Bourbon Glazed Meatball Appetizer

The meatballs in bourbon sauce is my favorite appetizer for parties. It has a scrumptious sweet glaze made with bourbon and brown sugar. They are especially great to serve during the Fall and Winter holidays and of course for Super Bowl or other sports parties. I never have leftovers and in fact, no matter how many I make there doesn't seem to be enough.

Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings

These bacon wrapped onion rings are unbelievably delicious. In fact, they are so delicious that they never made it to the buffet table - everyone was picking them right off the smoker! They make a great appetizer but would also be a delicious topping a burger.

Bacon wrapped Pepperoni Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

Bacon Wrapped Pepperoni Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

These easy to make pepperoni, cheese stuffed jalapeno poppers are a perfect appetizer for your parties, football tailgating and family get together;s. And you know wrapping with bacon you can't go wrong. I used my Traeger Smoker to cook mine, but you can use a oven or grill.

All you need is
6 - Jalapeno
8oz. - Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup - Shredded Cheddar, I used white cheddar
2Tbsp. - Dried Onion Flakes
Pepperoni
6 - Slices of Bacon, cut in half
Place soft cream cheese in bowl and mix with cheddar cheese and onion flakes. Slip on some latex gloves, slice stem off and then slice jalapeno in half. Discard seeds and place jalapeno's on a aluminum foil covered baking sheet. Stuff the jalapeno's with cheese mixture, then top with pepperoni slightly push them into the cheese mixture. Take half of a bacon slice and wrap around the popper. Whoolah done!!!

I smoked mine for a hour and then put the grill at 375 Degrees and cooked for 20 minutes or until the bacon is crisp.

For Oven baking preheat to 400 degrees and bake 25 - 30 minute

Authored by +Shawna Williams

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Mummy Meatballs

A cute Halloween recipe that was really easy to do, well almost. We were having a heck of a time threading the spaghetti through the meatballs.  If you are planning a party you could do these ahead of time and freeze them too.













Print Recipe

Mummy Meat balls
1 bag - Frozen Meatballs
1 can of Pillsbury Pizza dough
Spaghetti
Spaghetti sauce
Thaw out meatballs. Take a spaghetti noodle and thread three meatball onto noodle, break off any excess noodle.
Cut pizza dough in thin strips and wrap around skewered meatballs.

Authored by +Shawna Williams

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Roasted Duck Pastry with Adobo Honey Sauce- Perfect Wine Pairing

Roasted Duck Pastry with Adobo Honey Sauce - Perfect Wine Pairing
Preheat Oven to 400 degrees
1 – Puff Pastry, thawed
1 – Pear, peeled and diced in ¼”
¾ cup – Pecans, chopped
1 ½ cups – Roasted Duck, thinly sliced with no skin
1 cup – Portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 ½ - 2 cups – Gouda Cheese, shredded
2 Tbs. – Olive Oil
¾ cup – Honey
1 Tbs. – Adobo Sauce
Mix honey and adobo sauce together and set aside. Roll out puff pastry on a floured surface to about a 16x12 rectangle. Transfer pastry to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 8 minutes until lightly brown. Take out of oven and let rest for about a minute. It will slightly flatten. Drizzle olive oil over pastry, then top with mushrooms, duck and then cheese. Put Back in oven and bake for 12 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Drizzle with honey adobo sauce. Serve with pears and pecans on top of slices.

Fantastic Pinot Noir and Chardonnay pairing.

Authored By +Shawna Williams







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Easy Dried Beef Dip for Serving Cold or Hot

This dip is retro but it passes the test of time! It is still one of my favorites. I also love this particular recipe because it has a mild onion flavor and full of dried beef. The bonus is you can serve it cold or hot.

Cheddar Cheese Filled Biscuits

So easy and so good. These cheesy filled biscuit are wrapped with a Parmesan and butter batter. If that is not enough when you bite into the biscuit the warm cheddar oozes out and is so yummy.

