Lucky 13 dinner party this week! We’re celebrating our 130th episode with a dinner party that’s dedicated to back-to-school. This time of year is more complicated than in years past, but that doesn’t mean we can’t gather around some fun dinner plans. Try out a cheesy pizza monkey bread or choose-your-own-salad-adventure with an easy salad bar. To wrap up our party, make ice cream cupcakes that will make anyone smile with delight.
Pizza Monkey Bread, Easy Salad Bar, and Ice Cream Cupcakes
Pizza Monkey Bread: Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking
Classic monkey bread is more of a breakfast food in our houses with gooey cinnamon sugar pull apart dough. This recipe takes that pull apart bread and turns it savory. Ditch the sugar and add cheese, pepperoni, and pizza sauce. You’ll keep coming back for just one more piece.
Tips:
- Kate made this with cooked sausage and it was delicious.
- Make the dough balls on the small side- about the size of a walnut works. Any bigger and it does get doughy.
- We think this would have been even better with extra sauce on the side.
Easy Salad Bar: A Couple Cooks
School lunch salad bars were one of our absolute favorites as a kid. Piling on all your favorite toppings, including maybe a little too many bacon bits, was the absolute best. Salad bars at school might be on hold for awhile so we made our own at home. Don’t forget the bacon!
Tips:
- Key here is picking enough fun toppings to make this special. Check out your grocery store’s salad aisle for some ideas.
- Betsy put the toppings into pint sized take out containers for the table, then just popped the top back on when dinner was over. In and out of the fridge in a snap!
Ice Cream Cupcakes: Crazy for Crust
The only thing better than ice cream or cupcakes are the two together. Two kid (and adult) favorites at once is double the fun. We couldn’t stop smiling making and eating these treats.
Tips:
- Get creative with the cupcake and ice cream combination. Matcha ice cream and vanilla cupcakes, or chocolate cupcakes with cherry ice cream, or peanut butter cupcakes with black raspberry ice cream...the possibilities are endless.
- Make, then freeze these individually, if you’re not baking for a crowd. Pulling an ice cream cupcake out of the freezer is an instant pick-me-up. Trust us.
From the Smorgasbord:
We picked our top recipes from the last ten episodes:
Family Favorite: Teriyaki Chicken Pineapple Kabobs: Episode 129
Sleeper Hit (Kate): Rice and Peas: Episode 123
Sleeper Hit (Betsy): Cold Vegetable Noodle Platter: Episode 122
Overall Favorite (Kate): Grandma Pizza: Episode 124 dinner sisters
Overall Favorite (Besty): Bibb Lettuce and Cherry Chicken Salad: Episode 122
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