Ham and Cheese Sliders, Bacon and Cheddar Deviled Eggs, and a Quick Idea for Fruit Salad

 

I'm not quite adept yet when it comes to entertaining.  Serving my family dinner is one thing.  Serving a large number of people is quite intimidating.  For one, I'm incredibly shy which doesn't help matters.  Secondly, I worry way too much.  What if my guests don't like what I'm serving?  What if there's not enough?  What if it's cold by the time it gets to the table?  Believe me, if there is something to fret over I'll do it.  So, when planning my Eggland's Best Pink Party & Brunch, I concentrated on making things easy.

First and foremost, I wanted all the food to be able to be served room temperature.  I didn't want to worry about keeping food hot.  Once I determined that I wanted everything to be served at room temperature I started planning the other details.  I wanted the food to be as pink as possible.  I also wanted to keep things as light and easy as possible.  I'm always a fan of finger foods so I decided to try and chose recipes that can, for the most part, be eaten out of hand. 

These delicious ham and cheese sliders met all my criteria and I after seeing them all over pinterest, I was so happy to get the chance to make them.  The recipe couldn't be any simpler.  Either make or buy some fluffy white rolls, layer them with honey ham, swiss cheese, and a quick smear of mayo and place into a baking dish.  Whip up a batch of poppyseed sauce (consisting of butter, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and a bit of onion) and pour over the rolls.  Bake the sandwiches until the cheese starts to melt and the sauce oozes down the sides of the rolls. The recipe (and a truly mouth watering photo can be found HERE).

Deviled eggs are always such a hit at any party and I knew I wanted to serve them.  My struggle was trying to add a bit of pink to them.  Using smoked salmon crossed my mind, but I didn't know how my guests felt about fish so I kept looking up different recipes.  I finally stumbled across this recipe for Bacon and Cheddar Deviled Eggs on Allrecipes.com.  These are your standard deviled eggs with just a tad of chopped bacon and shredded cheddar cheese added in.  These eggs were a hit, but my family and I agreed that we still like the good old standard deviled egg a little better.

Lastly, I knew I wanted to have something really colorful, fresh, and vibrant to put on the table so I went with a fruit salad.  I struck it rich in the produce department and was able to find beautiful ripe kiwi, starfruit, and passion fruit (all of them pretty rare finds in my neck of the woods).  I decided to do an exotic twist on traditional fruit salad using the passion fruit pulp as a dressing of sorts.  I added strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, grapes, blueberries, plums, kiwi, and starfruit to my platter and garnished it with halved passion fruit to use as a topping. If you want to eat the rainbow, this is for you.

I had so much fun hosting the party and was honored to help raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer.  A huge thanks to Eggland's Best for making it all possible! 

Be on the lookout for more Eggland's Best Pink Parties coming this month.

Eggland's Best Pink Party and Giveaway!

Pictured Above: My Daughter and My Mom, the best sous chefs

About a month ago I was invited to be part of "Eggland's Best Double Dozen" to help raise awareness and funding for the fight against breast cancer.  Eggland's Best offered to sponsor a brunch/pink party for up to 15 of my friends and also to donate $100 to Susan G. Komen For The Cure in my name.  I was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to host a brunch, but was overjoyed that my little blog had a chance to help such a good cause, such as Susan G. Komen For The Cure.  I jumped on the opportunity.

 I love Eggland's Best Eggs, and prefer to use them if at all possible, so I was thrilled to receive my goody box filled with kitchen gadgets, ramekins, a cute little plush egg for the kids, and loads of coupons for a free dozen.  I cashed in coupons for a few dozen eggs right away and set about making this Mexican Fried Potato Skillet and these fantastic Breakfast Tacos.

Soon it came time to plan a menu for my Eggland's Best Brunch & Pink Party and wow did I have a hard time deciding what to serve.  In the end, I knew that I wanted the food to be as PINK as possible and I also knew that I wanted everything to be able to be served at room temperature and still be delicious.  Finally I was able to narrow things down and this is what I came up with. (Recipes will be shared sometime in the next week).

BRUNCH AND PINK PARTY MENU

Hot Ham and Cheese Sliders

Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs

Exotic Fruit Salad with Passion Fruit Dressing

Cardamom and Cinnamon Buns

Strawberry Sheetcake

(Closewise from top: Exotic Fruit Salad with Passion Fruit Dressing, Cardamom and Cinnamon Buns, Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs, and Hot Ham and Cheese Sliders)

And for dessert a beautifully rich and dense Strawberry Sheetcake that was very pretty in pink!

The guests and I had lots of fun celebrating women and all things pink.  It was a wonderful opportunity and I'm so glad to have been chosen.  I want to give a big thank you to Eggland's Best for allowing me to host such a wonderful event.  I also want to take this time to urge you to think about Breast Cancer Awareness, both for yourself and others.

From now until November 15, Eggland's Best will be stamping all of their farm-fresh eggs with the Susan G. Komen Pink Ribbon Running stamp in support of breast cancer awareness. Additionally Eggland's Best will be donating $50,000 to support Susan G. Komen in their pledge to end breast cancer forever.  You can read about it on their site HERE. 

My friends: Tara, Megan & Joy

The folks at Eggland's Best are so great they agreed to host a giveaway for one of my readers!

GIVEAWAY
Open to US residents only 

One lucky reader will receive the following:

• 2 Free EB Dozen Coupons (Any variety - classic, cage-free, or organic)
• 1 Free EB Hard Cooked & Peeled Variety Coupon
• 4 EB Ramekins
• 1 EB Apron
• 1 EB Whisk
• 1 EB Spatula
• 1 EB Egg Timer
• 1 EB Eco Bag
• 1 EB Plush Egg

In order to qualify for the giveaway:

• Please share an inspiring comment OR comment on how you have helped to raise awareness or funding for breast cancer.
• For an additional chance to win, please LIKE Eggland's Best on Facebook and leave a comment here on this post to let me know that you did.
• The giveaway will be open until Friday, September 30th at midnight EST.

Disclosure:   Eggland’s Best provided me with VIP coupons, a gift card, information and a prize pack for a giveaway