i think my aunt who makes the deviled
eggs at my house would be very proud
maybe she'll even ask me at her next
just goes wild so i'm gonna go wild hi
i'm katie
and i love hosting parties but they get
very very expensive
so i have challenged myself today to
host a cocktail party for 15 people for
only 40 it seems impossible but we're
gonna try
i gotta get shopping i will see you guys
in just a little bit
oh my god okay i
got a lot of stuff because there's 15
people coming to this party
it was more difficult than i could have
ever imagined but
i ended up spending 40 23 and pre-tax
that's 39-19
so not so bad i'm pretty proud of myself
how i kept costs down is i look for
things on sale and then base my recipes
off those
and then i also get to use some pantry
staples this is stuff we always keep
stocked in the tasty kitchen and we
recommend that you guys have too so i
get to use salt
pepper and oil i'm gonna be making four
appetizers and one big batch cocktail
cause what is a cocktail party without a
little booze
right right i better get started i got a
lot to do
so the first thing i have to do is prep
for my big batch cocktail i'm gonna be
making a fun holiday punch with
cranberries in it so i bought a bag of
cranberries and i'm gonna be making an
ice mold that's gonna sit in my punch
bowl this is gonna melt slower than
chunks of ice
and it won't water down the cocktail
because nobody likes a watered down
cocktail so what i'm going to do is take
some of the cranberries that i bought
and put them in a bundt pan mold and you
just add a little water
just like that you don't want to fill it
too high
my ice mold is ready this is going to go
in my punch at the end we're gonna put
this in our blast
freezer and see if it will be ready for
the party hopefully it will
our first appetizer we're gonna be
making flavored popcorn the reason why
we're doing this is popcorn is
so cheap if you buy unpopped and then
you can add
all kinds of flavor and you can do
whatever you want today we're going to
do like a cool ranch style
turn on the heat we're going to add in
some oil
i'm using vegetable oil and i also got a
little paprika i'm going to add that
together
with a little bit of salt and we're
gonna mix it on up
it'll give you a nice pop of color on
your table i also love making popcorn
because you can put it in bowls all over
the house and people will kind of fill
themselves up on it so it is time to add
the rest of our kernels oh it's getting
hot in there
and then we're gonna kind of shake that
up make sure everything gets covered in
oil
and it's a nice little workout you know
i don't know why i'm so amused with this
and we're done i'm gonna turn the heat
off
we're gonna transfer this to a bowl just
like so
we're gonna add a little oil and toss
this so that when we put on our
seasoning
it sticks to all the popcorn coat it
nicely and then we will add
our seasoning that is looking great and
those ranch
seasoning packets they were only like 50
cents my popcorn is done i'm gonna make
two more batches of this and then we'll
move on to
our real first appetizer next we're
gonna make jalapeno popper deviled eggs
i always love making deviled eggs
because first of all they can chill
in the fridge also eggs are fairly
inexpensive so you get a lot of bang for
your buck
the first thing we need to do is we're
going to boil some water and then we're
going to add our eggs in while it's
boiling this is going to shock the
eggshell
and so when you put it in your ice bath
afterwards it's gonna come off
super easy later in one big piece we're
gonna put in
a few at a time here nice and easy when
it goes in so they don't
crack i'm gonna let these boil for about
12 minutes and then i'm going to
transfer them to this ice bath which is
going to stop the cooking
and we'll let them sit in there for
about 10 minutes just till they're cool
and we can take the eggshell off so i
have drained my eggs
they are now ready to be peeled so the
first thing you're going to do is you're
just going to give
really gentle taps all around just nice
and gentle
now we can start peeling it it's coming
off just so perfectly
because we shocked that eggshell off
when we put it into that ice bath you
get a massage now he's taking a bath
he's having a day at the spa
we are now going to cut him nicely in
half
and now we're going to take the egg yolk
and we're going to put it in its own
little bowl over here
and we're going to use these egg yolks
for our filling later on so i'm just
going to do this
16 more times and then we'll have enough
egg yolks and we'll be ready to make our
filling
i have prepped all my eggs i've got all
my yolks and these are jalapeno
popper deviled eggs so we've got
jalapenos i am going to put on some
gloves because when dealing with
jalapenos
you don't want to do your bare hands
because you might have forgotten that
you chop them
and you touch your eyeball and then
you're blind for your party first
i am going to chop ones that we are
going to use for our garnish
so this one we're just going to take off
the stem goodbye stem
and then we're going to cut it in half
great
now we're going to take our other
jalapeno and we're going to mince this
up and it's going to go into our filling
i like to leave the seeds inside the
