Baby Shower

On Sunday my mom and I co-hosted a baby shower for two of my cousins. It was nice to have the girls over, because some of my aunts and cousins hadn't been to our house before.

Here are some of the recipes that we used:

Rotisserie Chicken and Chicken Stock

• I bought a rotisserie chicken on Saturday. I took it home, and E and I removed the skin and shredded the rest of the chicken. I put half of it aside for the buffalo chicken dip. I used about 1/4 of it in the enchilada roll-ups, and I saved 1/4 of it to use later.
• When we shredded the chicken, we saved any pieces that were too fatty to use. We also saved the chicken carcass and the rest of the chicken bones. Then we put those pieces into the crockpot, filled it up with water, and added an onion (I just cut it into quarters) and some leftover carrot scraps. We cooked it on low for about 18 hours (most websites said to cook it for 12-18 hours), and then strained it and cooled it in a cold water bath in my sink. We ended up with about 12 cups of chicken stock. Yummy.

Buffalo Chicken Dip (based on this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of the meat from a rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 2 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup bleu cheese dressing
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
• 3/4 cup of hot sauce (I used about 1/2 cup of Frank's Wings Buffalo Sauce, and 1/4 cup of Frank's Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce)
• 1/2 - 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• French bread and tortilla chips - or whatever else you want to use.

Directions:

1) In a 1.5 quart (or larger) oven-safe dish, combine the chicken, cream cheese, dressing, and hot sauce.

2) Stir until well mixed. Then let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

3) Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. When 10 minutes remain, add the shredded cheddar cheese to the top of the dip.

*** Note: You may have to experiment a bit with the oven temperature and cooking time.

Chicken Enchilada Roll-Ups

• I used this recipe - I followed it pretty closely.
• Instead of using canned chicken, I used 1/4 of a rotisserie chicken.
• I also used a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper, because I didn't want the roll-ups to be too spicy.
• I used a 6-pack of jalapeno cheddar tortillas (they were actually called "wraps" at our grocery store, but they were located by the tortillas). It was almost enough. I had to use 1 regular white flour tortilla in order to use up the chicken enchilada filling.
• I mixed up the filling the day before the shower. I think it allowed the flavors to blend together nicely.
• It is easier to spread the filling onto the tortillas if you take the filling out of the fridge and let it sit for a while before you try to work with it.
• I also barely used any salt. Maybe between 1/8 and 1/4 tsp.

Baby Shower Menu

• Besides the buffalo chicken dip and the enchilada roll-ups, we also served: mini croissant sandwiches (different variations of ham, turkey, and cheese), a veggie tray with ranch and dill dip, a fruit bowl (grapes and strawberries), punch, pickles and olives, and water with lemon.
• We also bought two 7" cakes from Target's bakery - a red velvet cake and a chocolate indulgence cake. They were delicious.
• For the 12 guests, we had plenty of food. We have a lot of leftovers, so I will be eating leftover baby shower food for the rest of the week. I'm not complaining about that :)

Baby Shower Games and Other Details

• We bought a baby shower word search game at a local party store. It was trickier than we thought it was going to be.
• We also played this Baby Shower Bingo game. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. My grandma won the Bingo game, though, so that made the wait worth it.
• All in all, it was really fun to co-host a baby shower. I'm really glad that my mom was there to help me and co-host it with me; we wouldn't have been able to have the shower without her help. E was also a big help. Thank you Mom and E :)