- I think my aunt who makes the deviled eggs at my house
would be very proud.
Maybe she'll even ask me at our next...
(laughing)
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.
That 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 imagine,
but I ended up spending 40.23.
In pre-tax, that's 39.19.
So, not so bad.
I'm pretty proud of myself.
How I kept costs down,
is I looked for things on sale,
and then based 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,
because what is a cocktail 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 water down cocktail.
So, what I'm gonna do is take some of the cranberries
that I bought,
and put them in a bunt pan mold,
and you just add a little water,
just like that.
You don't wanna fill it too high.
My ice mold is ready,
this is gonna 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.
(upbeat music)
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 un-popped,
and then you can add all kinds of flavor,
and you can do whatever you want.
Today we're gonna do like a cool ranch style.
Turn on the heat.
We're gonna add in some oil,
I'm using vegetable oil.
And I also got a little paprika,
I'm gonna 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.
Ooh, it's getting hot in there.
And then we're gonna 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 by this.
And we're done,
I'm gonna turn the heat off.
We're gonna transfer this to a bowl,
that's 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.
Cooked nicely, and then we will add our seasoning.
That is looking great,
and those ranch seasoning packets,
they were only like $.50.
My popcorn is done,
I'm gonna make two more batches of this,
and then we'll move on to our real first appetizer.
(upbeat music)
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 gonna boil some water,
and then we're gonna add our eggs in while it's boiling.
This is gonna 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 gonna transfer them to this ice bath
which is gonna stop the cooking.
And we'll let them sit in there for about 10 minutes,
just until their 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 gonna do,
is you're just gonna 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 give him 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.
Oh, la la.
And now we're gonna take the egg yolk
and we're gonna put it in its own little bowl over here,
and we're gonna use these egg yolks
for our filling later on.
So I'm just gonna 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 wanna do your bare hands,
because you might have forgotten that you chopped them,
then 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 gonna take off the stem,
goodbye stem.
And then we're gonna cut it in half, great.
Now we're going to take our other jalapeno
and we're gonna 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 into our egg yolks,
smash 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,
it 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 pipping tip,
that's gonna just make a nice elevated look to them,
but you don't have to do that.
So we're gonna write in and come up.
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 guest.
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'm gonna put these in the fridge,
and I will pop them out right before the guest arrive.
All right, the next appetizer we're gonna be making
are stuffed mushrooms.
Again, mushrooms were relatively inexpensive to buy,
especially these white button ones.
And we're gonna 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 then next pop out the stem.
We'll hold on to the mushroom top,
and then we're gonna cut off just the end,
just cut that guy right off.
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 gonna mince these puppies up.
Get them nice and fine, super fine minced.
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 wanna make sure this is also pretty finely minced.
You wanna make sure your guest aren't like, "Whoa."
Throw this in with this guy.
Mix that up, oh.
You see when I get this until their nice and soft,
about five minutes they've been on here for a few.
And then with the garlic it's now just...
You're waiting until 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 greens, 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 we will put also in a pipping 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 gonna give it a nice golden brown, crispy top.
So, pipe these in.
You're gonna make just a cute little mound, do do.
Sometimes if you're 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.
(upbeat music)
Look at these golden babies.
Wow, they look amazing.
I'm in love,
I am just gonna add a little bit
of green garnish on them,
so I'm gonna sprinkle a little bit of parsley
that I've chopped up finely.
The garnish makes all the difference.
These look amazing.
My guest are gonna be here soon,
and I still have another appetizer I need to make
and a cocktail.
So, I've got to get going.
(upbeat music)
Now 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 gotta press right here.
Always the scary part.
Oh, opa!
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've got 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 gonna be making a tree design with your pinwheels,
so everyone's gonna 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 length wise,
just like this.
And make sure it's nice and tight.
And there you go.
Tah-dah, look at him.
You guys see his little spiral?
All right, he is 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 we'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 gonna give it a nice little shine.
We're finished with our tree.
(upbeat music)
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 gonna 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.
Wa-lah, 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 gonna 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.
We'll add that,
and that'll just cut the booze down a little bit
so it's not too strong.
No one's gonna get too drunk.
And look how pretty your ice center piece looks.
I just think it looks so fancy.
Let's amp it up to more holiday.
We're gonna 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.
(upbeat music)
Guys, my holiday party is all ready to go,
and now I have two guest 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.
- Wow. - Oh my gosh.
Early bird gets the worm.
So, we're happy to be here early, Katie.
- This is for a big party that we're having.
- Wow.
Oh my Gosh.
- So cute.
- Thank you. - I'm very impressed, Katie.
- Oh my God, it's a tree shape.
- It's a tree.
Do you guys wanna try something?
- Cheers.
- Totally double fisting right now.
Oh my gosh, I think I could eat this whole tree.
- [Katie] You're seeing everything,
and guess how much I spent?
- I would say $50.
- I'm gonna go a little lower.
I'm gonna say 42.
- Wow Betsy, you are close.
It was $40.
- For 15 people?
- Yeah, that was hard to do,
but we did it.
- Oh my gosh.
- With booze.
- That's the thing.
With booze it's tough. - Yeah, it's expensive.
- It takes a lot away.
Thank you guys, well let's keep partying
and well everyone else is about to be here.
- Yeah, thanks for inviting us.
- [Ray] I'm gonna eat one more mushroom.
- [Betsy] Happy holidays.
- [Katie] Yeah, happy holidays guys,
thanks for joining.
- [Ray] Happy holidays.
- [Man] Oh, yes!
(upbeat music)