Cheddar Cheese Filled Biscuits
1 can of big flaky biscuits
Cheddar Cheese Cubes
1 cup - Parmesan cheese, grated
1 stick - Butter
1/2 tsp.-  Garlic Powder
1/8 tsp. - Italian Seasoning
Melt butter and add garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Mix together
Place Parmesan cheese in separate bowl.
Cut biscuits in half  and place one cube of cheddar cheese inside them. Close biscuit around cheese and roll closing biscuit around the cheese.
Roll biscuit in butter and then into the Parmesan cheese.
Bake according to biscuit directions.
We added and extra cube of cheese for some really cheesy biscuits.

Authored by +Shawna Williams
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Our First E-Cookbook & A Lesson in Perseverance

Easy Life Meal & Party Planning is proud to announce the publication of our first cookbook "Appetizers & Hors D'oeuvres" - a  Kindle E-book! . This is a collection of our easy and delicious appetizer & hors d'oeuvres recipes that will help guarantee a fantastic party for family and guests.

Last Fall my sister +Shawna Williams was dead set on publishing an e-cookbook. We were about 8 months into opening our first ever blog and my mind was exhausted. So much to do and so much to learn - who would have thought! But she was ready to take on another project and I have to admit I was a drag on the whole process.

I finally caved and last September I flew to Florida to do a cooking demonstration gig at Williams & Sonoma and work on an e-cookbook. She had already started on the e-cookbook and I had helped (a little). While in Florida my one assignment was to work together on the cookbook. Sounds good right - but we had all kinds of complications learning new software, installing new software, formatting issues, computer glitches, the list goes on. Well you can guess where that took the drag sister - off to have fun: baking vintage recipes and Halloween

Buffalo Chicken Wings - The quest is done

I am so tired of going to restaurants ordering chicken wings and they come either so fried that the meat is dehydrated off the bone or they barely fry them and the skin is soggy. YUK! What ever happened to great wings? I like eating them at restaurants so I don't have the grease clean up, but I gave up. The cravings just got to me. I pulled out an old frying grease that my Mom and Grandmother always used and said lets do this. I haven't used this grease in years, but my Mom always had perfect fried chicken and I decided to try it. Yes, I am talking about Crisco and let me tell you the results were incredibly delicious. I found that the splatter was a lot less then my grape seed oil. It browned so evenly and kept its heat batch after batch.  I also used Footy's chicken wing sauce, it's very hot but I cut the heat by adding butter to the sauce. The flavor is classic buffalo wing sauce and I think it's the best. Funny when I moved down to Florida in the 80's Footy was a famous disc jockey down here who loved wings and this is his sauce.

French Onion Soup

I made a beef roast the other day and had a lot of the broth left over.  I decided to make French Onion Soup, since it is my daughters favorite. Lucky her!!! It happens to be one of the easiest soups to make when you have the broth already done.

French Onion Soup
4 cups - Beef Broth
2 - Large Sweet Onions
1/2 stick - Butter
1 tsp. - Italian seasoning
2 cloves - Garlic, minced
French bread or Baguette, 2" slices
8 slices - Provolone cheese or Gruyere cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Toast french bread slices till slightly brown.
Saute onions in butter till soft, add italian seasoning and garlic simmer for another 3-5 minutes. Then add.beef broth and simmer for 25 minutes. In 8 individual cups add hot beef broth, top with a slice of french bread then add the slice of cheese. Place in oven and bake about 8 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Authored by +Shawna Williams

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Quick & Easy Loaded Tater Tots

Loaded Tater Tots is a quick and easy appetizer or meal. I love loaded baked potatoes and when I have time I like to make them the "old fashioned" way in the oven and not the microwave. However, this is a great substitute for those days when you don't have time to wait for baked potatoes. And the guys in the family love this dish!!

Tropical Fruit Salad

Nothing like spring and the first taste of fresh strawberries, kiwi's and of course my pineapple out of my garden. I just can't get enough whether for breakfast or a snack.


Tropical Fruit Salad
1-Kiwi
6-Strawberries
3/4c-pineapple chunks

Place all ingredients in a bowl and if desired sprinkle a little sugar (1Tblsp.) on top stir and place in bowl.

You can also top with toasted coconut, chopped nuts, whip cream or natural sugar cane crystals.

Authored by +Shawna Williams
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