jalapeno to give
much more of a kick to the filling if
you don't like spicy getting rid of the
seeds is the way to go
i'm going with the jalapeno popper
deviled eggs because i want it just to
be a little bit more fun
i also love the green of the jalapeno
and this is a little bit of a holiday
cocktail party so it brings in some nice
festive green
add this in to our egg yolks
mash the yolks up with the jalapenos
first before we add
any of our other ingredients a lot of
deviled egg recipes
use mayonnaise but we're using the sour
cream because it adds just
a nice tang to your filling and then add
some cream cheese
pairs really well with that sour cream
and bacon this is really the only meat
we could afford
add some salt to taste so now we're
gonna
mix all this up until it's nice and
smooth
i just realized that i forgot to put in
my scallions chop these guys
up real quick chop them up nice and
small
throw this into our mixture we're gonna
mix it in i'm gonna put this into a
piping bag because it's a lot easier
to put into our eggs you can use a
sandwich bag and cut off the end if you
want that's helpful
now i'm gonna pipe in my filling i've
put it in this bag
and i put a little piping tip that's
gonna just make a nice elevated
look to them but you don't have to do
that so we're gonna go right in
and come whoop kind of egg frosting if
you will
oh that looks so pretty i just think
this makes such a nice little flower
design
so the next thing i'm gonna do is top
them each with a little bit of our real
bacon bits
the only protein you'll be serving your
guests we're dealing with the jalapeno
again
glove back on and we're just gonna plop
these guys
right in the center standing up sideways
this is our little garnish it gives us a
nice like i said festive
green color also this kind of acts as a
warning to people like hey
this is a spicy appetizer maybe you
don't like spicy
maybe this isn't for you so my eggs are
all done and ready to go
i am gonna go put these in the fridge
and i will pop them out right before the
guests arrive
all right the next appetizer we're going
to be making are stuffed mushrooms
again mushrooms were relatively
inexpensive to buy especially these
white button ones
and we're going to be using their stems
as the filling so this way we didn't
have to buy anything else to kind of
supplement the filling other than a
little bit of cheese and some panko
first thing we're gonna do is we're
gonna clean these mushrooms off with
a wet paper towel give a lot of care a
lot of love
all right he's looking good so in the
next pop out the stem
we'll hold on to the mushroom top and
then we're going to cut off
just the end just cut that guy right off
and you can just discard that we won't
be using that
all right we've got all of our stems
here all our mushrooms are clean
so i'm just going to mince these puppies
up get them nice and
fine super fine mints okay i've gotten
my
mushroom stems down to a very very fine
mince
i am going to turn the heat now on my
pan
add a little bit of oil here
and we will add in our mushroom
stems we're gonna let these saute for a
little bit
perfect i am gonna quickly mince up some
garlic to add in here
and that will just add a lot more flavor
and it'll be so fragrant
and you want to make sure this is also
pretty finely minced
you want to make sure your guests aren't
like whoa throw this
in with this guy mix that up
you so you want to get this so they're
nice and soft about five minutes they've
been
on here for a few and then with the
garlic it's now just waiting till that
gets fragrant
while this cooks i'm gonna clean up my
station a little bit and then grab my
other ingredients
all right i've got the rest of my
ingredients for the filling i'm gonna
turn this heat off i am going to add my
mushroom
stems into this bowl set this off to the
side
i'm gonna chop up some parsley we need
about four tablespoons
throw this into our mixture over here
beautiful grains
always like to have a lot of different
colors when you cook you don't want
everything to be brown
and now we're gonna combine some
parmesan cheese
delicious and we're gonna do a little
cream cheese
and we'll mix this all together and then
uh we will put this also in a piping bag
i have taken
the tops of the mushrooms that we
cleaned and i put them on a baking sheet
and we have a little bit of panko for
our topping that's going to give it a
nice golden brown crispy top so pipe
these in
you're going to make just a cute little
mound
sometimes if your filling isn't very
warm
it's a little bit harder to pipe out of
the bag so
you can always pop it in the microwave
for like a split second if you need to
top this with some panko love some panko
and not very
expensive and it just gives it such a
crunchy
beautiful look look at these
golden babies wow they look amazing
i'm in love i am just going to add a
little bit of green
garnish on them so i'm going to sprinkle
a little bit of parsley that i've
chopped up
finely the garnish makes all the
difference these look amazing my guests
are going to be here soon and i still
have another appetizer i need to make
and a cocktail so
i've got to get going now we're on our
final
appetizer which is going to be a cute
pesto parmesan
pinwheel treat i got crescent roll dough
