Some cool ideas for your holiday bash

By Insider Staff - Dec 20, 2016 | 0 comments

These festively shaped sugar cookies are quite tasty and will make for a nice dessert for your guests.

We figured you might be in the market for a few new recipes for your holiday get-together.

So we sent out an email to our newsroom colleagues and here’s a sampling of what we got back. Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked or shredded chicken

8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

½ cup of your choice of hot sauce

½ cup of either ranch or blue cheese dressing

½ cup of shredded cheese or blue cheese crumbles

Instructions

Take the cream cheese out of the fridge to let it soften up while you work on everything else.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Combine cooked chicken, cream cheese, hot sauce and dressing in a mixing bowl.

Put ingredients in a baking dish of your choice.

Cover the top in shredded cheese or blue cheese crumbles.

Bake for 20 minutes. Makes 4 cups

Serve with celery or tortilla/pita chips.

Michelle BerthiaumeMonitor sports

Wild Rice Pecan Cranberry Salad

Salad Ingredients

1 cup brown rice wild rice mix cooked according to directions

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup chopped pecans, toasted

¼ cup sliced green onions

Dressing

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a bowl, mix together the rice, cranberries, pecans and green onions.

In a jar, mix the lemon juice, olive oil, orange peel and sugar. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Just before serving, pour the dressing over the rice mixture and lightly stir to coat. Serve warm, chilled, or room temperature.

Nick StoicoMonitor sports

Great Gram Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

4 oz. unsweetened Baker’s chocolate

6 tablespoons shortening

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

cup milk

2 cups King Arthur flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 cup boiling water

Instructions

Start by melting the chocolate in a large bowl. Then, mix in the shortening and water until smooth.

Mix in vanilla, sugar, salt eggs, and baking soda.

Then, add in flour and milk. Blend until smooth.

Bake at 350 degrees in a greased 13×9 pan for 35 minutes. Once cooled, top with your favorite frosting and enjoy.

Sarah KinneyMonitorSugar Cookies

Ingredients

4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp nutmeg

1 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 ½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup sour cream

Instructions

Sift flour, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Cream butter and sugar.

Beat in egg, vanilla and sour cream.

Stir in sifted ingredients. Wrap in plastic and chill.

Bake at 375 degrees on an ungreased pan for 8 to 10 minutes.

And in the spirit of the holidays, use some festive cookie cutters, frosting and of course, sprinkles, to make some tasty looking snowmen and Santas.

Tim GoodwinInsider editor