happy new year!

We rang in 2013 with a few good friends, good drinks, lots of laughter, games and some yummy snacks!

These avocado, cream cheese, and salsa-stuffed puff pastries were a hit! Super easy and seriously delicious. I used a roasted chipotle salsa and it was great. I think it’d be fun to play around with different salsa flavors. Only thing I did differently was add a little shredded sharp cheddar on top a few minutes before they were done in the oven.

These margarita cupcakes are definitely worth a try!  know margaritas are typically a summer bev but I thought since I was taking a fruity punch they’d go better with that then some kind of chocolatey dessert. And they did! The cupcake had just a slight lime flavor that was just enough and the buttercream was light and delicious. The swiss meringue buttercream was a first for me and I’m not sure I did it right, all the reviews and a few google searches said it could take up to 30 minutes to get firm but I feel like I did that and a little more and it still wasn’t set up as firm as I would’ve liked. I had to put it in the fridge for a bit then mix it again and it worked from there. I did about 16 in a regular muffin pan then the rest in mini pans for bite sized treats. I did two tablespoons of tequila in the frosting and thought it gave just enough flavor but didn’t overpower it.

Fruity and fizzy are two words I’d use to describe this champagne punch. Also, delicious, festive, refreshing. 🙂 The recipe calls for 2 cups of unsweetened pineapple juice and I did about 2 1/2, everything else I followed exactly and it was perfect!

This picture was taken today so the color is much pinker from the raspberries but I’m betting it’s just as delicious as last night!

I hope your new year is filled with all of these wonderful things:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23