How to have a party: Baby Blessing Edition

I love food. I love my family. My family loves food. Our parties, therefore, revolve around food.

In my religion, we bless babies when they are little. It's kind of like a christening or baptism, but there's no water. It's really sweet to see my husband give my newest arrival a blessing. Worthy priesthood holders in the family are invited to participate, and it's a great little show of love.

Little Miss in the blessing dress I crocheted. 

After, the entire clan showed up to my house for the food. Yum-O. We had chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, strawberries, grapes, sliced oranges, carrots, celery, cucumbers, ranch dressing, hummus, sugar cookies, mini carrot muffins, zucchini bread, lemon bars, brownies (made by my mom), banana bread (made by my mom), and chocolate chip cookies (made by my sister.) I bought the croissants (YAY, Smith's has safe ones!) but the rest was homemade. Yes, I was crazy. Still am. But I had enough food to feed the 40 people who descended: siblings, in-laws, cousins, aunts and uncles, parents, grandparents, and so on. My house was a bit of an insane asylum, but no one went home hungry, even though they did eventually all go home.

So, I will stop rambling, and link to the recipes I used. I definitely like some of these more than others, but they were all good!

Chicken Salad--I tripled this. And cooked the chicken in the pressure cooker. It got completely rave reviews, and all 60 sandwiches disappeared in short order. I especially like the crunch of the water chestnuts. (Although I had an allergy-mom moment, someone tasted it, then asked if there were water chestnuts, and my first response was, "Oh, no! Are you allergic?" They weren't, just curious about ingredients, LOL.)

Zucchini Bread (whole wheat, of course)--I've made this before, but this time I had Joe check for doneness, and the inside was still just a little gooey. Still good, though. I tripled it, and it made 8 small loaves. I replaced the oil with applesauce, and it stayed so moist and chewy.

Sugar Cookie Bars--I adore sugar cookies. Especially the frosting. Oh. My. Goodness. These are a billion times easier than the traditional rolling and cutting routine. The edges do get a little crispy while the inside stays soft and chewy, but cut the outer 1/4 inch off each side, and you've got a huge tray of sugar cookies in about an hour. Seriously yummy. However, true sugar cookies are yummier.

Lemon Bars--I like sour things. They rock my world. Unfortunately, a lot of lemon bars have a dish-soap aftertaste. These lemon bars are made with real lemons, flour, sugar, eggs, and so on. They are actually really, really, really easy. Unless you are like me and you get seeds in your lemon juice, Then you will be using a slotted spoon to fish for the little pips. Oh, or if you have hangnails. Squeezing lemons is a bit precarious around those. The end result is certainly worth it, however. These are gooey and decadent, but hold together well enough to be cut into cute little squares. They are also a great complement to all the super-sweet stuff.

Carrot Applesauce Muffins--There are a number of people in my family avoiding processed food and sugar for one reason or another. I made this recipe, only I baked them between 15 and 18 minutes in mini-muffin cups. My kids ate them for breakfast the next day, and LOVED that they each got THREE muffins.

I have the recipes for the brownies, banana bread, and cookies, but not uploaded anywhere yet. That will be my project for another day. Let's just say that even if you follow the recipe to a "T", the cookies won't be the same. My sister's love shines through those cookies. It's incredible.