Hot Saskie Mamas 9th Annual Christmas Consumption Extravaganza!

I met a fabulous group of mommy-friends online when my daughter was born, and we have been a huge support system for each other over the last 9 years.  Mostly we just post online and talk about how things are going in our lives... but every once in a while, especially at Christmas time, we like to party!
Here is a collection of the recipes that were served at my house last night for our 9th Annual Christmas party.  (We call it the Consumption Extravaganza because we generally make pigs of ourselves with the amount of food and beverages we consume!)  There were plenty of other amazing recipes (Hooters wings, Taco dip, nuts & bolts, and tons of other things I can't even remember at the moment!) but here are the ones I have recipes for:

JELLO PUNCH (adapated from this recipe)
1/2 c. sugar
3 c. water
1 pkg. strawberry jello
1 can frozen lemonade
2 c. orange juice
1 bottle (2 L) Sprite

Bring the first three ingredients to a boil and then gently boil for 3 minutes.  Stir in frozen lemonade and orange juice.  Pour into a container and freeze overnight.  When ready to serve, scoop it into a punch bowl and pour in the Sprite, stirring till combined.
(I don't have a photo of the punch, but it was quite tasty.  Once all the slush melted into the Sprite though, it was really really sweet.  You can mix in some Club Soda too if you want to cut down on the sweetness.  I used yogurt containers to store the slush in the freezer, and it took a while to thaw out so you might want to use smaller containers or even icecube trays to freeze it.)

MRS. CLAUS' NIPPLES (I did not come up with that name, I swear!)
raspberries
cream cheese icing (cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract)
vanilla wafer cookies, cut into small squares

Pipe the cream cheese icing into the raspberries and put a little bit onto each wafter square.  Place a raspberry on top of each wafer square.  (Perhaps if you put a dab of icing on the top of each raspberry, they would look more like mini Santa hats and less like nipples!)  The idea for this came from this recipe, which uses strawberries to make Santa hats.

These were so good... even though they looked like nipples.



CHEESE & VEGGIE CHRISTMAS TRAY

green onions
tomatoes, carrots, and any other veggies you'd like to add on as "decorations"
cheese cubes
pretzel sticks

Use the green onions to make the branches of your tree, and the pretzel sticks for the trunk.  Fill in the other veggies and cheese cubes as decorations.



How cute is that??

HOT BUTTERED RUM NO-BAKE CHEESECAKE (posted on the Epicure Selections Facebook page by Janet Dupasquier)
1 pkg. cream cheese
1/4 c. icing sugar
2 envelopes Dream Whip
1/2 c. milk
2 tbsp. Hot Buttered Rum, melted
1-2 tbsp. Hot Buttered Rum, melted

Cream together the first 4 ingredients until light and fluffy. Add in 2 tbsp. melted Hot Buttered Rum and combine. Pour into a premade graham cracker crust. Drizzle the remaining Hot Buttered Rum overtop and use a knife to zig-zag it through the cheesecake. Refrigerate until cheesecake is set.

This was really good!

Thanks to all my Hot Saskie Mama friends for celebrating another fabulous year of food, fun, and friendship!!