Oh, I see – you do the fancy kind. When I do this, I just leave the toothpicks in a box beside the crock pot.
These will disappear very quickly if there are teenagers present. I usually do a crock pot full of them when I prepare something for a youth function at church.
If you don’t have any BBQ sauce, you can substitute a mix of grape jelly and brown mustard. Sounds gross, but tastes pretty good.
RR
You find this in Thailand a lot, but satay with peanut sauce is actually from Malaysia. The word “satay” is, I believe a Malay word.
I got these apple dumplings from the Pioneer Woman, so you know your arteries are going to quiver with fear. I often cut the sugar in half. Ridiculously easy and a HUGE crowd pleaser.
Take 2 Granny Smith apples and peel and core and slice into 8 slices each. Take two cans of crescent rolls and roll each apple slice into a crescent roll. Stick them all in a casserole dish. Melt two sticks of butter and add a cup and a half of sugar (I’ve done as little as half a cup - you don’t need more, really) and barely stir it. Add a teaspoon or so of vanilla and pour the sugar/butter/vanilla stuff over the crescent rolled apples. Now here’s the key - pour a can of Mountain Dew over the whole thing. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes and serve with ice cream.
I know, right? I feel like I can’t hold my head up in Williams Sonoma.
I make Salsa Rice: mix equal parts Minute Rice, Salsa, and Water (say about a cup each). Heat it up until it starts to boil. Take the pot off of the heat and put a lid on it. It is ready to eat in about 15 minutes.
Boil some store bought pasta (I like fettuccine), heat some store bought marinara sauce, fry up some breaded chicken breasts (dip in flour, egg, breadcrumbs in that order to coat chicken). Layer in a baking dish noodles, chicken, sauce, and a couple of handfuls of grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for a half-hour or so.
Everybody loves my chicken parmesan and it is probably the easiest meal I ever make for company. The hardest part is frying the chicken, but an oil thermometer and a meat thermometer make that pretty simple even for a simpleton like me.
Soak a kilo (2.2 lb) of mixed fried fruit in two cups of strong black coffee overnight.
Chop a block of milk or dark chocolate and add to the fruit with two cups of self raising flour.
Bake in moderate oven for 90-120 min.
I think this came from Weight Watchers.
Am I too late to the party? I have a few recipes that are deceptively simple, but my family keeps on requesting for all events…
I make an Artichoke dip similar to zoid, but mine includes more seasoning because I can never let well enough alone… The ingredients to my recipe are:
Artichoke Dip (take 2)
2 cans artichoke hearts (about 28 ounces)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper ~ and/or 2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons lemon zest (optional)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
*optional - add 1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese (my dad likes Asiago cheese)
Process artichoke hearts in food processor. Add Parmesan (and Asiago if using), mayonnaise, garlic, lemon zest, and cayenne; puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Place in gratin or shallow baking dish. Bake in a 400 degrees F (205 C) oven until top is golden and dip is heated through, 10 to 20 minutes.
My sister-in-law found this recipe for Chocolate Praline Layer Cake in a Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbook. It combines chocolate cake (from a mix!) with a rich praline topping, then cuts the richness with whipped cream. I cannot recommend it enough because it is very easy, delicious, and impresses the heck out of people.
A co-worker brought this for a potluck once, then I brought it to a family function… Now my family requests it all the time.
Greens with Pears, Asiago, & Cashews
Dressing:
5 Tbsp olive oil
5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
Approximately 4 green onions, chopped (including the green part)
fresh ground pepper to taste
Salad:
4 cups greens (Suggested: Italian blend bagged salad; or endive, radicchio, & green leaf lettuce)
3 to 4 pears, chopped (leave skin on)
Approximately 1 cup cashew halves (Recipe calls for unsalted–which I have never found, so I use salted & just don’t add other salt)
2 - 4 oz. Asiago cheese, grated or shredded
Mix the dressing ingredients in a jar, shake to mix, and refrigerate overnight. In a large bowl, combine greens and about 2/3 of the dressing. Add pears. Drizzle with rest of dressing. Top with Asiago and Cashews. Yield 4-6 servings (very easily doubled, etc.)
Chocolate Lasagna is different and not that hard to make. You can use store bought fresh pasta, and just do the cheese/fruit/chocolate layers.
Oh, yeah! Forgot to put that down.
Puffins:
1 can pumpkin (about 16 oz)
1 box yellow cake mix
Optional: nutmeg, cinnamon, and/or cloves.
Combine cake mix and pumpkin with a hand mixer. Put into muffin tins. Bake for about 20 minutes at 375, or until toothpick stuck into muffin comes out clean. Do not follow the instructions on the cake mix box. No egg, no oil, no water, nothing else. The pumpkin has all the moisture you’ll need.
I’ve done this with:
[ul][li]16 oz of blueberries + graham crackers[]bananas + coconut milk[]16 oz strawberries + anise seedapplesauce + walnuts[/ul][/li]It’s that simple. 16 oz of fruit + a box of cake mix. These muffins vanish at parties.
So that’s canned pumpkin (the unsweetened stuff), not the canned pumpkin pie filling, right?
is intrigued
Yes, canned pumpkin, not the pumpkin pie filling. It can be done with a hand mixer, or even a spoon if your hand mixer isn’t beefy enough.
I tried it with a 15 oz can of sweet potatoes over the weekend (added some molasses and some pecans) but it was very dry and sticky. It needed more liquid, and it was still hard to spoon into the muffin tins.
Add a package of shredded mozzarella, 5 cloves of garlic smashed into bits, and a 1 cup package of 3 cheese blend (usually asiago, parmesean, and romano), and you have MY recipe. It is clearly superior as it contains WAAAAAY more cheese 
I also use sliced, baguettes browned with butter and chopped garlic instead of french bread…
Ramaki -
1 package of bacon, sliced in half
2 small cans of water chestnuts
2 cups ketchup
2 cups famous daves bbq sauce
wrap water chestnuts in bacon, stick with toothpick, set on baking sheet. pour mixture of ketchup and bbq sauce over bacon wrapped deliciousness, bake for awhile, ???, PROFIT!
This is also the only reason anyone should ever eat ketchup…
I love these, but they do tend to make the baking sheet that was used look like it went through the dimensional portal from Event Horizon. This is definately a “line with foil first” kind of a job.
Shortcake dessert bar:
I use a few packages of those sponge cake cups (usually found in the produce department). They’re frequently on sale. If not on sale I’ll use sliced pound cake.
I use fresh or frozen strawberries smashed in a shallow bowl with a couple of tablespoons of sugar (to make a syrup).
Vanilla ice cream on sale.
Whipped cream or cool whip.
Fudge sauce (fork provided for swirling over whipped cream).
Simple, cheap and very popular.
I just thought of the easiest dip.
1 or 2 blocks of cream cheese. (soften in microwave)
Large can of crab meat.
Finely chopped medium onion (or dehydrated chopped onion in a pinch)
Chives
Dried red pepper seeds (in the spice department)
Paprika for color
Seasoned salt to taste.
Mix well, chill in a pretty bowl and serve with crackers.
That looks tasty, but the easiest dip is still a can of Ro-Tel (or diced tomatoes and green chilis) and a block of melted Velveeta. Everyone makes fun of my “trailer trash dip”, but they’re all licking the gorram bowl clean before the rest of the appetizers are even touched!