Celebrating 2011…in Miniature: Foodbuzz 24 x 24

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     I’ve been looking forward to hosting a New Year’s Eve party this year.  I love sharing my cooking and baking skills with my friends.  I enjoy cooking with a theme in mind so that I’m able to narrow down the menu choices.   This year I wanted to ring in 2012 in a big way and in order to do that I decided my theme would be to celebrate 2011…in miniature.

    The miniature theme really started coming to life when I was chosen to host a New Year’s Eve party as part of Foodbuzz’s 24 x 24.  Every month Foodbuzz chooses 24 food bloggers was 24 different areas of the world to all host a party on the same day and then blog about it.

     We don’t have a huge house so the idea of having everything in miniature was perfect.  My husband and I spent days coming up with ideas for mini appetizers, desserts, and drinks that would be easy to carry around the house while visiting with friends.  Having the miniature food would also allow our guests to try a little bit of everything. 

     The party ended up being a fantastic time.  Everyone loved the miniature foods and most tried a little bit of everything.  We put the trays of food in different locations of the house so people had to move around and mingle with different people to get to the different appetizers and desserts.  All of the beverages were in single serve “mini” bottles which prompted many fun and unusual drink concoctions throughout the night. We finished the night off by opening several bottles of champagne and toasting 2012 in a big way.

The Menu
Appetizers:
Baby carrots, mini sweet peppers, gherkin pickles, and cherry tomatoes with bacon blue cheese dip, ranch dip, and vegetable dip.
Phyllo dough tarts filled with custard and topped with fresh fruit.
A flaky crust filled with a blend of cheeses, egg, spinach, and mushrooms.
Mini Maryland style crab cakes on slider buns with a slice of lemon and mini burgers with cheese, lettuce, and condiments on slider buns.

Crispy wonton wrappers filled with shredded chicken, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese then topped off with sour cream.

Lit’l Smokies with Sauce

Grilled mini smoked sausages tossed served with homemade bar-b-que sauce.

Desserts:
My favorite baked brownie recipe put in a mini cupcake tin to make bite sized gooey brownies.
A cookie crust topped with creamy cheesecake and swirled with blueberry jam, strawberry jam, or chocolate.
A pina colada cupcake made with a pineapple rum cake and topped off with a rum buttercream, coconut, and a cherry.  Mojito cupcakes made with spiced rum cake and topped off with a mint lime buttercream.  A Bailey’s Irish Cream cupcake topped off with Bailey’s buttercream frosting.
A shot glass layered with graham cracker crumbs and a sweet and tart key lime pie filling as well as a shot glass layered with pound cake, whipped cream, and strawberries to make a mini strawberry shortcake.

Key Lime on the left, Strawberry Shortcake on the right.
Beverages:

Champagne Jello Shots
Strawberry gelatine mixed with champagne and refrigerated into an easy to consume beverage.

Miniature Bottles of Wine
Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Cabernet, and Merlot

Miniature Bottles of Liquor with Mixers

Individual bottles of vodka, flavored vodkas, rum, and whiskey with mixers of soda, juice, and seltzer.
A sweet, rich chocolate square topped off with a marshmallows that is stirred into steamed milk to make a delicious hot cocoa.

Assorted Sodas, Juices, Seltzer, and Coffee

     Several of the above menu items are already linked to the recipes that are currently on my blog.  In the next week please stop back to find the recipes for Cheesecake Bites, Trio of Boozy Cupcakes, Mini Fruit Tarts, Shot Glass Desserts, and the Trio of Dips to go along with the vegetable tray. 
My husband and I getting rowdy with the New Year’s noisemakers!
Happy 2012!

This post linked to:
Meatless Mondays, Mangia Mondays, Making You Crave Mondays

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Comments

  2. Heather,
    Your party was a smash hit. Best food and fun I have had to ring in the new year EVER. The food was fantastic and the presentation made it even better. Thanks for putting us on the guest list; we both had a grand ol’time.

    Moj says he would like to come over and sample more mini cheesecakes, so if you ever need a tester, keep him in mind.

    Reply

  5. WOW – what a fun looking party and what an amazing amount of work by you to host it. I can only imagine the hours it took to plate all of the mini things.
    Well done – looking forward to the recipes!

    Reply

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