, stir in the popcorn until well coated.

3. Dust your hand with icing sugar and roll the popcorn mixture into small balls.

Meringue Snowflakes:

Recipe for Meringues

Measure enough parchment paper or foil to line two large baking sheets. Use a pencil to draw snowflake patterns on the paper. Turn the paper printed side down and secure with a little bit of meringue mixture in the corners of the baking sheets. Transfer meringue to a decorating bag fitted with a 3/8-inch round tip. Pipe snowflake shapes onto the paper-lined sheets or foil following the patterns. Sprinkle the meringues with edible glitter or colored sugar.

Snowflake Shapes for Meringues

White Hot Chocolate: (6-8 servings)

 Heat 1 liter of milk to just below boiling point. Remove from heat and add 200g grated or chopped white chocolate to the milk. Stir until chocolate has melted. Pour into glasses. Spoon one tablespoon of whipped cream on top of the milk in each glass and sift some icing sugar over the tops.

Decorate the glasses with silver snowflake stickers.

Your turn: What kind of “white” snacks would you prepare for a winter or snow  themed party?

The savoury snacks shown in the photo fits very well into this [...]]]>

Food plays an important part in the planning of your child’s birthday party. The ideal party food should be easy to make and something that both kids and adults will enjoy eating which could be a snack or a meal in itself.

The savoury snacks shown in the photo fits very well into this category. The basic ingredients are bound to be in your food cupboard at any given time.

The ingredients for the toppings will maybe have to be bought but that also depends on the topping you are going to use for these snacks.

This recipe is one of my favourites because it is so versatile and depending on the size of the baking pans you use, the basic recipe makes between 60 and 80 snacks.

You can also use the recipe to make savoury cupcakes – add finely grated cheese and chopped chives to the basic mixture, fill normal size muffin pans with a tablespoon batter, add your topping/filling and cover with another tablespoon of batter before baking. This method makes about 12 savoury muffins.

Here is the recipe for the savoury party snacks:

Pre-heat oven to 180°Celsius

Batter:

• 125ml milk
• 65ml vegetable oil
• 65ml hot water
• 250ml cake flour
• 10ml baking powder
• pinch of salt

Method:

Beat liquids and egg together in a bowl, add sifted dry ingredients and beat well to make a slightly runny batter. Fill prepared mini muffin pans with about 5ml (1 teaspoon) of batter. (Don’t fill more than halfway as the batter rises quite a lot).  Put small amount of topping on the batter, press lightly into batter.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Corned Beef Topping (as shown in image)

• One medium onion
• 1 can of corned beef
• 1 egg
• 12,5 ml each of tomato sauce and chutney

1. Peel and slice or chop one medium onion. Fry gently in a saucepan over medium heat until soft and translucent.
2. Cube corned beef and add to onions. Stir gently to mix, then add tomato sauce and chutney, stir again.
3. Beat egg lightly and add to hot mixture. Working quickly, stir egg into meat mixture and keep stirring until the egg is cooked.
4. Set aside to cool completely.

Optional: Add dried parsley and finely grated cheese to mixture after you have added the egg.

A few topping ideas:

• Left over or stir-fried mince – made according to your favourite recipe
• 1 can tuna, drained and flaked, mixed with 2 to 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• Finely chopped cooked chicken with mayonnaise or cream cheese
• Grated vienna sausage/hot dogs and cheese with small amount of mayonnaise.

Depending upon the age of your child and the party guests, you can add ingredients like chopped chives,  onions,  celery, mustard powder or seasoning of choice to the topping mixtures.  For smaller kids, keep the toppings simple but still tasty.

Enjoy!

Kids of all ages love to [...]]]>

Birthday party food does not need to be elaborate, just kid friendly, and in some cases, as for toddlers, age appropriate. The theme of your party will play a role in the kinds of food you are going to serve but does not necessarily dictate it.

Kids of all ages love to eat potatoes, so at your next theme party, instead of  buying a few packets of potato crisps,why don’t you make some mashed potato snacks?

This is another of my favourite recipes because you can change the basic mashed potato mixture into many different snacks by adding different seasonings, fillings and coatings. The mixture can also be used as a filling for cold meats. It can also be prepared a day or two before the party and kept in the refrigerator which will add considerably to the time management of your party planning.

How to make mashed potato snacks for a kid’s theme party:

Basic mixture:

-  4-6 large potatoes
-  Salt and pepper or seasoning of choice
-  Mayonnaise
-  Crushed potato crisps

To make:

Peel the potatoes by hand or use an electric potato peeler if you are short on time; add to water in a saucepan and boil until soft  Remove from pan and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Mash the potatoes, add salt, pepper and just enough mayonnaise to form a very stiff mixture. Leave to cool.

Form small balls or sausages and roll in finely crushed potato crisps of choice. Store in refrigerator until it is time to serve it.

Tip: Substitute the mayonnaise with cottage or cream cheese.

Ring the changes for different potato snacks:

• Seasoning

-  Aromat (flavoured seasoning salt)
-  Salt and white or black pepper
-  Lemon pepper
-  Celery salt
-  Garlic or onion salt
-  Soup powder of choice (be careful not to add too much to the
mixture as soup powder can make it too salt)

• Add to mixture

- Crushed potato chips
-  Grated Cheddar or cheese of choice
-  Grated onion
-  Finely chopped chives, chopped parsley
-  Finely chopped celery
-  Chopped nuts
-  Fried, crumbled bacon pieces
-  Hard boiled grated eggs

• Fillings:

-  Cheese cubes
-  Ham cubes
-  Gherkin slices
-  Vienna slices
-  Filled olives
-  Small radishes
-  Small cooked mince balls

• Coatings:

- Crushed potato crisps
- Crushed savory biscuits
- Sesame seeds
- Finely chopped nuts
- Finely grated cheddar or Parmesan cheese
- Finely chopped parsley
- Shredded biltong (if available in your country)

Other snack ideas using the mashed potato mixture:

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto polony slices. Spoon the mixture onto ham or other cold meat slices. Roll up and secure with a toothpick or tie a chive around it.

To serve as a vegetable side dish, roll the mixture into bigger balls, put into fridge for 30 minutes, roll into beaten egg and dried breadcrumbs. Put back into fridge for 30 minutes to one hour and then deep fry until crumbs are crisp and golden brown.

Idea: If you look at the many different ingredients that can be added to the basic mixture, you should also take the age of your child and the party guests into consideration. Don’t stretch your budget by buying expensive ingredients when your child is still a toddler or a little older, keep to the basic mixture. Tweenies and teenagers will love the more exotic ingredients.

Tip:  When it comes to kid’s party foods, be on the safe side by contacting the parents of the guests and find out if their kids have any food allergies so that you can make special provision for these guests.

Enjoy the mashed potato snacks and remember to have fun planning your kid’s theme party.

All photos © 2007  Elsie van Rooyen