which everyone loves and is fairly
inexpensive
i am gonna roll this out to make the
pinwheels
oh my gosh i got a press right here
that's always the scary part
so we're just gonna roll this guy out on
some parchment paper
so you're gonna end up with four
rectangles and we're gonna want to
press in the seams of the diagonal lines
so you can just take your two fingers
bring them together like this it's very
buttery so it should not have a problem
sticking together so then we're gonna
cut these four
rectangles so that they're not touching
we bought some pesto i've drained this
pesto because it had a lot of oil
and it's just gonna be too much oil and
the butter with the crescent rolls so
make sure you drain your pesto ahead of
time we are gonna spread this out on
each one of our rectangles this
appetizer might not be
as fancy as the other ones we're making
but i think it has a nice
holiday cheer and some nostalgia another
thing is you're going to be making a
tree design with your pinwheels
so everyone's going to think this was
really impressive but it was actually
super
super easy what goes great with pesto
bingo bango
parmesan guys so we are going to add
some grated parmesan in here who doesn't
love a little cheese
we are going to roll these guys up
lengthwise
just like this and make sure it's nice
and tight and there you go
ta-da look at him you guys see his
little spiral
all right he's looking good so the next
thing we're gonna do is we're gonna
slice this into six
and they're gonna get a little squished
when you cut them but we'll reshape them
on the pan and this is gonna be the top
of our tree
so i'm gonna get all these guys cut and
then we'll start building the tree as
you can see we've got one at the top
and two and then i'll go three and four
and so on give them a little bit of
space because they will
spread out and this will be kind of like
a pull apart tree
and then we're gonna do two rows of four
below that to be
the stump and there is our beautiful
tree and i'm going to use
one egg for this brush over everything
with a little egg wash which is just
egg and a little bit of water and this
is just going to give it a nice little
shine we're finished with our tree
so when i make a cocktail it usually has
a lot of elements it's very
fancy but because we're on a budget you
can still make a very yummy cocktail
just it must be much simpler
so we have some vodka a cherry lemon
lime soda
and i've got some lime sparkling water
that's going to cut the booze just a
little bit so it's not too strong
so remember our ice mold that we made in
the beginning i've dipped this in some
warm water so hopefully it's gonna come
out
and we're gonna put that in first voila
oh and look how pretty that is it just
adds a whole other element to your bowl
it makes it very
fancy even though the drink is kind of
simple add our
liquids and we're going to do the whole
two liters because you have 15 people
coming to this party you have a lot of
people
to make sure they get a drink something
i like to do when i'm hosting a party is
put the drink kind of near the door
where people come in
so they can serve themselves as they
come in and it's kind of setting the
vibe like here's a drink come on in
let's have fun and you can also have
your other mixers or your non-alcoholic
beverages there for anyone who's not
partaking
in booze okay and then we are gonna do a
whole bottle of vodka but again
15 people that's a lot of booze but it's
a big punch bowl finally
one liter of our sparkling lime water
and we'll add that and that'll just cut
the booze down a little bit so it's not
not too strong no one's gonna get too
drunk
and look how pretty your ice centerpiece
looks i just think it looks
so fancy let's amp it up to more holiday
we're going to add more cranberries
it'll be garnish as people put it in
their drinks and why i love to serve a
big batch cocktail is that
you are too busy hosting talking to
friends getting things out of the oven
so people can just serve themselves you
don't have to be constantly making them
new drinks all the time i'm gonna give
this a big stir with this beautiful
golden ladle
i think that we're ready to have a party
guys
my holiday party is all ready to go and
now i have
two guests who've come a little early
and they are going to taste test some
things and guess how much i spent
betsy and ray you guys can come in
welcome to my cocktail party for 15
people
gosh early bird gets the worm yeah so
we're happy to be here early katie
this is for a big party that we're
having
oh my gosh cute i'm very impressed katie
oh my god it's a tree shape it's a tree
do you guys want to try something cheers
and here's the dvd
totally double fisting right now oh my
gosh i think i could eat this whole tree
you're seeing everything and guess how
much i spent i would say
fifty dollars i'm gonna go a little
lower i'm going to say
42. wow betsy you were close
it was 40. for 15 people
yeah that was hard to do but we did it
oh my gosh
sweet booze that's the thing with booze
it's tough
it takes a lot away thank you guys well
let's keep partying and what
everyone else is about to be here
happy holidays yeah happy holidays guys
thanks for joining us
oh yes
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