Holiday Cocktail Party Ideas

Holiday Cocktail Party Ideas

I love this time of year, everything is sparkly, twinkling and festive. It is the perfect time to have a cocktail party and invite some friends over. It doesn't have to be stressful or over the top. The only things required are friends, food and drinks and let the laughter begin. Here are a few tips and ideas to help you out.

I like things to appear like they are very detailed and planned out. I want my guests to ooh and ahh. But I don't want to spend alot of time preparing food and drinks. I love specialty drinks, but I don't want to spend my night mixing drinks, I want to spend it enjoying my company. So I serve drinks already mixed. This year I will serve Appetizers and Cranberry Vodka Punch.

Cranberry Vodka Punch
from modified from bestbartenderever
Prepare the night before: mix 1/2 cranberry juice, 1/2 water into ice cube trays, place a couple cranberries in the squares and freeze.

2 qts chilled Cranberry Juice Cocktail
1 bottle (750ml) Vodka
2 cups chilled Ginger Ale
2 cups chilled Club Soda

In a large punch bowl, combine Cranberry Juice Cocktail and Vodka. Stir. Add prepared ice cubes. Pour in the Ginger Ale and the Club Soda. Garnish with slices of fresh fruit.

I love to serve appetizers. Something about bite sized food gets me at hello. Here is what I'll be serving this year.

Source

Mini Sausage Wreath
From Oriental Trading
Ingredients
Mini Sausages
Refrigerated Crescent Dough Rolls
Red Bell Pepper
Diced Rosemary
1/3 cup Butter
1/2 cup BBQ Sauce
1/2 cup Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to the temperature specified on the package of Refrigerated Crescent Dough
Rolls. Drain the liquid off of the mini sausages.
2. Unroll the crescent dough and separate at the perforations to create 4 rectangles. Press together
the remaining perforation in each rectangle. With a knife or pizza cutter, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 8 strips making a total of 32 strips.
3. Wrap one strip of dough around each mini sausage. Lay out the crescent-wrapped sausages with
their sides touching on an ungreased cookie sheet in a circle forming a wreath shape.
4. Bake for 11-15 minutes or until golden brown. Melt 1/3 cup of butter and brush the butter on top of
the crescent-wrapped sausages. Sprinkle the rosemary on top of the butter.
5. Cut a red bell pepper into a bow shape for garnish. Combine the BBQ sauce and cranberry sauce
in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until heated through. Serve with wreath for dipping.

Tortellini Skewers

Source

From Caramel Potatoes
Ingredients:
Frozen or Fresh Cheese Tortellini, prepared according to package directions
Italian Salad Dressing
Cherry Tomatoes
Olives
Cheese Cubes
Skewers (6″ is a good size)

Prepare tortellini as directed, pour on salad dressing until it is generously coated and refrigerate overnight. You’ll need to add more dressing the next day because the pasta will soak it all up. Thread the tortellini on the skewers and mix in tomatoes, olives, or cheese cubes. You can use any type of olives or cheese that you like, but make plenty, they’ll go fast!

I'll be rounding this out with variety of nuts and candies, veggie tray, cheese ball, crackers and mini blueberry pies (new recipe I'm playing with - I'll post it after I create it).